Project Car Hell, VW Kit Car Edition: MG TD or Bugatti?

Tell us where you're gonna find a genuine Bugatti for a thousand bucks? Nobody but you needs to know if you decide to roll in a "Bugatti" instead, right? Just pick up this 1928 Bugatti kit car (go here in case the ad is gone) for a cool grand and you can just go ahead and change your name to Ettore (in fact, maybe we should all change our names to Ettore, kit car or not). Oh, wait- one small detail we forgot to mention; this deal doesn't include the VW chassis. That's no problem, since old Type 1s are still quite common, but we find this statement from the seller just a little troubling: "I have decided I am never going to get it put together. There are many pieces missing, and there are no instructions." We can't say for sure, but given that kit-car manufacturers tend to be about as long-lived as 3-Card Monte operations, you might be in for some challenges in finding those missing pieces. But come on, Ettore- your car awaits!

Some might say that the distinctive clattery noise of the Volkswagen air-cooled engine rings a bit false in machine that's supposed to be a Bugatti. However, the MG TD was clattery by nature, what with the loose engine tolerances and the hail of detaching parts hitting the tarmac and all, so the VW sound won't seem quite so incongruous in this 1952 MG TD kit car (go here if the ad disappears). For just 200 bucks more than the Bugatti, you get a chassis, engine, pretty much everything you need to get on the road in your new "MG." Well, OK, the engine is in pieces (probable translation: box of random VW parts, some of which might be used to assemble an engine), but you'd want to build up a nutso turbocharged Type 4 for this thing, anyway. Don't dwell on the fact that one of the two photos in the listing shows a different car and the other shows what may be an earlier incarnation of the car for sale- just imagine how cool you'll look tearing up the highways in your oversteering, overpowered swingaxle deathtrap!