Bugatti
Automobile designer and manufacturer Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti was born on September 15, 1881 in Brescia, Italy, into a notably artistic family that had its roots in Milan. He was the elder son of Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940), an important Art Nouveau furniture and jewelry designer, and his wife, Teresa Lorioli. His younger brother was a renowned animal sculptor, Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916). His aunt, Luigia Bugatti, was the wife of the painter Giovanni Segantini. And his paternal grandfather, Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, was an architect and sculptor.Although born in Italy, the automobile company Ettore Bugatti founded was located in Molsheim, in the Alsace region of France. The company was known for its advanced engineering in its premium road cars and its success in early Grand Prix motor racing, winning the first ever Monaco Grand Prix and with driver Jean-Pierre Wimille they won the 1937 and 1939 24 hours of Le Mans.
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Only a few models of each of Ettore Bugatti's vehicles were ever produced, the most famous being the Type 35 Grand Prix car, the huge "Royale", and the Type 55 sports car.
Throughout the production run of approximately 7,900 cars, each Bugatti model was designated with the prefix T for Type, which referred to the chassis and drive train.
Under Ettore Bugatti
Bugatti Royale
Ettore Bugatti also designed a successful motorized railcar, the Autorail, and an airplane, but it never flew. His son, Jean Bugatti, was killed on August 11, 1939 at the age of 30, while testing a Type 57C tank-bodied race car near the Molsheim factory. After that, the company's fortune began to decline.
Ettore Bugatti died on August 21, 1947 and is buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery , Paris, France.
In 1987 the Bugatti name was sold to Romano Artioli, an Italian entrepreneur who created Bugatti Automobili SpA to manufacture a new line of super cars called the Bugatti EB110.
Today Bugatti cars are amongst the most sought after in the world by collectors, fetching prices as high as US$10 million.
The best-known collectors of Bugatti were Hans and Fritz Schlumpf, two brothers who ran a textiles business in Mulhouse, close to the Bugatti factory. Between 1958 and 1975 (when their business failed) they secretly amassed a remarkable collection of the cars. Now known as the Schlumpf Collection, it has been turned into one of the world's great car museums, the Musée Nationale de l'Automobile.
See also: List of automobiles.
Under Romano Artioli
Collectors
External links
