Part 6 - A Bugatti in your garage? Some good reasons to having one The ambition and courage of Romano Artioli

It was Romano Artioli and Ferruccio Lamborghini who negotiated with SnECMA, the French State-owned aerospace engineering company that had taken over Hispano 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 continuation 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.