Bugatti Type 54 Roadster, Black & Green

The Type 54 was Bugatti at its most uncompromising: a 1931 grand prix engine, the twin-cam straight-eight from the Type 54 racer, dropped into a road-going roadster body. It is all proportion and intent here, the long louvred bonnet running back to a cut-down two-seat cockpit, the horseshoe grille flanked by those vast Bugatti drum headlamps, the cast alloy wheels and twin rear-mounted spares marking it as a car built to be driven hard and far. Molsheim made very few, and survivors are among the most coveted pre-war Bugattis; this is a machine for someone who understands that the marque's reputation was forged on engineering, not ornament.

The model carries the deep gloss black over the full body with the cockpit upholstered in green, the EB tail badge and California Type 54 plates picked out cleanly, and fine chrome on the lamps and exhaust. Minichamps presents it at 1:18 on a cobbled display base.