Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.: Information from Answers.com

Company Perspectives
Bugatti has always been the epitome of exclusivity, luxury, elegance, style, extraordinary design, and a great passion for automobiles. Unique visions, the strong legacy of legendary sports cars, and high-precision engineering in development, construction, and manufacture distinguish this outstanding automotive brand. The elegant, individual, and independent character of Bugatti automobiles is reflected in the brand logo: the pearl-framed oval sporting 60 pearls, the stylized initials of the brand's founder Ettore Bugatti, and the elegantly simple Bugatti word mark have adorned each Bugatti model since 1909. The logo embodies the official statement and the tradition-conscious promise that Bugatti offers its discerning customers. All Bugatti brand values have been integrated in the Veyron, an aesthetic and engineering masterwork first introduced in 2005, which, like its predecessors, is a match for contemporary racing cars.
Key Dates
1909: Ettore Bugatti establishes an automobile company in Molsheim, Alsace (now France).
1924: The legendary Type 35 debuts.
1956: The Molsheim plant closes several years after the passing of the company founder.
1963: Hispano-Suiza buys Bugatti's Molsheim plant.
1987: Italian entrepreneur establishes Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. in Modena, Italy.
1995: Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. folds.
1999: Volkswagen AG relaunches the brand via Bugatti S.A.S.
2004: VW renovates Bugatti's Molsheim headquarters.
2006: The first million-dollar Veyron 16.4 sports cars are delivered.

Type: Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Group Volkswagen France S.A.
Address: 1, Château Saint Jean, Dorlisheim, Molsheim, 67120, France
Telephone: (33 3) 88 04 56 00
Web: http://www.bugatti.com
Employees: 25
Sales: $120 million (2008 est.)
Incorporated: 1998 as Bugatti S.A.S.
NAIC: 336111 Automobile Manufacturing; 336211 Motor Vehicle Body Manufacturing; 541420 Industrial Design Services
SIC: 3711 Motor Vehicles & Car Bodies; 3713 Truck & Bus Bodies

Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. makes some of the world's fastest and most expensive production cars. The Bugatti brand originally appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. A single-minded focus on the pursuit of speed resulted in the brand's dominance of the Grand Prix circuit in the years between World War I and World War II. The traditional factory in the Alsace region of France closed in 1956, several years after the passing of the firm's founder, Ettore Bugatti. The brand was revived three decades later by an Italian entrepreneur but this operation shut down after a few years. Volkswagen AG relaunched Bugatti in 1998 in Molsheim, France. The first contemporary production model, the Veyron 16.4, rolled off the assembly line several years later.

Art Meets Engine

Ettore Bugatti was born on September 15, 1881, in Milan, Italy, to a family known for its artistic bent. The passion and creativity he inherited from a family of designers, painters, and sculptors would eventually be applied to the pursuit of speed. By the time he was 18, Bugatti was working as an apprentice for bicycle manufacturer Prinetti & Stucchi. There, he began experimenting with attaching motors to tricycles, ultimately creating a quadricycle by combining two bikes and four engines. By early in the 20th century he had produced a car of his own design.

In 1901 Bugatti's second automobile won a medal at an exhibition in his hometown, attracting the attention of the Baron de Dietrich, who hired him to work at his automobile operation in Alsace (then under German control). Production there ceased within three years, however. Bugatti then found work designing a car for Strasbourg auto agent Emile Mathis before going to Cologne to work for Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik.

In his spare time, Bugatti completed the Type 10, which debuted in 1909. This is considered the first of the true, or "Pur Sang," Bugatti automobiles. In the same year, Bugatti moved his business to Molsheim in Alsace. With the advent of World War I he returned to Milan for a time, but Molsheim remained his firm's traditional base.

Bugatti was single-minded in the pursuit of speed. His name became synonymous with elegant engineering solutions and quality components. "Nothing is too beautiful, nothing is too expensive," decreed Bugatti, adding, "No matter what the price, one must win, working night and day if necessary." The company made only five cars its first year, but delivered 75 units in 1911. A French auto manufacturer licensed one of Bugatti's earliest designs for what became known as the Bébé Peugeot.

Bugatti started out with a dozen workers, and the workforce grew steadily to 200 people by 1914. A decade later, employment at the Molsheim plant was near its peak of 1,200 workers. Production of the cars could be measured in dozens. Surviving examples would later become some of the most sought-after collectible automobiles in the world, fetching millions at auction.

Interwar Racing Dominance

Success came early as the cars racked up wins in local hill climbs and other racing events. Bugatti's cars tended to be light, fast, and packed with powerful engines. A monthlong, 14,000-kilometer crossing of the Sahara in 1927 by an intrepid French lieutenant in a Bugatti car helped build the maker's reputation for quality. One of Bugatti's most celebrated cars was the Type 35, which biographer Philippe Dejean called "the most glorious motor vehicle of all automotive history." Introduced in 1924, it racked up more than 2,000 racing titles.

Bugatti maintained a place among racing's top names throughout the 1920s, although the company sometimes had to respond to industry innovations as superchargers. After 1929, however, the faltering global economy put the brakes on the market for Bugatti's expensive sports cars. Jean Bugatti took over the plant when his father left Molsheim in 1936, a year marked by labor unrest. Jean Bugatti had been responsible for designing one of the firm's greatest examples, the Type 57SC Atlantic. Introduced in 1934, it won the 24-hour race at Le Mans in 1937. However, the younger Bugatti's leadership tenure was brief; he died in 1939 in a testing accident, when he struck a tree while dodging a bicyclist.

