There are some users who proclaim to be UCP's biggest Veyron fans.
Well read this after you've fetched your tissue box!
"Nothing is too beautiful, nothing is too expensive": Ettore Bugatti
About seven months ago I decided to create a Veyron screensaver for my PC.
A 20 to 30 pic project was in mind and naturally I started off in the wallpaper sites. Viewing the beast from various photographic angles intrigued me more by the minute.
After hooking into numerous related sites I soon had a hundred or more pics and was getting bored of the good old garden variety slide viewer in my system. I purchased the "Photo Slideshow Screensaver" and with the variety of transitions and effect options soon had a saver that was cooking with gas!
Uncountable hours and litres of caffienated coffee later I now boast a screensaver with 2387 Bugatti only pics! 879 of these are solely Veyron.
If I run this saver on single pic viewing at 5 second intervals (long enough to appreciate the picture and possibly squeeze in reading the title) with 3 second transition effects it runs for 5.3 hours without a single pic repeat! (Guiness, here I come!)
It starts with Ettore's first "Tricycle" by Prinetti & Stucchi in 1899 to the latest 2007 16.4 Veyron.
The latter, driven at top speed of 407 kph and using all her fuel in 12 minutes at this speed would need to be refuelled 26.5 times to catch my screensaver!
That's a shit load of fuel!
Whilst I would love to share this masterpiece with you, about 90% of the pics are copyright and I would probably spend some 150 years breaking rocks in a state penetentiary for my troubles. By that time Bugs will probably have broken the sound barrier!
In my picture hunting endeavours I obviously hit numerous scale model sites and now my already "bughooked" brain was in for another overdose. Hunting Bugatti 1:18 scale models. How disappointing! Out of some 60 odd Bugatti Types there are only 6 depicted in 1:18 scale! Why?
Obviously my first purchase was the AutoArt red & black 16.4 Veyron, which whilst it is a stuningly beautiful replica, it has no chassis detail whatsoever!
Why?
Next was her sister ship the AutoArt Chiron (my collection favourite for some reason I cannot pinpoint - this car just appeals to me above all the other) but once again AA omitted any chassis detail! Why? If you place these two models on a glass shelf and view them from the bottom it's like staring at a TV with sound but no picture! At the price seat belts would have been a bonus as well.
Well, those were the two easy purchases as virtually any model shop of note stocks this brand. However, not to forget that both these are certificated limited editions.
The EB110 is by far the most duplicated Bugatti in 1:18 scale. Virtually every Tom, Dick & Bburago 1:18 manufacturer had a go at this baby.
Bburago issued so many colours (some never to be seen on the real cars) it would make Michelangelo blush! Even a full chrome job. Ever seen a full chrome car?
They then went and stuck a load of decals on this prototype and called one the Monte Carlo and another the Daytona. To my knowledge, and I stand to be corrected, both cars that partook in Monte Carlo and Daytona races were EB110SS (Super Sport) models, which the Bburago is'nt as the SS has air intakes at the rear side window areas.
My favourite is the Anson as at least it has a flip-up rear spoiler activated off the number plate. All other EB110's have fixed spoilers. I was very fortunate in finding this obsolete model. After inquiring about Bugattis at a model shop owned by a guy who could probably compare birth dates with a T13 Brescia, I rummaged through boxes of Maisto, Revell, AutoArt, Welly and who knows what the hell all only to find two, not one, but two Anson EB110's ! The price tags were so faded from age that I had to bargain a price with the old geyser. I eventually got the two for the price of one, gauged on a Bburago's price! Happiness is!
Then Jaap Horst of "The Bugatti Page" lists an EB110 by Majorette.
Another site mentions one by Ertl.
I have hunted every web site from here to kingdom come and can find no trace of these elusive animals. Beam me up Scotty!
The latest edition to this already flooded market is the EB110 SS Dauer by Maisto. Thank goodness for a variation! It's the only Dauer around in 1:18 and even comes custom with suspension!
Nice!
Next, up come the vintages.
The T41 Royal Le Napoleon by Solido. What a stately name for a car that has no opening doors or boot! Why? Ettore built this car after having been critisised by a lady at some banquet for not having a limo that could compete with Rolls and the like. Now solido build the car that you cannot open the door for madamoiselle! Ettore must be doing 10,000 revs in his grave.(Retrospectively though,thank goodness Solido is now built by the little chopstick people who seem to have a better eye for miniaturising objects as the previous Solido's served better as doorstops than scale models.)
Just to harp on this note - how many other 1:18 model makers other than Solido have doors that do not open???
1:18 is a specific scale for detail not engineerable in smaller scales.
Bburago's T59 Roadster and T59 Grand Prix and/or Bburago's T59 Grand Prix and T59 Roadster. Confused? Well the hell I was! These two cars are identical except the GP has no mudguards or lights or the Roadster has mudguards and lights. In fact I could not find a GP model so I bought 2 Roadsters and removed the mudguards and lights from the one so now I have a Roadster and a GP! Maybe just as well Bburago have gone bang. We can only hope that Maisto will be more inventive with Bburago's patterns now that they have apparently procured these.
What I did though, to make an obvious difference to the two look-alikes, was to attach a radiator shield to the GP which incidentally is present in every picture I have of this car and the racing number stencilled onto the gauze. This really authenticates this model. Oh, and remove the spare wheel mounted to the exhaust. Racers did not carry spare wheels!
I will post a picture of this mod once she is completed.
That said and done if you're out of tissues use your hankey!
Viva La Marque!
P.S. Sorry for crap quality of pics! The blue job is the real thing.
Pics of models & manufacturers are listed further down on this thread.