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A Bugatti in Your Garage? Ten good reasons for having one.  by Antonio Ghini
This picture, by French photographer Bernard Canonne, is able to transmit at first glance the true Bugatti spirit. The image is available in eight large size specimens, signed by the author: www.bernardcanonne.com
A bUGATTI In YOUR GARAGE? // 119
A
ll things considered, the marques that collectors get most excited about have a lot to do with the people who designed them. bugatti, with Ettore, is a perfect case in point. A true eclectic of artistic temperament, he combined engineering brilliance with romantic spirit. Another telling example is Ferrari and the personality of Enzo, who was over-the-top and even cynical. It also applies to McLaren, born of the passion of a driver who died developing one of his own vehicles. Even Porsche falls into the same category on account of the brilliant symbiosis between Ferdinand and Ferry. Although all these men lived a good way back, they continue to imbue the cars that bear their names with historic value. After Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche, it was Ferdinand Piëch who took up the role of developing and defending the original sporting spirit behind the marque. For bruce McLaren, it was Ron Dennis, after Teddy 120 // TOP OF THE CLASSIC CAR WORLD
Mayer left at the founder’s death, who made employees and partners proud of the McLaren name and took up the small british manufacturer among the big players. Likewise, Ferrari, without Enzo’s guidance, seemed to have lost its way until it was taken in hand by Luca di Montezemolo, who managed to bring back the ambition and principles of the founder, leading Ferrari to the top of Formula 1 once again, with a previously unthinkable return in terms of commercial success. In all these cases, the brand averted the potential dangers of discontinuity. In fact, the effort to preserve the founders’ spirit and vision – and individually, they were very different – always took place in companies that were very much alive and active. So what Romano Artioli managed to achieve is even more admirable. He breathed new life
into bugatti, a company that was orphaned of its founder on 11 August 1939, when, Jean bugatti, the oldest son of Ettore, died in an accident on the road between Molsheim and Strasbourg while testing a Type 57 race car. That day, after which Germany declared war, Alsace suffered the effects of contrasting French claims on the region and bugatti lost his “factory of perfection,” seemed to herald the death of the most fascinating and admired automobile manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century. Ettore died on 21 August 1947, after visiting the location of his son Jean’s fatal accident, but before learning that the factory of his dreams and successes had been released from confiscation and restored to him. bugatti as a name and marque did not perish on that day, however. Ettore’s second son Rolando – or Roland as he was known in France – was just seventeen when his brother died, and twenty-four when
Ettore Bugatti, Italian genius and visionary, French in his aristocratic trait, 27 years old at the wheel of what is probably a Deutz, ca. 1908, next to the 57G, Le Mans winner, but also tragically linked to the death of his beloved son Jean. Ettore Bugatti image copyright by The Bugatti Trust.
The only example of the 1998 18/3 Chiron. The car, with a W18 engine, the first produced under Audi’s ownership, perfectly harks back to the 57G spirit, coupling to the front end style even some details taken from the Atlantic.
he unsuccessfully tried to get the company back on its feet. With the war, everything had changed – not only the world, but also the value of the very concept behind the vision his father had nurtured for magnificently aristocratic vehicles between the two wars. It was Ettore’s widow who sold the company to Hispano Suiza, a French state-owned group involved in aviation engine and components that had once focused on automotive engineering. And this was truly the end of the original bugatti. Two dates stand out: 1963, when bugatti ceased production; and 1991, with the grand launch ceremony at La Défense in Paris under the auspices of Archduke Otto von Habsburg, whose fervent pro-European convictions meant that the Alsace dispute was truly a thing of the past. A gap of almost thirty years, long enough to make any kind of revival seem
impossible. And yet here again there was someone who knew how to revive the principles that had stimulated Ettore’s imagination to create his cars. This was another Italian, Romano Artioli, who was born near Mantua but grew up in bolzano: a man with a deep passion for automobiles and an even deeper admiration for bugatti and its history. At a recent encounter, Romano Artioli spent several hours telling us his story, with its many episodes of courage, joy and disappointment. Throughout this tale, the constant thread was the legend of Ettore: “I couldn’t accept that bugatti had died forever, so I struggled to get the resources together for buying the brand and starting anew.” In the following pages, you can read the most significant excerpts from his account. It is a singularly interesting memoir of years that begin with the grand unveiling of the Eb 110, one hundred and ten years after the birth of Ettore, and continues
through to the year the company folded. It was that same year that the four-door Eb 112 was launched, a jewel of a car that seemed destined to be hugely successful. Elegantly shaped by Giorgetto Giugiaro, it was slightly reminiscent of the glorious Atlantic. The Eb 112 was a four-door super sports car that heralded by several years what other famous constructors later put into practice, Porsche first and foremost. Happily for posterity, Artioli’s enormous efforts were not in vain. Audi was able to put the technical and conceptual experience to excellent use with the Chiron, an automobile that certainly stands up to comparison with the most enthralling bugattis of the pre-war period. So heartfelt thanks are due to the man who replaced the romanticism of historians with the courage of an entrepreneur who fully believed in the dreams and achievements of Ettore bugatti. A bUGATTI In YOUR GARAGE? // 121
1
Much more than an engineer or an artist...
