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.

Romano Artioli in front of the “Fabbrica Blu” in Campogalliano, in Italy near Modena.

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.

Romano Artioli at the Bugatti EB110 world premiere in 1991 in Paris.

Artioli had piloted his own airplane to Grenoble, and it is easy to imagine their different states of mind once the deal was done and it was time to act. At the sight of all those magnificent models, racecars and luxury road vehicles, Lamborghini realized that his own name was bound to fade beside that of Bugatti. There seemed to be no point in continuing, and he thus decided to abandon the project. Ferruccio Lamborghini was a man who had made his fortune by himself, and he was realistic enough to understand that the huge investment required and the powerful partners involved would have made it impossible for him to act according to his own instinct. That day, he left the car world for good.

Even Michael Schumacher was a Bugatti customer when in 1994, after winning his first F1 World Championship, he gifted himself an EB110 SS.

Maybe also this contributed to the bankruptcy on 29 September 1995 of the Company, but the fact that today the EB110s of those years are collectors’ items calls for no further comment confirm that Artioli’s efforts and achievements have become part of history.

The different versions, road and racing, of the EB110 in front of the "Blue Factory" in Campo Galliano.