We rarely hear positive news from the automotive industry at the moment, but luckily there’s Bugatti! Pure elegance and high-quality engineering make you want to live! A concentrated desire for life! To an investment in drivable art! To a luxury good with 4 wheels……

As an expert on thoroughbred horses, Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti (Born 1881 in Milan; died 1947 in Paris) described cars like horses: hot-blooded, fast and reduced to the essentials of muscle power – ‘the purpose of the automotive world’.

Pioneer, visionary and dreamer – Bugatti was a French automobile manufacturer and designer of Italian origin. With its racing, sports and luxury cars, the Bugatti company he founded is one of the legendary automobile manufacturers in European history. One could probably talk about him for ages, it would be a story about goals, wishes, dreams, entrepreneurial spirit as well as about harsh reality, failure, death and new beginnings.

Bugatti was born into an old Milanese family of artists. Following the family tradition, Ettore was also to become an artist according to his father’s wishes. Against his father’s wishes, however, he decided early on to pursue a career in engineering, as he envisioned four-wheeled thoroughbreds, racing cars whose long series of successes began in 1910.

His years of apprenticeship and travelling took him to Cologne in Germany to the Deutz AG gas engine factory, the company co-founded by inventor and developer Nikolaus-August Otto in 1864. Deutz wanted to build cars under licence in the early 1900s and the young Ettore Bugatti was employed as head of the production department. However, he soon pursued his own goals and, from 1908, designed his own new car with his own employees; only the raw materials came from Deutz.

Pioneer Bugatti

Ettore and his crew galloped off, inspired by freedom and adventure and kicking up a lot of dust in the process.

Finally, in 1909, the ‘Pur Sang’ (thoroughbred) is finished and is regarded as the first genuine Bugatti – the brand is born! The man behind the brand and the Type 10 also appeals to the French aviator Louis Bleriot, who jumps into the saddle during an air show in Cologne and takes the Type 10 for a spin! He forced a move to Molsheim in Alsace (at that time Alsace belonged to the German Empire and was only annexed to France after the First World War by the Treaty of Versailles) and so the cross-border designer/engineer of speed and beauty moved into an old dye works in January 1910.

Unmistakable nonchalance!

From the end of 1909, Bugatti was self-employed in Molsheim in Alsace  in a disused dye works. Prior to this, he had successfully negotiated a loan with a Darmstadt bank for the production of ten cars and five aircraft engines. At the end of his contract with Deutz, an employee of Bugatti’s transferred the Type 10 to Strasbourg in a journey of just eight hours, and then it was ‘Let the show begin’

But everything is getting faster. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the world was more interconnected than ever before. Intercontinental steamship travel connects ports on all continents, shortens journey times and reduces transport costs. Telegraphy brought the world closer together in terms of communication, with messages now reaching their recipients within a short space of time. What used to take several weeks now takes just one day. However, the ever closer economic ties are accompanied by state self-interest and competitive thinking. Excessive nationalism and imperialist vying for ever greater shares of the world lead to the First World War and bring Bugatti’s heyday to a temporary, bloody end.

Crises change the world

The perfect setting for the restart of the business after the First World War was the dawning 1920s. Modernity replaced tradition, technology inspired art. Bugatti’s automobiles seemed to be made for this golden age. The uncompromising aesthetic design of the vehicles reflected the spirit of the times and the racing victories were testament to the creativity of their designer. The breakthrough came with the legendary Type 35, which won X races, including the Targa Florio in Sicily and the very first Monaco Grand Prix!

The resulting reputation, the high quality of workmanship and the exclusivity of the small numbers produced turned the Bugattis into status symbols with enormous appeal. In addition, the entrepreneur Ettore Bugatti was able to adapt his models to the individual wishes of his wealthy and often prominent clientele, applying a kind of modular principle whereby different chassis could be combined with two engine variants and different bodies.

However, the entrepreneurial family should probably have been more interested in money, as the aristocratic lifestyle and the effects of the Great Depression led to financial difficulties in the early 1930s. Once again, Bugatti’s inventive spirit helped to overcome this crisis. The production of railcars for the French railway improved the company’s liquidity and ensured its survival for the time being. Nevertheless, Ettore Bugatti gradually withdrew from the management of the company from 1932 onwards. His son Jean took over the helm and initiated a clear change of direction.

