The History of the Bugatti

by

Levi Quinn

The name of Ettore Bugatti is one of those names that will sit in the annals of automotive history from now until the records cease to be kept. More specifically, his surname and the company that he founded will be remembered for all time as one of the premier constructors of racing and luxury sports cars anywhere in the world. Find a sports car enthusiast whose interest goes beyond the race-only models in Formula One and Indy car, mention the name of Bugatti, and then sit back and listen as they attempt to put their thoughts into words. If they can compose themselves for long enough they will tell you of a car that has just about everything you could possibly want from a motor vehicle. Your biggest challenge will be to shut them up.

It is worth noting that the present-day Bugatti brand is connected to, but different from the company founded by Ettore Bugatti in 1909. Many things have been retained the commitment to producing racing-quality vehicles which can be taken onto the road chief among them but the company itself was sold in 1963 to the Hispano-Suiza company, and the financial struggles of the automotive arm as well as the death of Ettores son in a race car testing accident had convince him to cease production of cars and sell the company for its airplane parts arm. It has now passed through to the Volkswagen group who use it as a production line for limited edition and highly desirable road sports cars. Most famous among these is the Bugatti Veyron.

Ettore himself founded the company in Molsheim, Germany (later to become part of France as the boundaries in the Alsace region were redrawn after the Second World War) and was principally concerned with delivering automobiles which conformed to a certain artistic standard. The engineering had to be perfect and the designs absolutely sumptuous. Bugattis father, after all, was an artistic designer himself. The cars were used on the roads but also on the track, with the company providing winning cars for drivers such as Jean-Pierre Wimille, Robert Benoist and Pierre Veyron (hence the name of the signature vehicle of the present day company). Bugatti scorned the idea that the important part of creating an automobile was its durability, favoring beautiful lines and precision engineering, and calling Bentley cars the worlds fastest lorries for their insistence on durability.

Those cars that Ettore Bugatti designed were to find the market in extremely limited editions a surgeon living in England who died in late 2008 was found to have a 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atlante, one of only seventeen ever made. The magic of Bugatti seemed to have been lost after Ettore died in 1947 having lost a great deal of interest in producing the machines that had claimed the life of his son. It was in 1998 that Volkswagen purchased the rights of production of Bugatti automobiles, of which the most famous, the Bugatti Veyron, produces an astonishing 1,001 horsepower (at least), goes at 254 mph and handles, according to those who have driven it, like a dream.

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