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REAL BUGATTIS—AND THE FAMILY TOO
LAST YEAR’S 40TH ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE organized by Enthousiastes Bugatti Alsace was described in the December 2023 issue of my favorite car magazine, the British Classic & Sports Car. It looked to be quite the fête, with some fifty of les Bugattis vraies, real examples of the French marque, together with a selection of latter-day examples benefiting from its legendary name.
Here are tidbits gleaned from the C&SC piece, including family ties to Le Patron’s father Carlo and brother Rembrandt (both talented artists) as well as modern members of the Bugatti famille. There’s even a wild-card appearance of another fellow sharing the surname.
The Bugatti Autorail. A unique attraction was “the sole-surviving T41 Royale-powered Bugatti Autorail train,” trucked in from the Cité du Train museum in Mulhouse.
The Bugatti Autorail. This and other images from Classic & Sports Car. See also “Bugatti Railcars.”
Family Art. I learned from the C&SC article that Ettore’s grandfather Giovanni was an architect. By the way, he is Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, not to be confused Giovanni Battista Bugatti, the pope’s executioner from 1796 to 1864.
Above, Rembrandt’s animal bronzes are highly regarded. Below, Carlo’s Art Nouveau furniture had strong Moorish influence and displays remarkable workmanship.
Ettore’s father Carlo and brother Rembrandt are rather more well known. The Molsheim festival had an exhibition celebrating their work on display at Château Saint-Jean, Ettore’s estate used for entertaining prospective customers.
What a beautiful setting for displaying Bugattis.
Manuela Mateos Bugatti and a Borrowed Type 38 Grand Sport. C&SC quotes a Bugatti kin: “This is my first time taking part in the Festival and the first time I have driven the Type 38—and it’s not even my car! It belongs to my cousin, Caroline Bugatti [Ettore’s granddaughter], and Cyril Gautier, and they have let me drive it for the event. We are a convoy of three cars—it’s a real family affair.”
The Type 38 Grand Sport, with Manuela and daughters, left to right, Tess, Ela, and Anais.
Manuela says, “I remember sitting in them when I was a child, so this is really special. It’s so nice to be here as part of the Festival itself, and not just as a spectator.”
1926 Type 40 Roadster, Michel and Monique Bugatti. C&SC recounts, “Michel Bugatti’s father was the legendary Ettore himself. Born in 1945, just two years before the great man’s passing, to Ettore’s second wife Geneviève, Michel was Ettore’s third son and the youngest of his six children.”
Michel and Monique and their Type 40.
“I’ve always loved Bugattis,” Michel tells C&SC, “We spent a lot of time in them when I was young and my parents had a Type 40 when I was a child, which became my first.”
“Before this car we had a Type 44 Grand Sport, which I sold to buy this factory-bodied roadster. The Type 40 is a great car, with a small engine and based on the Brescia, which is short so it’s very compact and agile.”
Of the Festival Michel recounts, “It’s a great event, with beautiful roads and locations, and for us it’s a family gathering [daughter Caroline was parked alongside in her T43].”
Yes, really a family affair. And come to think of it, a Type 44 Grand Sport was the first sports car in which I ever rode. Thanks, C&SC, for continuing to rekindle great memories. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024
Simanaitis Says 
At the risk of being a heretic, we recall an article in the Classic Car Club of America quarterly by a lifelong Bugattist citing “porous castings” and other maladies. Ettore Bugatti drove a Packard Eight on long, fast business trips.
My only experience behind the wheel was the postwar Type 57 continuation, a fully fettled Type 101, which felt like an expensive pile of parts. A multiple Cord-owning mechanic/machinist friend reported the same feeling from driving a well done Type 57.
Am sure the road Bugattis had a lithe feel at high speed, but perhaps to a lesser extent than Ferrari’s street cars, built to fund racing?
Certainly Bugattis were, like Duesenberg Js, well crafted, but we get the impression many regurgitate lore, legend, myth, perhaps oft overrate both marques? The Type 101 owner, having also a stream of Delahayes, Delage, Lagonda Rapide V-12, Hispano K6 and J12, Marmon 16, Auburn 8 & 12 speedsters, 1930s Horch and Maybach Zeppelin, Talbot-Lago, and a Type 57, said his Delahayes were better, more dependable. And Ralph Stein, who had experience with so many august names, said he preferred Alfa Romeos to Bugattis.
Hope i haven’t crushed any toes, but have always wanted perspective over one marque-itis fawning. Certainly Bugattis were fine jobs, but it’s always dicey to view such as fellow automobiles, not some celestial cut aboves.
I wonder whether this is a matter of “well-engineered” rather than well-manufactured? It’s always interesting to read reviews with some historical distance. I remember Peter Egan writing a rather unromantic remembrance of owning (or was it just fixing) a Jaguar E-type. Of course, some flaws can be viewed as lovable quirks, by a forgiving owner.
Exactamente, as Pookie the Lion oft replied to Soupy Sales. That, Phil, well sums it. Even as Laurence Pomeroy, who well knew of what he wrote, summed Rolls-Royce as “a triumph of craftsmanship over engineering,” and “a bloody good confidence trick.”
Happy New Year, all here gathered on this most thoughtful, factual, ranging site extant.
As I recall, the Mullen museum has a nice collection of Carlo’s and Rembrandt’s works on the second floor of their museum.
Yes, Bob, check out Bugatti Art at the Mullin and also the Bugatti Aeroplane, among other appearances at SimanaitisSays. Alas, reader Frank Barrett advises that the Mullin Automotive Museum is scheduled to close permanently on February 10, 2024.