Dedicated to Motor Racing Enthusiasts

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With 16 Bugattis in a field of 23 cars, the Monaco Grand Prix in 1931 was pretty close to being a single-make race! Among the 16 were four factory-team 51-types driven by the Monegasque Louis Chiron, the Italian Achille Varzi and the French Divo and Guy Bouriat. The real challenge came from the Maseratis 8C 2500 driven by René Dreyfus, the Italian Luigi Fagioli and Clemente Bondietti. Rudolf Caracciola with his huge Mercedes SSKL (Super Sport Short Light-Weight) didn't stand a chance. The acronym is misleading, because the car is neither short nor light. It was far too large to be competitive around the tight Monaco track.

The race was between the blue cars from Molsheim and the red ones from Modena. When the start flag dropped it was René Dreyfus in his red Maserati who led into Sainte Dévote, only to be passed by 'Williams' on the hill to the Casino, but his lead was short lived as the Brit was sidelined by a broken valve spring, and his race was over. Achille Varzi and Caracciola started closing on Dreyfus and Varzi managed to overtake the Frenchman on the 7th lap. Caracciola struggled with a slipping clutch that gave up completely on lap 53.

Starting slowly, Louis Chiron finally displayed his talents; little by little he won back lost ground and in doing so beats the lap record of 1930, like Luigi Fagioli a bit later. He catches up with all his opponents and leaves them behind. The native driver finishes the race some 5 minutes ahead of Luigi Fagioli.

Jean Bugatti couldn't control his joy and jumps over the parapet of the bleachers and falls into Louis Chiron's arms. For the Monegasque, this Monaco Grand Prix victory really confirmed his reputation.