50 years down the road, a car manufacturer once again

In 1956, the final attempts had failed, in the wake of the death of the company’s founder in 1947 – preceded in death in 1939 by his son Jean, with whom he collaborated – to keep the substantially weakened company alive. After 47 years’ production, in the course of which 7,950 Bugattis of models 13 through 251 had been manufactured, the gates to the Bugatti factory in Molsheim were forced to close

Today, nearly 50 years later to the day, the production of Bugatti automobiles is resuming, making Molsheim once again the hub of the Bugatti world. As a centre for reminiscence, this picturesque, small city near Strasbourg has never lost its significance. The area’s “Enthusiasts Bugatti Alsace”, together with their friends in the various Bugatti clubs throughout the entire world, are in large measure responsible for keeping the brand alive over the decades – even in the absence of the product itself. This is an experience in which various other prestigious automobile brands with melodious names have not shared

It is in this fact that the strength of the Bugatti brand values is expressed most clearly. The admiration for “art on wheels”, the cool achievement of the aesthetic tenacity of Ettore Bugatti was a man who was first and foremost an artist, not a technician. The grandeur of the victories in the glorious years of dirt-encrusted heroes on the racecourses of this world and, not least, the suitability of these racing cars for everyday driving – the latter is what made Bugatti cars accessible to a broader clientele. The prestige of inspired design and the exclusiveness of individual models that helped catapult certain Bugatti models into the astronomical price classes