Ettore bugatti’s life was a mixture of inspiration, vision, culture, narcissism, unconventionality and tenacity that together helped forge forms of creativity and success that fate did not reward. This is sad, yet Ettore remains the personification of automotive brilliance during the belle Époque and the years of Futurism, Art Deco and Rationalism. Ettore’s roots went deep into highly fertile soils. The magnificent furniture designed and built by his father Carlo, his brother Rembrandt’s artistic talent as a sculptor, the great international exhibitions (in 1901, when he was 20, he was awarded with the Grand Prix at the Milan automotive show): these were all circumstances that indirectly contributed to Ettore’s success. He embraced challenges with courage, moving to Alsace at the age of 29, when the region was still part of Germany, ultimately founding a company of his own there to manufacture automobiles. Such was the inception of the bugatti marque. Ettore patented over nine hundred designs. His ideas started out as sketches that helped him “see in real terms” the concepts that came to mind in effortless succession. The principles behind his cars were a strange combination of the highly innovative and the stubborn-
Ettore put no limit to his imagination: perfectly functioning Baby-Bugattis for lucky children, who will have always remained tied to the marque, and bold interpretations of aerodynamics, like on the 1923 Type 32 Tank.
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ly conservative. He was able to conjure up creative solutions for a wide range of forms of transport, from cars to airplanes, boats to trains. In a word, he was truly an engineer honoris causa. Only an entrepreneur who followed his own dreams could invent, in the 1920s, a small sports car streamlined like a military vehicle: the 32 Tank, as it was rightly called. Likewise remarkable was the Type 25, which became the archetype for racecars. Or indeed, in the 1930s, his designs for the first high-speed train that was produced in around eighty units. Magnificent for its modernity and performance, it was designed to house the huge engine originally devised for the Royale, a luxury conveyance that was not easy to sell during the years of the great depression. Ettore lived in the sumptuous Chateau St. Jean, a stone’s throw from the Molsheim factory. He dressed with eccentric refinement and set great store by hospitality, to the extent that the team and visitors’ tents at races were even fitted with showers. All these aspects contributed to the unique overall image of bugatti cars. Yet all this came to a sudden, terrible end in 1939, the annus horribilis for Ettore. His son and heir Jean, who had designed the Le Mans-winning Type 57 and the amazing Atlantic, died in an accident. Just 19 days later, Germany declared war. The magnificent dream was interrupted by a brutal awakening. Anyone with a bugatti in the garage should recognize – merely by looking at the car, but far more by driving it – that it was born of the creative brilliance of a true artist.
2
Baby...
With no visual references to show that it is exactly half the size of a real Type 35, the bugatti baby could fool just about anyone when seen in a photograph. just about anyone when seen in a photograph. A toy for fortunate children, the baby was created in 1927 by Ettore for his son Roland, who was five at the time. Equipped with an electric engine of the sort used as a starting motor for the Royale, it is powered by a 12 Volt battery that allows the car to reach more than 12 miles an hour. The beauty of the model encouraged Ettore to put it into production, each unit with its individual chassis number, just like the adult versions. We do not know exactly how many were produced, but experts surmise that over 300 left the factory, some with a lengthened wheelbase to suit slightly older children. Given its potential performance, it was even used for mini-races that might nurture the passion for cars among the very young. Since the price was fully in line with that of a bugatti 35 racing vehicle, the bugatti baby (the name Type 32 was never officially endorsed) delighted the junior members of various royal families, including Prince Ranier of Monaco and baudouin, the future king of belgium, as well as becoming a favorite plaything of the Agnelli children at their hillside residence near Turin.
that lowered the vehicle’s center of gravity as far as possible. The outcome was the car built for the Paris-Madrid road race. However, it was so low-slung and conceptually advanced with respect to the vehicles of the other daredevil participants that it was disqualified by the organizers, who considered it dangerous! before long, the cars produced by the different manufacturers began to develop a particular look that made them identifiable. Even the famous Marne Taxis used by the French army to ferry soldiers out to the front line to stop the German advance are immediately recognizable as Renaults on account of the two characteristic radiators on either side of the engine.
