Bugatti introduced the legendary Type 57 in 1934, not to be confused with the last Tank, the 1923 Bugatti Type 32, commonly called the Tank de Tours, which competed in the French Grand Prix.
The car’s nickname comes from its particular shape, which resembles battle tanks of its era, and the location of the Grand Prix in Tours.
I digress, back to the Bugatti 57. which laid the groundwork for some of its most iconic cars, including the Atlantic and Atalante. Typical of Bugatti fashion, the chassis of this high-performance road car was race track developed. The Type 57G did Bugatti proud, winning the French Grand Prix in 1936 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1937 and 1939. The Le Mans victory was the first major international win for Bugatti.
Bugatti only produced three Type 57G Tanks.
However, what the car lacked in production numbers, it more than made up for in results. Some accounts say that the Type 57Gs won every major race they entered. To create some perspective, at the end of the 1939 Le Mans race, Bugatti was 26 miles ahead of the second-place car.
One of the Bugatti Type 57G disappeared after the Paris Auto Salon in 1936; the second; destroyed in a tragic testing crash that killed Jean Bugatti shortly after it had won Le Mans in 1939.
A not authenticated story indicates that the last Bugatti Type 57G Tank was buried underground by the Bugatti family surviving World War II.
In 2013 Bugatti launched six models of the Veyron, Les Légendes de Bugatti, to celebrate its heroes. Car two was in respect to Jean Bugatti, the eldest son of the company founder, Ettore Bugatti. The sixth car honoured the great man himself, Ettore Bugatti.