Of course, it would be desirable to always do everything right, but the economic turnaround did not succeed. At the end of the 1930s, sales figures stagnated and the competition outstripped the vehicles from Molsheim, and not just in technical terms. Dazzling plans for the future sank into chaos and the world was once again thrown off course! The Second World War broke out in all its brutality and with it the transformation of the car manufacturer into an armaments factory. The end of vehicle production at Bugatti seemed to be sealed. Another tragedy struck the family: on 11 August 1939, his son and designated successor Jean (1909-1939) died in an accident during a test drive with the Bugatti Type 57 C Tank racing car.

A new start

Roland, the second son, tried in vain to save the company after the Second World War; the post-war models were unable to build on the successes of earlier years. Production was gradually discontinued. Even though the factory was returned to the family after the end of the war, Ettore Bugatti’s death in 1947 meant that the creative impetus was no longer there. The company was able to keep its head above water until 1963 by repairing pre-war models, after which there was nothing left in the tank in Molsheim.

Courage to innovate

In 1987, almost a quarter of a century later, Bugatti returned to its Italian roots, to the Terra dei Motori. The Italian entrepreneur and Bugatti collector Romano Artioli took over the brand and set up a new home for it in Campogalliano, a few kilometres from the Ferrari capital of Maranello. But history repeats itself: in the financially troubled global economy, the super sports cars search in vain for customers. Only a good 130 examples were produced until the Italian intermezzo ended in 1995 with the bankruptcy of the company.

Reorientation is a privilege, it goes home to Alsace

This time, the sleeping beauty slumber is short-lived: the then VW boss Ferdinand Piëch acquires Bugatti alongside Bentley and Lamborghini on his luxury brand shopping spree in 1998. VW money allowed the company to return to its origins in Molsheim in Alsace.

Thanks to its W16 engine, the hypercar sets one world speed record after another. It is succeeded by the 2016 Chiron, which has rolled out of the Bugatti factory over the years in many different versions for millions of euros. The number of special models also increased: the Divo, designed for more lateral dynamics, followed in 2018. A year later, the brand paid tribute to the Type 57 SC Atlantic with the one-off Bugatti La Voiture Noire. The Centodieci followed in 2022, reminiscent of the Artioli era. The final stage of the hypercar with W16 engine is the Mistral – the first convertible since the Veyron Grand Sport.

The company has repositioned itself for the future in 2021. Together with the Croatian electric super sports car manufacturer Rimac, the Bugatti-Rimac joint venture has been founded, chaired by Rimac founder Mate Rimac. Porsche owns 45 per cent of the shares, with the remainder in Croatian hands. The aim is to create hypercar synergies, which we will see for the first time in the new Tourbillon. So Bugatti’s legend-building will not be taking a break any time soon.

Named after the complex movement complication, this hypercar combines impressive performance with a design philosophy that is deeply rooted in the history of the car manufacturer.

Alsace – home of Bugatti for 115 years and the myth of the luxury sports car continues. Masterful engineering and pioneering design concepts in automotive engineering of the past and present.

Ettore Bugatti: ‘If there is a comparison, it is no longer Bugatti.’

Whenever it comes to combining speed and luxury, there is still no way around Bugatti. The name stands for the most successful racing cars as well as the finest and best sports cars of all times. It brought together different worlds, past and present, soft passion and hard power. Equally strict and wild, equally modern and old-fashioned, in the best sense of the word.

Time to celebrate! I personally like the last passenger car that the French car manufacturer Bugatti developed and built in 1952 based on designs by Lepoix. For those interested in an elegant start to the year 2025, the calendar with this very model is already available!

Lead image – Ettore Bugatti by By Arnaud 25 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Photo of Bugatti plaque – Bugatti Type 10 – Fondation Bugatti Molsheim by Arnaud 25 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo of Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947) devant la Bugatti Type 35 n°7 du Grand Prix de Lyon 1924 (première compétion de la Type 35, terminant septième de ce Grand Prix de France 1924, grâce à Jean Chassagne). Photo d’Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947) devant la Bugatti Type 35 n°7 du Grand Prix de Lyon 1924 (première compétion de la Type 35, terminant septième de ce Grand Prix de France 1924, grâce à Jean Chassagne). Photo du musée Bugatti Molsheim by Arnaud 25 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Photo of Bugatti Divo at Geneva International Motor Show 2019, Le Grand-Saconnex by Matti Blume – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link