Nathanael Greene and his love for Bugatti cars is known to some in the car community, especially amongst the pre-war classic enthusiasts. Greene has three Bugattis and competed in the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for many years. He pointed to his childhood visits to New Hampshire as the inspiration for his Bugatti love story.
“I was visiting my grandmother in New Hampshire; I must have been 12 or 14,” Greene said. “One day, there was this blue car going vroom down the street and vroom coming the other way, several different times.
‘I thought, ‘this is fantastic.’ I had no idea at the time. Jump forward at least 20 years and I buy my grandmother’s house. I got to know the neighbor. He bought Bugatti Type 43 in 1952. He was a great car enthusiast, a great Bugatti enthusiast.”
Greene has been competing in Laguna Seca events since 1997, including The Hillclimb, an event he’s participated in several times.
“It (the Type 35) had been taken apart 20 years earlier,” said Greene, whose attire Thursday included a frayed, long-sleeve light blue denim short bearing logo Monterey Historics. “But the guy bought another car, concentrated on that and this one got pushed to the back and nothing was done for a long time. I came along and said I would buy it and he said ‘OK.’ ”
Greene has a passion for driving, history, mechanics, and all that is the automotive industry.
“Bugattis were never the fastest cars, but they were the easiest to drive,” he said. “The races were generally 300 to 500 miles. Cars like Maserati would simply wear the drivers out. Everything about this car is so light.”
Greene and his Bugatti highlight the importance of vintage racers and their position in the collector car market.