Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix, Netherlands #23

The Netherlands raced in orange, the colour of the House of Orange, with white numbers, and on a Type 35 it makes one of the boldest cars in CMC's Nation Colour Project. After a difficult debut at the Grand Prix de Lyon in 1924, when tyre failures cost the works cars the race, the Type 35 settled into a winning rhythm. Bugatti counted 351 race wins across 1925 and 1926, and in 1926 the marque took the Grand Prix World Championship. Five straight Targa Florio victories followed from 1925 to 1929, and by the end of its career the Type 35 had passed a thousand wins. The ingredients were simple and beautifully executed: a 2-litre overhead-cam straight-eight, a hollow front axle, cast alloy wheels and a body barely wider than its driver.

CMC's Dutch car is a deep, saturated orange from nose to tail, with a white 23 on the bonnet sides and tail and in the radiator mesh. The louvred bonnet lifts to show the straight-eight with its brass carburettors and copper lines, the spare is strapped to the flank in leather, and the eight-spoke wheels carry their integral brake drums. The cockpit has an engine-turned dashboard with clock and gauges, a cord-bound steering wheel and a brown leather seat. CMC builds it at 1:18 from more than 930 parts, in a limited edition of 500.