Even Mussolini, the Italian Dux, owned two of them: the one given to his son Vittorio is still in the hands of an Italian collector. Children were so enthusiastic about the bugatti baby that special races were organized, particularly in Argentina, where they became regular events in the public gardens of buenos Aires. Today, perfectly preserved authentic models (as opposed to the various replicas that are still produced here and there) fetch prices ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 dollars, and in a recent auction bidding increased to 75,000 dollars. The immaculate state of such items suggests that their original little owners weren’t particularly interested in cars and racing! To safeguard such luxury toys and their value, a special register has been set up.
3
The brand archetype
Of all industrial products, none equals the automobile in its power to capitalize on the concept of brand. When Ettore bugatti, at the age of just sixteen, began designing a tricycle with an engine for Prinetti & Stucchi, he immediately realized that the horse-drawn coach would not be the right point of reference for the construction of the new forms of transport he had in mind. Only a few years later, in 1903, he introduced a tubular steel chassis
The typical Bugatti grille through the years. Ettore, drawing it, didn’t take inspiration from a horseshoe, as many think, but from one of the arches of the municipal hall in Molsheim , where he founded his company.
Yet technical solutions were soon not enough to distinguish the growing number of new auto brands that appeared on the market. As well as the name, a crest or a particular color, what was required was something that stood out, an unmistakable signature that spoke for the marque. An artist at heart, Ettore realised that the right solution had to coincide with what people focus on when looking at a car: the nose. And that is how the emblematic bugatti radiator came into being: a horseshoe-like feature of universally acclaimed refinement. The reassuringly harmonious shape of that deeply arched grille derives from one of the two arches supporting the steps leading up to the entrance of the Town Hall in Molsheim, the town where bugatti vehicles were constructed. This leads us to a couple of considerations, the first of which concerns the strength of the image conjured up by the product. bugatti was the epitome of prestige and excellence, and it came more naturally to adopt a thoroughbred horseshoe than an Alsace-style arch. by the same token, over the years other manufacturers have also made good use of powerful emblems: the Parthenon for Rolls Royce, the clover leaf for Alfa Romeo, the quadrants of the bMW, even the Porsche logo – in different periods they have all conveyed the relative marque’s message in incredibly eloquent terms, becoming emblems with that clients are happy to identify. One of the great strengths of bugatti has always been its skill in communicating through design details. The bugatti nose is a case in point: an unmistakable feature that never loses its power to fascinate. A bUGATTI In YOUR GARAGE? // 123
The Bugatti Atlantic, magnificent in its style and much sought after for its rarity, witnesses the talent of Ettore’s son, the unlucky Jean.
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A bUGATTI In YOUR GARAGE? // 125
4
Multifaceted like Leonardo...
In his work, Ettore bugatti communicated a deep personal delight in perfection. He was like a Renaissance prince, almost an alchemist, a man devoted to directing the workshop of his ideas. His cars reveal countless details that speak for his remarkable personality, taste and originality. The fact that he had studied art and came from a family of artists would
the 1921 Italian Grand Prix, the last edition before the event was transferred to Monza, the Type 35 of 1924 bugatti was the first constructor to mount light, eight-spoke cast aluminum wheels. Although they initially required meticulous tooling, they overcame the earlier need for laborious centering. Moreover, in racing they allowed for greater efficiency in what would now be called the pit stop, because the integral brake drums permitted faster replacement. It was a solution that became a symbol of the victorious bugattis: like many of Ettore’s ideas, it also heralded future developments. The Type 59 featured piano wire wheels that were a perfect combination of aesthetics
Bugatti was the leader in using wheel spokes and alloy wheels, useful also in a pit stop during a race.
not have been sufficient without his natural genius for mechanics. Take his approach to wheels, for example: bugatti realized that the handling of his cars was an essential aspect of performance. In this, he was way ahead of his time, since it was not until the post-war period that automobile construction began to focus on the efficiency of transmitting power to the ground and on good handling for the driver. Weight reduction of the non-suspended parts, especially wheels, wheel rims and brake drums, made a huge contribution to improved handling. Following the multi-spoke wheels of the brescia Type 13, which won at 126 // TOP OF THE CLASSIC CAR WORLD
and function, with metal segments carefully mounted inline, just like on a piano.
