The global magazine and marketplace for classic car enthusiasts, by enthusiasts.
Filter
Make a choice:
- Cars
-
Make >>
-
Year >>
-
- Bikes
-
Location >>
- Parts & more
-
Make of car >>
-
Manufacturer >>
-
Category >>
- Bicycles & more
-
Year >>
-
Countries
Swapping hockey sticks for skis: Polish sports stars on a Swiss Bugatti adventure
It’s January, 1938, and the Polish ice hockey team is about to enter the World Championship in Prague, Czechoslovakia. But before the championship starts in mid-February, the Czech players are heading for a training camp in Davos, Switzerland, and that’s when this photograph was taken. It shows three of the Polish players taking a break somewhere in Switzerland. The Polish State Archive informs us that they are, from left to right, Roman Stupnicki, Andrzej Wołkowski and Józef Stogowski.
We may take the liberty of adding to that; the car is a Bugatti Type 57 Stelvio cabriolet, seen here in suitably Stelvio-esque conditions. Did they drive it all the way from Poland? Perhaps not. We found that a Stelvio, believed to have been this car, was sold through Krakow-based Bugatti dealer Krakowska Spolka Automobilowa in May, 1929, to Swiss-born Robert Vetterli, who lived in Katowice in southern Poland. It’s clear that the car is on Swiss (Zürich) plates here though.
Was Vetterli a friend of the Polish hockey players who took them out skiing for a day? That’s the most likely scenario we can suggest, but perhaps you know better? By the way, Canada won the 1938 ice hockey title; Switzerland came sixth and Poland seventh.
Words: Jeroen Booij
Photograph: Archiwa Państwowe (Polish State Archives)
Published:
Monday March 10th, 2025
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Copy
Comments
Andrzej Jakubaszek
10 March 2025, 10:39
Of course Robert Vetterli was a friend of Polish hockey players. He helped those who found themselves in Switzerland during the Second World War. One of them, Herbert Urson (a player of the Zuricher Sport Club), married Vetterli's cousin after the war. The Zurich licence plates do not surprise us, as Vetterli returned from Poland to Switzerland in 1937. The Bugatti Type 57 Stelvio (chassis number 57257) was sold in 1935 by Bucar, not by Krakowska Spolka Automobilowa.
Read more
I love the early cable brakes. And this body style with fully disappearing top.
After a few years I swapped it with a friend for his Porsche 550. Those were the days!
He restored it to perfection. One of the best driving T57’s I ever had.
I missed it so bought it back again. But then I sold it one’s more and it returned to CH. Very close to where I bought it the first time.
Since I could not forget my fully disappearing top Stelvio I purchased # 57110
Presently under restoration in NL. One’s finished it will look identical to my first one.
Playing with Bugatti’s is a decease. Uncureable.
Jack Braam Ruben