The operation was moved to Bordeaux during World War II. By the time Ettore Bugatti died in Paris in 1947, 7,950 automobiles had been crafted bearing the Bugatti name. In addition, Ettore Bugatti's influence was not limited to the automotive realm. In 1927 he helped launch the aerospace firm Messier-Bugatti, a leading manufacturer of landing gear and hydraulic systems for aircraft.

The Bugatti automotive company did not fully recover after its founder's death, although production continued at Molsheim until 1956. In the early 1960s Hispano-Suiza acquired Bugatti's plant in Molsheim. Hispano-Suiza was a venerable manufacturer of aircraft engines and had itself produced some of the most collectible automobiles of the 1930s. It later became part of French defense firm SNECMA (Groupe SAFRAN).

Italian Automotive Renaissance 1987-95

In 1987 a Luxembourg holding company called Bugatti International S.A.H., controlled by Romano Artioli, acquired the Bugatti brand from Hispano-Suiza. An operating company called Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. was created, and a new factory was built in Modena, Italy. The company's managing-technical director was Paolo Stanzani, the man behind the development of two of Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.'s most celebrated sports cars, the Miura and the Countach. However, Stanzani was let go in 1990 after a failed takeover attempt.

Another Lamborghini vet, Marcello Gandini, drafted the design for the new Bugatti. Dubbed the EB 110, it boasted a 550-horsepower engine with 12 cylinders and two turbochargers. Production of the EB 110 sports car commenced in 1991, with 139 completed over the next four years. In 1993, Artioli acquired Lotus Cars Ltd., maker of the legendary British sports cars, from General Motors Corp. for $48 million. However, in an effort to raise cash, Artoli sold this company a year and a half later, at a $10 million profit, to a U.K. investment group owned by Italy's Benetton and Bonomi families.

By mid-decade, Bugatti Automobili attained annual revenues of more than $40 million. During the Artoli years, some revenue came from the licensing of the Bugatti name for luxury items such as apparel, perfume, and wristwatches. This was accomplished through a joint venture called Ettore Bugatti s.r.l., led by Artioli's wife, Renata. There were plans for an initial public offering in London and New York to raise money to develop new offerings at both Bugatti and Lotus. However, the company slid into insolvency in 1995.

VW Relaunches Bugatti

Volkswagen AG acquired Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. and rights to the legendary brand in August 1998. The deal culminated a luxury buying spree orchestrated by VW chairman Ferdinand Piech that also included Lamborghini and Bentley (the latter, one of Bugatti's old racing rivals). In 1999 Volkswagen AG officially relaunched Bugatti S.A.S. as a unit of Volkswagen France. It was stabled at Bugatti's traditional quarters in Molsheim, Alsace.

VW had a prototype by this time, a luxury coupe called the Bugatti EB 118. Sculpted by Italdesign S.p.A., it was powered by an 18-cylinder, 555-horsepower engine made by Volkswagen. This was followed by plans for a four-door version called the Bugatti EB 218. In spite of the horsepower involved, the styling of these was understated and elegant, more suggestive of a night on the town than the 24-hour exertion of Le Mans racing.

A group of VW designers led by Hartmut Warkuss produced a couple more aggressively styled sports-car concepts. A prototype of the Bugatti 18.3 Chiron was introduced in 1999. Its streamlined curves, low profile, and large wheels gave it the look of a true racing machine; both it and its successor were named after Grand Prix champions. The VW team also designed the concept that first entered production, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. With 1,000 horsepower and a top speed of more than 250 miles per hour, it was billed as the world's fastest production car.

A Million-Dollar Car

The Veyron represented a groundbreaking design effort. The engine, a VW product, was essentially two V-8s joined together, along with four turbochargers. Among the custom systems developed were a seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission and a ten-radiator cooling system. The carbon fiber body was sourced from ATR, an Italian firm better known for its aerospace work. The Veyron was priced at EUR 1 million, or about $1.2 million to $1.6 million, depending on exchange rates. At $30,000, the sound system alone was roughly twice as expensive as a Ford Focus. The first models reached customers in 2006.

VW had renovated Bugatti's headquarters at Molsheim in 2004, after designating Thomas Bscher, a veteran of the banking industry, as the unit's new president. At a time when total Volkswagen Group production reached a record six million units, Bugatti delivered 81 automobiles in 2007. This represented a couple dozen more than Bugatti built the previous year, the result of efforts to speed deliveries to impatient customers, most of whom were from the United States.

In 2007 Thomas Bscher stepped down as president of Bugatti, to be replaced by Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen, who had led the Veyron 16.4's development at Bugatti Engineering GmbH (a unit of Volkswagen Retail GmbH). Bugatti's production of the Veyron (limited to 300 models) was halfway done by 2007. According to Automotive News, Bugatti was contemplating the introduction of a less-expensive model at some point in the future.

Principal Competitors

McLaren Automotive Ltd; Shelby SuperCars, LLC; Ferrari SpA; Koenigsegg Automotive AB; Automobili Lamborghini SpA; Aston Martin Lagonda Limited.

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