5
The racing parabola
The sons of great men have a weighty heritage to shoulder. This is especially so if the scion is only 24 and intends to breathe new life
into a great marque following the devastation of the war by seeking to recover the precious machine tools created to produce excellence. Such was the steadfast aim of Roland, Ettore’s second son, when the Molsheim factory was returned to his father. by that time, Ettore’s health was so bad that he couldn’t even be informed of the change in circumstances, and Roland had to handle everything alone. He could not have foreseen that in 1966, following the collapse of an audacious effort at relaunching the marque, his step-mother, Geneviève Delcuze, Ettore’s second wife and the mother of Thérèse and Michel, would sell what remained of bugatti, trademark and all, to Hispano Suiza, the company that during the war years had commissioned bugatti to produce mechanical parts for its engines. All this was still to come, however, when Roland and Pierre Marco, the loyal factory director and driver, began to think about new projects. Jean Pierre Wimille’s victory at the wheel of the Type 50 at the 1946 Grand Prix de la Libération in Paris suggested that designing road vehicles to bring the famous marque back to life could be a valid project. Yet the Type 73, presented in 1947, and the Type 101, based on the Type 57 and launched in 1951, turned out to be utter failures, despite the fact that a few models, including Geneviève’s with its Antem bodywork, were indisputably magnificent. Times had changed, and with them technology as well, and the world was heading toward mass motorization and production. Wishing to prevail in terms of technology, Roland played his last card with racing, the activity that had brought bugatti such widespread fame. There was a new Formula 1 rule for the World Championship that involved 2500 cc engines. It was an audacious decision: in 1954 Mercedes had entered its W 198 coupé, a car that was technologically so highly advanced that it practically obscured all the other teams, including Ferrari, as well as Maserati, bRM and Vanwall. bugatti went for an interesting solution: instead of the models with front-mounted engines entered by its competitors, it opted for a single-seater with a centrally mounted rear transverse engine. In true bugatti style, it had an 8-cylinder engine, but in V configuration. The quality of this engine, designed
by the acclaimed Italian engineer Gioacchino Colombo, was later to be ratified by the 1500 cc 4-cylinder version (cut in half, longitudinally), mounted on the last bugatti to be built, the Sport Type 252. Clearly, the engine is not everything in a single-seater. The car appeared only once on the racetrack, as number 28 in the French Grand Prix of 1956, driven by Maurice Trintignant, and it did not come up to expectation. It was thirdlast in departure position, 18” from pole position, and it withdrew after 18 rounds because of a problem with the accelerator. It was a pity, because the car seemed to have potential for
from sales. Alas, this was no longer the case, and this sealed its fate.
6
Respect and awe...
It was Romano Artioli and Ferruccio Lamborghini who negotiated with SnECMA, the French State-owned aerospace engineering company that had taken over Hispano
ation of the original firm; whereas Ferruccio, who was less familiar with the history, values and symbols of a company that in those years was largely forgotten, was hoping to redeem his own experience as the erstwhile creator of a brand that was no longer his. Artioli recalls how they signed the agreement in Paris under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry of the first Rocard government, thereby acquiring ownership of the trademark, and then headed for Italy, stopping off in Mulhouse to visit the Museum that housed the magnificent collection of bugattis put together by the Schlumpf brothers. Artioli had piloted his own airplane to Grenoble, and it is easy to imagine
The Formula 1 Bugatti 151 at the 1956 French Grand Prix, the only one it ever took part in. Even if it anticipated the revolution of rear-mounted engines, the cars and relative financing were not adequate. That’s how the dream of Ettore’s son Roland of re-launching the brand ended. Ferruccio Lamborghini backed Romano Artioli in the relaunch of Bugatti. He was tempted to come back to the automotive scene, but the task soon appeared to be too arduous.
