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SLIDER: 1932 Bucciali

It is very difficult to be certain as to the exact model of Bucciali shown here.  The story of the almost mythical creations of the Bucciali brothers is convoluted and full of uncertainties – and several of the cars displayed at motor shows (this one appeared at the Paris Salon of 1932) may or may not have been driveable.  Some even had mock-up engines with no internals.

The car shown here was captioned as having a 16-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive.  It is therefore possibly the car developed around this time and named the Double Huit – supposedly powered by two Continental straight-eight engines mounted side by side.

The first car built by the brothers Angelo and Paul-Albert Bucciali was a cyclecar, sold under the name Buc from 1922 and powered by a 1,340 cc two-cylinder two-stroke engine, but in October 1928 the Bucciali TAV-6 (TAV standing for Traction Avant) created a sensation at the Paris Salon with its front-wheel drive system, Sensaud de Lavaud infinitely variable automatic transmission and all-round independent suspension.

The last prototypes were the TAV12 models, with Voisin 12-cylinder engines – but it is not known how many were built, or how many actually ran on the road.


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