Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix, Portugal #25

Under the international scheme of the interwar years, a Portuguese entry ran in red with a white underframe and white numbers, and CMC's reading of it pairs a red body with a white tail. The Type 35 is the ideal canvas for a project built on national colours, because it was never only a works car. Molsheim built several hundred across the 35, 35A, 35B and 35C, and they were raced by private entrants as well as by the factory, in Grands Prix, hill climbs and road races alike. Between them they gave the Type 35 more than a thousand victories. Each one carried the same essentials: the horseshoe radiator, a 2-litre straight-eight under a long louvred bonnet, a hollow front axle and cast alloy wheels with the brake drums built in.

CMC's Portuguese car is a glossy red with the tail section in white and a white 25 on the bonnet sides 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 safety-wired fastenings line the bonnet. The cockpit has an engine-turned dashboard with clock and gauges, a cord-bound wheel and a black leather seat. CMC builds it at 1:18 from more than 930 parts, in a limited edition of 500.