black bess roland garros

The Garros/Black Bess Bugatti crosses the Channel to a new life and legend.

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

In its 100-year history, the Rolland Garros Bugatti had a number of significant owners, who together have accumulated an impressive amount of victories, often against competitors in more modern cars.

After the death of Roland Garros in 1918, the Bugatti became the property of Louis Coatalen, then Chief Engineer of the Sunbeam Motor Company Ltd. in Wolverhampton. During World War I he had designed the Sunbeam aircraft engines. In 1919 he was involved in the merger of Sunbeam with Talbot and Darracq to form STD Motors.

As Coatalen was born in Concarneau (Brittany) he spoke fluent French and was often in Paris. As a driver and an engineer he was greatly interested in fast and sporting cars. Sometime later –between 1919 and 1921- the Bugatti was bought by Sidney Cummings, a car dealer at Fulham Road, for his daughter Ivy.

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

Part 2 describes the development of the Garros Type Bugatti and the car when owned by French hero Roland Garros.

Read Part 1

The Development of the Bugatti “Roland Garros”
Before he set up his own company, Ettore Bugatti designed engines and chassis for various manufacturers, among them De Dietrich, Hermes, Mathis, Deutz and Peugeot. Bugatti’s own factory in Molsheim was operational in 1910 but he continued to work for others. One of these projects for Peugeot was to design racing car for the 1912 Grand Prix de l’Automobile Club de France and the Coupe de l’Auto.

The engine Bugatti developed for Peugeot was a large (around 5 liters) four-cylinder with a single overhead camshaft. One can quite well understand that Ettore drew on his experience with an earlier design he had done for Deutz, and also incorporated design features of the small engine he produced under his own label. Apart from the size of bore and stroke, the main difference was that the larger engine had three valves per cylinder (two inlet valves and one exhaust valve).

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

In collaboration with the French Tennis Federation and the Louwman Museum at The Hague, the organizers of the 38th edition of the Rétromobile show in Paris – from 6 to 10 February 2013 – will pay tribute to the French World War I hero Roland Garros.

This particular Bugatti has a wonderful history that spanned the English Channel and created legends in both France and England. We begin with Roland Garros, its first owner.

The Roland Garros Bugatti
The Rolland Garros Bugatti was first delivered on September 18,1913 as chassis number 474, to the French aviator Roland Garros who was a personal friend of Ettore Bugatti. It was the fourth of a series of seven chassis that Bugatti produced of this four-cylinder five-liter model (encoded by Bugatti historians as the Type 18). However, after the aviator purchased the car, the name “Roland Garros” would thereafter always associated with the model.

Roland Garros was already famous when he was introduced to Ettore Bugatti. Not, as many today think, because he was a French tennis champion; while he did play tennis in school, his fame came as a record-setting aviator. Rolland Garros, as we shall see, was quite an extraordinary person.