growth and the rear-mounted central engine was promising, as Cooper proved just one year later. but as a challenge, it was simply too demanding and expensive. Efforts to create a small sports car with the Type 252, designed for racing driver customers, also came to nothing despite the undeniable qualities of the vehicle. All in all, the relaunch effort of the post-war period bugatti produced less than twenty road and racing vehicles. In the glorious pre-war years, the marque had enjoyed not only the support of wealthy driver customers, but also income
Suiza, with the aim of buying back bugatti to relaunch the brand. Lamborghini had sold his own company in 1972, relinquishing his last shares in the firm that bore his name in 1974. Yet he had never entirely given up the idea of returning to the world of luxury sports vehicles, and by 1980 he was ready to get involved in Artioli’s project, which he found enticing. They created a partnership and began by purchasing the brand. Various observers, both direct and indirect, suggest that the two had different goals in mind. Artioli, who cultivated an absolute passion for bugatti, wanted to create a company that was the true continu-
their different states of mind once the deal was done and it was time to act. At the sight of all those magnificent models, racecars and luxury road vehicles, Lamborghini realized that his own name was bound to fade beside that of bugatti. There seemed to be no point in continuing, and he thus decided to abandon the project. Ferruccio Lamborghini was a man who had made his fortune by himself, and he was realistic enough to understand that the huge investment required and the powerful partners involved would have made it impossible for him to act according to his own instinct. That day, he left the car world for good. A bUGATTI In YOUR GARAGE? // 127
come to light. For instance, although he was born in Mantua, Artioli’s parents originally came from an area south of the city, near Carpi, the Emilia region. It was here, a land of strong people, courageous in facing challenges and of unbounded ambitions, that he built the factory to launch bugatti anew, and that both Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini founded their magnificent enterprises.
“
Ettore was very much the Futurist man, convinced that speed was an integral part of what was new. In fact, he invented everything to create his automobiles, without referring back to horse-drawn carriages. He had the vision to see beyond...,
”
Romano Artioli, who, with the power of true passion and despite the painful ordeal he put himself through, was able to instill new life into the Bugatti.
7
The ambition and courage of Romano and Ettore...
Romano Artioli’s energy and lucidity belie his age. Although he is almost 85, when he talks about the progressive success of his professional life, he remains astoundingly cool. no feelings come into the account, not even when he reaches the chapter regarding what seemed like an impossible mission, even for a man of his wealth and experience: reviving bugatti. Likewise, there is no hint of the grief and humiliation he suffered when his dream collapsed and “his” bugatti project filed for bankruptcy on 29 September 1995. Our encounter with Artioli takes place many years later, on 17 December 2018, in a private salon at the Hotel Mandarin in Milan. Certain interesting details about his life immediately 128 // TOP OF THE CLASSIC CAR WORLD
Artioli declares with emphasis, oblivious to the waiter’s offer of toothsome delicacies. He then recalls the sixteen-year-old bugatti’s words during the period he was working for Prinetti & Stucchi, the tests he carried out using people as weights on a wooden chassis to establish its strength and other facts that have become part of history. There is so much passion in the tale that there is indeed little room for distraction, regardless of appetite. “Ettore had been to art school, like his brother Rembrandt, the one who created the little elephant on the Royale. but Ettore realized that he would never reach his brother’s level as an artist and decided to focus on his passion for mechanics.” Artioli gratifies the waiter with a frugal order before continuing to talk incessantly about bugatti. It’s a subject that so engrosses him that there is no space for questions. When he reaches the moment of Ettore’s decision to produce his own automobiles, he relates how he “found a weaving mill that had been closed down... they all began with the mills....” He then mentions in passing James Watt and the steam engine he invented in 1769 to power the looms, the evolution of English steam ships, the cannons that were moved to Waterloo with steam engines taking napoleon by surprise. There’s a logical thread connecting these examples: just as the garages of Silicon Valley housed the birth of the digital revolu-
