Ballot was a French manufacturer, initially of engines, that also made automobiles between 1919 and 1932. Édouard Ballot became well known as a designer of reliable engines. He helped Ettore Bugatti in developing his first engines.
A U engine is a piston engine made up of two separate straight engines placed side-by-side and coupled to a shared output shaft. When viewed from the front, the engine block resembles the letter "U".
In automotive engineering a multi-valve or multivalve engine is one where each cylinder has more than two valves. A multi-valve engine has better breathing and may be able to operate at higher revolutions per minute (RPM) than a two-valve engine, delivering more power.
Delage was a French luxury automobile and racecar company founded in 1905 by Louis Delâge in Levallois-Perret near Paris; it was acquired by Delahaye in 1935 and ceased operation in 1953.
The Bugatti Type 57 and later variants was a grand tourer car built from 1934 through 1940. It was an entirely new design created by Jean Bugatti, son of founder Ettore. A total of 710 Type 57s were produced.
The Bugatti Type 13 was the first true Bugatti car. Production of the Type 13, and later Types 15, 17, 22, and 23, began with the company's founding in 1910 and lasted through 1920, with 435 examples produced. Most road cars used an eight-valve engine, though five Type 13 racers had 16-valve heads, some of the first ever produced. The road cars became known as pur-sang ("thoroughbred") in keeping with Ettore Bugatti's feelings for his designs.
The Bugatti Type 35 is an iconic race car design produced by Bugatti at their Molsheim premises between 1924 and 1930. It was extremely successful when raced by the factory works team. It was also bought by a diverse roster of privateer clientele from around the world. It pioneered the concept of a holistically conceived, race-ready car available for purchase.
The Bugatti Type 46 and later Type 50 were large enclosed touring cars and along with the Type 50B racing version, were all produced in the 1930s. Their relative ubiquity and numbers, combined with their styling caused them to sometimes receive the appellation of being a Molsheim Buick.
The 1923 24 Hours of Le Mans, officially the 24 Hours Grand Prix of Endurance, was the inaugural Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 26 and 27 May 1923.
The 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 14th Grand Prix of Endurance. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 19 and 20 June 1937. The race was won by Jean-Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist in Roger Labric's works-supported Bugatti team, in one of the streamlined new Type 57G cars, at a record pace and exceeding 2000 miles in the race for the first time.
The 1934 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 12th Grand Prix of Endurance. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 16 and 17 June 1934. Four privateer Alfa Romeo entries were expected to fight for outright honours, with an outside chance for the four Bugattis ranged against them. British cars dominated the smaller classes. Two-time winner Raymond Sommer soon took the lead until, after only 90 minutes, he stopped out on the circuit with smoke pouring from his engine. For the next five hours the Alfas of Luigi Chinetti and Earl Howe duelled for the lead. However, soon after night fell, the lights failed on Howe's Alfa costing him two hours to get the electrics repaired. Chinetti took the lead, but their car had developed a leak in the fuel tank. The solution was the same as Sommer had used the previous year: to plug the gap with chewing-gum.
The 1923 Grand Prix season was part of a watershed year for motor racing that saw significant advances in motor-racing engineering, design and events. Fiat's chief designer, Guido Fornaca, developed the 805, the first supercharged car to win a Grand Prix. Benz appeared with the first mid-engined racer and, along with Bugatti and Voisin, produced some of the first efforts at aerodynamics on racing cars. With the United States also adopting the 2-litre formula, Harry Miller could use the smaller engine size to design the first single-seater race-car, ideally suited to American oval racing.
The 1923 French Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at Tours on 2 July 1923. The race was run over 35 laps of the 22.83 km circuit for a total distance of just under 800 km and was won by Henry Segrave driving a Sunbeam. This race is notable as the first Grand Épreuve to be won by either a British driver or a British car. The race also featured several innovative new technologies, including the first appearance of both supercharging and V12 engines in Grand Prix racing.
Rolland-Pilain was a French car maker formally established on 4 November 1905 at 95, rue Victor-Hugo in Tours by François Rolland and Émile Pilain.
The Bignan was a French automobile manufactured between 1918 and 1931 on the north side of central Paris, in Courbevoie. The business was created, and till the mid 1920s-headed up, by Jacques Bignan.
Sunbeam Works Racing cars participated in the 1922 XVI Grand Prix de l'A.C.F. in Strasbourg. The race took place on 15 July 1922 and was run to a formula stipulating that maximum engine capacity should not exceed 2 litres and that the cars should be two-seaters weighing not less than 650 kg. The formula was to remain in force for four years producing "fields of brilliance to be unequalled for many years" it was the first rolling massed start in the history of Grand Prix motor-racing.
The Ferrari 735 LM was a sports racing car produced by Ferrari in 1955. It was the second raced Ferrari, powered by an Aurelio Lampredi-designed inline-6 engine, created as a larger displacement evolution to the engines used in the Ferrari Monza race cars.
Bugatti made a series of Grand Prix, and later Formula One, straight-8 racing engines; between 1922 and 1939, and once again in 1956.
