Who killed Ettore Bugatti?

Elegant and aristocratic, an artist at heart – just like his brother Rembrandt who cast magnificent bronze statues like the elephant on the radiator of the Royale – but an engineer by craft. A stubborn engineer at that, able to invent extraordinary things but, at the same time, stubborn in not wanting to accept innovations that would help the performance of the very special cars he designed and built.

Cars of a characteristically deep blue, inspired by the blue of the French flag, although he was Italian and remained so to the end, which caused him one of the many problems that turned the tide on his magnificent life. His parents were visionary cabinetmakers and jewellers. Their eclectic and oriental-inspired furniture, with their distinctive art deco styling, are now desirable collector’s items. But Ettore preferred metal to wood. He preferred it so much he presented his first car before the age of twenty. The second, when he was 21, awarded at the 1901 Milan Expo which took him to the country where he became famous, France or rather, to that territory disputed for years between the French and the Germans called Alsace.

The Type 32 Aerodynamic Bugattis prepare for the start of the Tours Grand Prix in 1923