tion, so the second industrial revolution that centered on the automobile started off, in the case of bugatti, in an abandoned weaving mill. “bugatti had worked in Alsace with German, French and Italian engineers, heralding Otto von Habsburg’s vision of a united Europe with Strasburg in the center, no longer a city that stood for division.” but where does your passion for bugatti come from, and how did it grow so strong that you wanted to bring the marque back to life? “I was little more than twenty when I first started thinking about bugatti. That was back in 1952, and I wanted to race motorbikes and was working on my own bike and those of my friends. Things were going well, and I thought it would be better to drop the racing, so I bought a garage in bolzano. It was called Mille Miglia and was located behind a mountain of rubble. I had discovered and loved engines as a kid, when I used to play around with war surplus and debris. A cousin had given me a copy of a book by Ernesto Tron on how to get a license for driving diesel-fueled vehicles, and that’s how I discovered the wonders of the combustion engine.” Artioli was still young when he heard that bugatti had closed down. His passion for cars had spurred him to buy all sorts of books, and that is how he knew all about the Italian designer and constructor who had set up his automobile works in Alsace. “For me the news about bugatti closing came as a real shock, because each and every bugatti was a complete work of art. Ettore had invented the overhead valve, had filed dozens of patents and had created the first high-speed train with an anti-derailing system using the Royale engine. In the mid-1930s, it could travel at 100 mph when cars could only reach 50 to 60 mph.” Artioli was certainly a wealthy man. but there’s a major difference between relative prosperity and the money and energy required to bring bugatti back to life. This energy does not seem to have dwindled over time, however. “My Mille Miglia Garage had a well-equipped workshop. We had bought an engine-testing bench from beretta, because the company was no longer allowed to produce firearms just after the war. We used it for servicing our cars and balancing the crankshafts. It was a highly successful enterprise.” It was indeed,
given that Artioli had come up with the idea of posting the company’s number near the phone of every bar in the city. “In those days, cars often broke down, and despairing drivers headed to the nearest bar, where they found our number. Help was at hand!” Granted, this early form of direct marketing was clearly not the only ingredient in Artioli’s success with the garage. bolzano was close to the border with Austria and Germany, and this gave him the chance to import Opels, especially the Kadett, and then Suzukis. before long, he had created a network of 135 dealers throughout Italy. “We took part in the Paris-Dakar rally with 16 cars at the starting line, and 16 at the finish!” Artioli also began importing Subarus, and business was good. At this point, he had become a major player in the automobile sector, a name to be reckoned with. naturally enough, he still often thinks about bugatti. “nuvolari created a team with those bugattis, and Achille Varzi drove them to victory.” This perhaps explains why Artioli focused on marques that made their name on the racetrack: Abarth, for which he provided customer support and service, and Ferrari. “I had been handling customer support and servicing for some time, but then when Ferrari decided to produce the 8-cylinder in the early 1970s, I got involved with them too. The market was very slow, and there were cars in stock. I agreed to take the unsold models and once, when niki Lauda was on his way north via bolzano, I took advantage of the situation and organized an event, inviting my best customers to come along. It was a great success. I sold twenty Ferraris that same day!” That is how he also put in a successful bid for the dealership in Stuttgart, which considerably strengthened his ties with Ferrari. by the time Artioli announced that he intended to revive bugatti, Ferrari had been bought out by Fiat, who already had a 90% stake in the business when Enzo Ferrari died in 1988. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Fiat reacted to Artioli’s declared plan by severing the dealership agreements. In recalling that moment, Artioli reveals how that decision irritated him, making him even more determined to resuscitate the excellence of bugatti and get to a level unreachable for Ferrari.
Ant. Empos nulpa nonseque pratet et as aliquis
Two iterations of the 1991 EB110: above, one of the three test prototypes in Marcello Gandini’s sketch. Below, the same car with modified front and rear by Giampaolo Benedini under Artioli’s supervision just before its launch.
A bUGATTI In YOUR GARAGE? // 129
The factory at Campogalliano, just outside Modena, was a beautiful building, full of light and perfect in every detail. In this, it reflected the historic Molsheim premises. Moreover, computer technology was an integral part of the plant, unlike the situation in the neighboring factories of his competitors. It was all very impressive. Yet Artioli now reflects that “perhaps it was an error to build the works right there.” be this as it may, the first automobile they produced there was certainly a car to be reckoned with: the Eb 110, with the body in carbon fiber, four-wheel drive, a 550 hp 4 turbo V12 and a top speed of 212 mph. Artioli has generally steered clear of the subject of his relationship with competitors, whose sense of fair play he has sometimes doubted. but with its focus on automobiles and collectors, The Key believes that what counts is the fact that he had the courage to breathe new life into a marque that seemed to be finished, despite the incredible creative verve and innovation it had embodied from the belle Époque through to the end of the 1930s. The fact that today the Eb 110s of those years are now becoming collectors’ items calls for no further comment. Artioli’s efforts and achievement have become part of history.
