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Back then, during service at the Bugatti plant in Molsheim ...

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Created on December 22, 2024

Text:

Martin Sigrist

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

21

Martin Pfrunder

27

Daniel Reinhard

21

Martin Pfrunder

27

Martin Pfrunder, Bugattiste since 1962

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Bugattiste Martin Pfrunder, bought his first Bugatti at the age of 20

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The first-hand Bugatti Type 57 Ventoux cost 6500 francs in 1961

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Almost 20 and a proud Bugatti owner - Martin Pfrunder with his new 1962 car

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Invoice for spare parts directly from the factory in Molsheim

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New Year's greetings from Bugatti

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New Year's card with a picture of a Type 251 racing car by the famous illustrator Géo Ham

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Browsing through old photo albums with Martin Pfrunder

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The poster with the Bugatti autorail is a souvenir from a visit to the exhibition

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Ventoux's logbook, he often stood in front of the university in Basel

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The original customs documents of the T57 with Swiss first registration

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Quotation for the installation of steel gears for the valve control of the Bugatti T57 Ventoux

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One major revision please!

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Original brochure of the Bugatti 101 and working map of the factory

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Martin Pfrunder has meticulously noted down his visits to the factory

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Searching for traces of the 1960s at Ettore Bugatti's former Parisian headquarters in Ermenonville

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Molsheim in Alsace, pilgrimage site and holy place for Bugattists

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Bugatti factory entrance in the 1960s

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The former factory gate, where all Bugatti and those who built them once passed by

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One of the stall doors from Ettore Bugatti's riding stable, the fittings were made by the patron himself and were based on his ideas

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The Château St. Jean, where Bugatti once received its customers, was a somewhat run-down building in the mid-1960s

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Bugatti's Atelier de Reparation existed until 1967

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A Bugatti Atalante is completely refurbished in the factory

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Martin Pfrunder developed a good relationship with François Seyfried

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François Seyfried worked for Bugatti for several decades

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Bugatti employee François Seyfried has fond memories of Martin Pfrunder

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The last Bugatti workshop manager, Mr. Stör

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In 1962, the old expertise was still largely available at the Bugatti plant, as with the carburetor specialist Mr. Schott

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Engine overhaul in the factory, layout of the crankshaft drive of the in-line eight-cylinder engine

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Viktor Zähner from Martin Pfrunders' family company was an outstanding old-school mechanic

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The law student's two everyday cars, Bugatti and Fiat 500

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Pfrunder's entire fleet of vehicles in the 1960s: A historic children's tricycle from the family inheritance, the Fiat 500 for everyday use, the Bugatti and a Motom, which he still owns today, like the T57

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A young man of just under 20 years of age driving a Bugatti was more than unique in 1962

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Martin Pfrunder as a proud Bugattiste, he still owns his car today

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Mr. Zigaro helped to reassemble the front axle after the overhaul

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Pfrunders were horse lovers - except for their son, who is much more fond of cars

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Browsing through old photo albums with Martin Pfrunder

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Team Pfrunder in the Bugatti T35B 1928 at a Bugatti meeting in Engelberg

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Daughter Manon Pfrunder prefers to drive the Bugatti T35B

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A close-knit team, Martin Pfrunder and his daughter Manon with the Type 35

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Martin Pfrunder remembers his first visits to the Bugatti plant in Molsheim in great detail

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Martin Pfrunder has kept every invoice

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None other than Walter Köng in Basel restored and modified Martin Pfrunders Type 57 Ventoux at the end of the 1960s

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On the advice of François Seyfried that the car presented better, Pfrunder had Köng close the second side window of the Ventoux

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The Ventoux is brought to the paint shop by Walter Köng

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Myth debunked: Achille Varzi's Bugatti 51, his winning car from Monaco 1931, had come entirely from Argentina. Pfrunder helped Walter Köng unload Charles Rénaud's car. The story of the car, parts of which were smuggled out of the country, is an invention.

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Pfrunder's other passion was Ferrari, he sold the 212 Inter a long time ago, a piston with a smashed valve is still in his workshop today - an apprentice had over-revved the engine during a test drive

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The Bugatti has been owned by Martin Pfrunder since 1962

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Summary

Martin Pfrunder has owned his Bugatti T57 Ventoux since he was 20 years old. In the early 1960s, it was still possible to have such a car serviced and repaired directly at the factory in Molsheim. The owner remembers and let us browse through his photo albums from back then.

This article contains the following chapters

Viewing only with an escort
As an everyday vehicle
Enjoying young customers
Overhaul at the Bugatti plant
Operating expertise like sleep
The end came in 1967
Something for screwdrivers instead of fine gentlemen

Estimated reading time: 11min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Martin Pfrunders has been passionate about one brand in particular since a memorable incident: Bugatti. As is so often the case, the reason for this lies in his childhood story, or more precisely, in a childhood encounter. It was on a trip through France in 1946, when little Martin and his father went to a pharmacy to buy something for his mother's upset stomach. There was another car parked where they had parked their Armstrong Siddeley in front of a pharmacy. "I could feel the heat from the engine of this car, and I remember exactly how it smelled of engine oil and coolant. My father noticed that I was looking at the car, which loomed huge in front of me, and said in an awe-inspiring voice that it was a Bugatti.

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