In a fridge at The Little Car Company’s factory at Bicester Heritage in Oxfordshire is a bottle of champagne. The idea is that anyone who drives a mile in one of the company’s bespoke electric classic cars and doesn’t return with a smile on their face wins the bubbles. To date, four years after the company was established, the bottle remains unopened. The Little Car Company is the brainchild of Ben Hedley.
‘I’ve come around to electrification in classic cars,’ Hedley admits, pointing out that ‘the originals are just too expensive to drive’. Examples of the Type 35 have reached prices of nearly £4m in recent years, thanks to its combination of provenance, brilliance and the eternally attractive Bugatti name.
All models follow a similar approach, with an electric motor driven by a modular battery system. Want more power? Add another battery. In the Bugatti you sit low but exposed, sticking out of the upright cockpit like a true vintage racer. The small scale means that both DB5 and Testa Rossa offer a similar go-kart-style experience, albeit it’s slightly harder to squeeze down behind the wheel. Once you’re there, the little cars of TLCC can be thrown around Bicester’s wide track with abandon.