Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Ettore Bugatti

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti

(born Sept. 15, 1881, Milan, Italy — died Aug. 21, 1947, Paris, France) Italian builder of racing and luxury automobiles. His factory at Mosheim, Alsace (founded 1909), produced a highly successful low-powered racer for Le Mans. His luxurious Type 41 ("Golden Bugatti" or "La Royale"), produced in the 1920s, was probably the most meticulously built of all cars; no more than eight were constructed. His firm did not survive long after his death.

For more information on Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti, visit Britannica.com.

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Wikipedia: Ettore Bugatti
Top

Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti (September 15, 1881, Milan, died on August 21, 1947) was an Italian automobile designer and manufacturer.

Ettore came from a notably artistic family with its roots in Milan. He was the elder son of Teresa Lorioli and her husband Carlo Bugatti (1856–1940), an important Art Nouveau furniture and jewelry designer. 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.

Before founding his Bugatti automobile company, Ettore designed a number of engines and vehicles for others. Prinetti & Stucchi produced his 1898 Type 1. From 1902 through 1904, Dietrich built his Type 3/4 and Type 5/6/7 under the Dietrich-Bugatti marque. In 1907, Bugatti went to work for the Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik, designing the Type 8/9.

On his own time, Bugatti developed the Type 2 (in 1900 and 1901), and the 1903 Type 5. While at Deutz, Bugatti built his Type 10 in the basement of his home. In 1913, Bugatti designed a small car for Peugeot, the Type 19 "Bébé".

Although he was born in Italy, Bugatti set up his eponymous automobile company in Molsheim in the Alsace region, now part of France. He was its technical innovator, developing a number of engines and chassis for the numerous models produced over the next three decades. The company was known for the advanced engineering in its premium road cars and its success in early Grand Prix motor racing, a Bugatti winning the first Monaco Grand Prix.

Bugatti Type 59 Grand Prix

While displaced from his home in Alsace by World War 1 Bugatti designed aero engines, notably the somewhat baroque 16-cylinder U-16, although this was never built in large numbers was installed in very few aircraft.[1].[2] Between the wars Ettore Bugatti also designed a successful motorized railcar, the Autorail, and an airplane, though this never flew. His son, Jean Bugatti, was killed on August 11, 1939 at the age of 30, while testing a Type 57 tank-bodied race car near the Molsheim factory. After that, the company's fortunes began to decline. World War II ruined the factory in Molsheim, and the company lost control of the property. During the war, Bugatti planned a new factory at Levallois in Paris and designed a series of new cars.

Ettore Bugatti was buried in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim near Molsheim in the Bas-Rhin département of the Alsace region of France.

References

  1. ^ Jane’s fighting aircraft of World War 1, originally published by Jane’s Publishing Company, 1919, re-printed by Studio Editions Ltd, London, 1990, pps 275-277, ISBN 1-85170-347-0
  2. ^ http://home.uni-one.nl/bugatti/revue3/rev3-3.htm#king

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ettore Bugatti" Read more