Bugatti

Did You Know?

• Bugatti engine blocks were hand scraped so that gaskets were not required for sealing, and exposed surfaces featured guilloché finishes.
• Safety wires were threaded through most fasteners in intricately laced patterns.
• Bugatti's axles were forged so that the spring passed through an opening in the axle, requiring fewer parts than bolting springs to axles.

Under Ettore Bugatti

Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan, Italy, and founded the automobile company bearing his name in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, a region that was part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1919. The company was noted for its engineering detail and artistic design, influenced by Ettore's father, Carlo Bugatti, an important Art Nouveau furniture and jewelry designer. Less than four months after the Versailles Treaty transferred Alsace from Germany to France, Bugatti secured a stand at the 15th Paris motor show in October 1919, exhibiting three light cars based on pre-war models, each with an overhead camshaft 4-cylinder 1,368cc engine with four valves per cylinder.

The smallest was a "Type 13" with a racing body on a 2000 mm wheelbase, while the "Type 22" and "Type 23" had wheelbases of 2250 and 2400 mm respectively. The company achieved great success in early Grand Prix racing; in 1929, a privately entered Bugatti won the first Monaco Grand Prix. Racing success culminated with Jean-Pierre Wimille winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice (1937 with Robert Benoist and 1939 with Pierre Veyron). The Type 35, developed with master engineer and racing driver Jean Chassagne, is one of the most successful racing cars, and Bugattis swept the Targa Florio for five consecutive years from 1925 to 1929.

Louis Chiron held the most podiums in Bugatti cars, and the modern revival Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. named the 1999 Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept car in his honour.

After World War II

The Molsheim factory was destroyed during World War II, and Bugatti lost ownership of the site. The company planned a new facility in Levallois, near Paris. After the war, Bugatti created and built just five Type 73 cars, including a road version and a single-seat racer. Work on a 375 cc supercharged model ended when Ettore Bugatti died on 21 August 1947. The business then continued to decline, making its final appearance as an independent company at the Paris Motor Show in October 1952. After that, the original Bugatti company shut down.

Attempts at revival

In the mid-1950s, Roland Bugatti attempted a comeback with the mid-engined Type 251 race car, designed with help from Gioacchino Colombo, but the car failed to perform and automobile production halted. In the 1960s, Virgil Exner designed a Bugatti as part of his "Revival Cars" project; a show version was built by Ghia using the last Bugatti Type 101 chassis and shown at the 1965 Turin Motor Show, but finance was not forthcoming. Bugatti continued manufacturing airplane parts and was sold to Hispano-Suiza in 1963; after Snecma took over Hispano-Suiza in 1968, Messier and Bugatti were merged into Messier-Bugatti in 1977.

Modern revivals

Italian entrepreneur Romano Artioli acquired the Bugatti brand in 1987 and established Bugatti Automobili S.p.A., commissioning architect Giampaolo Benedini to design a factory in Campogalliano, Modena, Italy. Construction began in 1988, and the plant was inaugurated in 1990. Plans for the new Bugatti revival were presented by Paolo Stanzani and Marcello Gandini, designers of the Lamborghini Miura and Lamborghini Countach. The first production vehicle was the Bugatti EB110 GT, featuring a 3.5-litre, 5-valve per cylinder, quad-turbocharged 60° V12 engine, six-speed gearbox, and four-wheel drive.

Stanzani proposed an aluminium honeycomb chassis, but after clashing with Artioli, he left and Nicola Materazzi replaced him in June 1990. Materazzi, chief designer for the Ferrari 288 GTO and Ferrari F40, replaced the aluminium chassis with carbon fibre and altered torque distribution from 40:60 to 27:73, remaining director until late 1992. Mauro Forghieri served as technical director from 1993 to 1994. In August 1993, Artioli purchased Lotus Cars from General Motors, and plans were made to list Bugatti shares on international stock exchanges.

A prototype large saloon called the EB112 was presented in 1993. Poor economic conditions caused the company to fail, and operations ceased in September 1995; a US-market model called the "Bugatti America" was in preparatory stages when the company ceased operations.