From the archives of Bob Montgomery.
ETTORE BUGATTI: THE EARLY YEARS: Ettore Bugatti, the great car designer, was born into a family of artists at Milan on September 15th, 1881. His father, Carlo Bugatti was a renowned painter, sculptor, architect and silversmith. Ettore had a sister and a younger brother, Rembrandt. After his initial schooling, it was almost inevitable that Ettore should be sent to study at Brera Art Academy, where he specialised in sculpture under the direction of Prince Paul Troubetzkoi.
However, the young man bought a motor tricycle and learned to handle it with considerable aplomb. To the surprise of his family, the 17-year-old Ettore proposed that he leave the Academy and join the workshops of Messrs. Prinetti & Stucchi who were then manufacturing tricycles, as an unpaid apprentice.
The following year Ettore entered the Paris to Bourseaux race on a machine he had built in the workshops. At the end of the first day's racing at Poitiers Bugatti was in 66th place. Sadly, an encounter with a dog on the way to the following day's start forced his retirement. Ettore then set about designing a car with four engines! Although the car was built, it was not a success and when he appeared with drawings for an improved version, Prinetti & Stucchi declined to build the car, deciding instead to concentrate on sewing machines.
And so Ettore, now aged 18, got financial backing to produce the car himself. The result performed brilliantly and, aged 19, Ettore found himself at the head of the Bugatti-Gulinelli Motor Company. His car was awarded special medals at an international exhibition in Milan in 1902 and as a result Ettore was recruited as a designer by the De Dietrich Company, based at Niedebronn in Alsace.
One of his first tasks was to design a racing car for the 1903 Paris to Madrid Race. His design was sensational and allowed the driver to truly sit in the car rather than upon it.
The French State Mining Department - to whom all new designs had to be submitted - decided that this positioning of the driver rendered the car unsafe and refused to licence it for the race. It was a blow for Ettore who soon found himself on the move again. Partnerships with Hermes, Mantis and Deutz followed in quick succession over the next few years.
It was while working for Deutz that he produced a light car in the cellar under his house at Cologne. Ettore determined to manufacture this design under his own name and began to seek a location for a new factory. At Christmas 1909, ending his ties with Deutz, Ettore moved with his family to Molsheim where he established himself as a motor manufacturer in his own right.
Ettore determined that his first offering would be a light car, powered by an 8hp engine, with overhead valves and clean lines. The performance of Ettore's 'light' car was sensational and the orders which flowed served to establish the young motor manufacturer. From the start, Ettore turned his attention to motor racing as a way of publicising his products. At Le Mans in July 1911, the Bugatti - the smallest least powerful car in the event - sensationally took second place to the delight of the crowd.
When war came in 1914, Ettore attempted unsuccessfully to move his family out of German-controlled Alsace. Ernest Friderich, the Bugatti works racing driver, determined that the five racing cars then under construction should not fall into German hands, and had them dismantled and the parts wrapped in oiled paper and packed in boxes. They were then buried in the factory grounds where they remained undisturbed for the reminder of the war.
Meanwhile, through the intervention of his friend, Count Zeppelin, the Bugatti family crossed into Switzerland and thence into Italy before arriving at Paris in October 1914. There, Ettore established a drawing office at the Grand Hotel where he based himself for the remainder of the war designing and then overseeing the production of a double-eight 500 hp aircraft engine for the allies.