You Too Can Own and Race a Bugatti
This is reason enough for Automologist MAC to move back to the UK.
Boys never really grow up…
So, perhaps it is not a full-sized Bugatti, but it is a Bugatti. The half-scale Bugatti 35, officially known as the Bugatti Baby II, is small but made very noticeable waves when it was reintroduced in 2019. Bugatti took the car back to its roots and, in 2022, to the Austrian Ice Race where the Baby II performed as the safety car at an event where once it raced. To handle the conditions, the Bugatti Baby II, which incidentally is an EV like the original, was fitted with studded tyres and a limited-slip differential.
With its big brother, a car that actually was in an original Ice Race.
The wee beasty is made by the Little Car Company and not Bugatti, but was very much developed by the two brands. There will only be 500 units made, so you had better hurry. The three-quarter scale replica is hand-built and capable of speeds of up to 70kph in the range-topping version when set to adult mode. For the rug rats, there is a second mode which sees the Baby II restricted to a more restrained 20kph. The Li-ion batteries are also removable and there is a full and functional KERs system onboard.
The Little Car Company has just announced that it will launch a new racing series, the UK Bugatti Baby II Championship, which will see twenty adult-and-child teams compete in three racing events. How cool is that? I may have to move back to the UK. The first event is at the Bicester Heritage Scramble and for round two, heads over to Silverstone, you know, the place where they race Formula 1. The third and final round will see the teams head over to the home of the Bugatti owners club at the Prescott Hill Climb.
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys!
The events are described as being skill-based driving events and will be the first time that junior Bugattis have been seen racing since, well, almost 100 years ago when Ettore Bugatti personally built his young son Roland a half-scale Bugatti Type 35. This is also the first time that Bugatti has made an electric vehicle since the original Bugatti Baby that was sold as a kid’s car back in 1927. That version was just a “toy” whereas the Baby II can fit an adult, so is it still a toy?
Still want one? Well, I am afraid there is a slight problem. The Little Car Company has sold them all at prices ranging from 30k up to the range- topper at €58,000 so the only way to get one now is to buy a used one, assuming that anybody wants to sell, that is. Looks like I will be staying in Malaysia for the foreseeable future then.
