Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti was born on September 15, 1881, and died on August 21, 1947. He was an Italian-French car designer and maker. In 1946, he became a French citizen. He started and owned the car company Automobiles E. Bugatti, which he founded in 1909 in the town of Molsheim. At that time, Molsheim was part of Germany but is now in the Alsace region of France. Bugatti passed away in Paris and was buried in Dorlisheim, France.

Family origin and early life

Bugatti was born into an artistic family in Milan, Italy. He was the older son of Carlo Bugatti (1856–1940), a famous designer of furniture and jewelry in the Art Nouveau style, and his wife, Teresa Lorioli (1862–1935). His younger brother, Rembrandt (1884–1916), became well-known for creating sculptures of animals. His aunt, Luigia Bugatti, was married to the painter Giovanni Segantini. His father’s father, Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, worked as an architect and sculptor.

Bugatti’s father wanted him to complete a traditional technical training with one of the companies in Milan that made three- or four-wheeled vehicles. However, the young Bugatti quickly showed a strong natural understanding of many parts of car building. In 1898, he built his first car, the "Bugatti Type 1," with Prinetti & Stucchi.

Early career

With financial help from Count Gulinelli, Bugatti created a second prototype, the Type 2, which was displayed as a prize-winning exhibit at the Milan Trade Fair in the spring of 1901. His design also attracted the attention of Baron Adrien de Turckheim, who invited Bugatti to work at the Lorraine-Dietrich car factory in Niederbronn. Changes after the Franco-Prussian War had left De Dietrich with two car factories in two different countries. The Niederbronn plant, where Bugatti moved, was in Alsace, a region that had been part of Germany since 1871 but returned to French control in 1919. In 1902, Ettore became the head of technology at De Dietrich.

From 1902 to 1904, De Dietrich produced car models called the Type 3/4 and Type 5/6/7, which were labeled "De Dietrich, Licence Bugatti" at the time. While working for De Dietrich, Bugatti met Émile Mathis. They first became friends and later business partners, leaving De Dietrich in 1904 to build their own cars, which were labeled "Mathis-Hermes (Licence Bugatti)." This partnership ended in 1906, after which Bugatti opened a "Research centre" in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, now a suburb on the south side of Strasbourg. He created several prototypes, working closely with the Cologne-based Deutz company.

In 1907, Bugatti was named Production Director ("Directeur des fabrications") at Deutz. There, he designed the Type 8/9. While working at Deutz, Bugatti built the Type 10 in the basement of his home. In 1913, Bugatti designed a small car for Peugeot, called the Type 19 Bébé.

Automobiles E. Bugatti

Ettore Bugatti was born in Italy but founded his automobile company, Automobiles E. Bugatti, in 1909 in Molsheim, a town in the Alsace region of what is now France. His company was known for creating some of the fastest, most luxurious, and most advanced cars of that time. Excellent engineering helped Bugatti achieve success in early Grand Prix motor racing, including a victory in the first Monaco Grand Prix.

During World War I, Bugatti had to leave his home in Alsace. He designed airplane engines, including a complicated 16-cylinder engine called the U-16. This engine was not produced in large numbers and was used in only a few planes. Between the two world wars, Bugatti created a successful motorized railcar called the Autorail Bugatti. He also won a government contract to build an airplane, the Model 100. This plane was designed by Louis de Monge using two Bugatti Type 50B engines but never flew because World War II began. Bugatti also designed surgical tools for a friend who worked at a nearby hospital. These tools are still used today.

Bugatti’s son, Jean, died on August 11, 1939, at the age of 30 while testing a Bugatti Type 57 race car near the Molsheim factory. After this, the company’s success began to decline. World War II destroyed the Molsheim factory, and the company lost control of the property. During the war, Bugatti planned to build a new factory in Levallois, Paris, and designed a series of new cars.

Bugatti had an unusual way of handling customer complaints. When one owner said his car was hard to start on cold mornings, Bugatti reportedly replied, “Sir! If you can afford a Type 35, you can surely afford a heated garage!” He also told a customer who complained about poor brakes, “I make my cars to go, not stop!” Bugatti was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2000.

Personal life

In 1907, Bugatti married Barbara Maria Giuseppina Mascherpa. They had two daughters, L'Ébé in 1903 and Lidia in 1907, and two sons, Jean in 1909 and Roland in 1922. His wife, Barbara, died in 1944. In 1946, Bugatti married again, this time to Geneviève Marguerite Delcuze. They had a daughter, Thérèse, in 1942, and a son, Michel, in 1945.

Bugatti died at the American Hospital in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris, during the late summer of 1947. He had been affected by the after-effects of a stroke and had been confined to an apartment on the rue Boissière in Paris for several months. This apartment had been his home since 1916. A legal decision in June 1947 restored his property in Alsace, which had been taken by the government during a period of anger and revenge after World War II. Bugatti did not recover from his illness and died on August 21, 1947, without regaining consciousness. He was buried in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim, near Molsheim, in the Bas-Rhin region of France. The Musée de la Chartreuse in Molsheim has a section that highlights his life, work, and legacy.