The last six Bugatti 101Cs were built in 1951 for the Paris motorshow. By then, the Bugatti marque was on its last legs, and one of the cars never even acquired a body. It languished at the Bugatti factory until the chassis was bought by an American called Scott Bailey, who some time later sold the car to the former Chrysler stylist Virgil Exner. Returning to a theme he had started on his Mercer Cobra, Exner rebodied the car in a contemporary retro-modern style, blending the traditional Bugatti radiator with a muscular roadster body that had a massive front overhang but a rather stunted wheelbase (the chassis having been shortened by 18in). The 101 was touted round the motor shows in 1965, but Exner retained the car until he died in 1973, when it had still only done 1000 miles.
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