The wonderful W18 engine, made compact by the use of three banks of six cylinders each forming a double V. The power unit, manufactured by Audi with Ferdinand Piech’s support, was mounted on the EB 18/3 Chiron and was destined also for the Quattro Porte saloon. Today, the unit that is fitted to the car is still perfectly functioning after the thorough restoration that was carried out by the owner of the 18/3 Chiron, Swiss collector Albert Spiess.
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8
EB 110: 137 units plus 4 secret prototypes designed by Gandini...
If you line them up, you really appreciate how similar they are, and yet also how different. The first four Eb 110s were the prototypes tested in 1991. They had chassis numbered A35 A2/3/4/5 and the Marcello Gandini hallmark for body design. This was such a marked feature that Romano Artioli actually feared that some people might consider them too similar in style to the Lamborghini Countach and Diablo. The Key does not intend to get involved in this debate, but it is clear that all four cars largely resembled each other, with only minor differences: for example, the first, the A2, had the nACA air inlets on the front that were later abandoned.
Same look, both in running order, but with totally different performances: the splendid, latest Chiron and its twin made with more than a million of Lego bricks. Bugatti’s myth continues.
What was missing, though, was something totally distinctive: the brand signature. The nose of the cars did not feature the bugatti horseshoe grille, and while rational enough, it lacked any historical reference. Although the launch was scheduled for a few months later, on 14 September to be precise, Artioli felt that the cars needed a special look of their own. Gandini was not available at the time, and so he turned to the architect Giampaolo benedini, who had designed the bugatti factory at Campogalliano. The shape of the car was rounded slightly at the front and rear, and a small symbolic arched element was added to the front air inlet. At the launch, Gandini did not feature as the designer, but the absolute modernity of the vehicle was hugely eloquent, and is still valid. All in all, 141 units of the Eb 110 were produced, including the prototypes and special models.
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The 18-cylinder effect...
Who would ever have thought of breathing new life into bugatti with an 18-cylinder engine? Only Ferdinand Piëch. This was after the sad demise of the Campogalliano factory and the purchase of the historic marque by the Volkswagen Group, which believed
a brand that had become legend had to continue its path strewn with unexpected and extraordinary things, like a powerful, compact engine featuring three six-cylinder banks. The idea was to mount this engine on classic sports models, such as the 18/3 Chiron, and on majestic four-door saloons like the Eb 118 and the Eb 218. All this seemed ready to take shape between 1998 and 1999. Thanks to a previous contact by Romano Artioli with Italdesign, which had designed the unborn yet very interesting four-door Eb 112, Piëch engaged Giorgetto Giugiaro to develop the idea, but sadly, the four-door models never went beyond the prototype stage. In 1999, a lovely, small, two-seater saloon was presented at the Frankfurt Car Show: the 18/3 Chiron. Thanks to the passion of Swiss collector Albert Spiess, this very car is still in immaculate condition, with the W18 engine that still performs to perfection, the only existing example of its kind in working order. It was indeed for fear of its excessive complexity that Volkswagen abandoned this technical solution. The equally awe-inspiring alternative is the actual quad-turbocharged W16 of the Veyron. Despite being a one-off, the 18/3 Chiron is the forefather of the bugattis of the new generation. not only did it put the focus back, in a saloon model, on the modern take of the original bugatti front end and suggested the style of the new models, it also honored the name of the great Monégasque driver Louis Chiron, whose glories were interwoven with those of bugatti.
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Like a Lysippos copy...
Imperial Rome, Renaissance Italy and the neoclassicism of the 19th and 20th centuries all turned to ancient Greece for inspiration, faithfully reproducing the sculptures of Polyclitus, Praxiteles and Lysippos. To modern eyes, these reproductions seem to bear witness to deep-felt respect for forms of excellence considered to be insuperable. At the 2018 Italian Grand Prix in Monza a bugatti Chiron made of over a million Lego bricks was unveiled. It had taken a year to build – more than 13,000 hours – and was received by spectators as a great homage to the genius of Ettore bugatti. Granted, the Chiron is very much a contemporary car, the fruit of a historic marque revived, but it is also the product of Audi’s vision and the efforts the people involved at the historic bugatti headquarters at Molsheim to prove that the formal harmony and values of the original trademark still matter. The fact that the contemporary version unveiled at Monza could actually be driven around the track thanks to the 2300 or so tiny Lego electric engines connected by a chain of 4000 cogs and gears eloquently expressed the respect that bugatti still elicits. In other words, a form of reverence, as with the copies of ancient sculptures. A bUGATTI In YOUR GARAGE? // 131