Bugatti Independent Service

Ettore Bugatti and His Marque

Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan in 1881 and studied at the city's art academy while working for the bicycle maker Prinetti & Stucchi. Drawn to machines, he raced a motorised tricycle, built his first four-wheeled car in 1898 and won a gold medal at the Milan motor fair with his Type 2 in 1901. Agreements with Baron de Dietrich, then Mathis and Deutz, saw his early Types produced in series before he opened his own factory in France, close to the German border. The Type 10 of 1910 was the first car to wear the Bugatti badge.

Racing made the marque famous. After aircraft-engine work during the First World War, the sixteen-valve Type 13 and above all the Type 35 of 1924 dominated the circuits — the Type 35 family amassed an extraordinary number of victories that still stands as a record, and the Type 57 G 'Tank' won Le Mans in 1937. The death of Ettore's son Jean during testing and the outbreak of the Second World War struck the company hard; Ettore Bugatti died in 1947, after roughly 7,600 cars had been built under his direction. Production faded away in the 1950s and the marque fell silent for 35 years.

Italian businessman Romano Artioli revived Bugatti in 1989, presenting the twelve-cylinder EB 110 in Paris in 1991, but his venture ended in bankruptcy. In 1998 the Volkswagen Group acquired the rights to the name and, after a series of concept cars including the Chiron and Veyron studies, put the 16.4 Veyron into production — returning one of the great names of motoring history to the road.