Automobiles E Bugatti, Molsheim, Bas Rhin, France. 1909 - 1956

Before setting out to manufacture cars in his own name Ettore Bugatti had worked for De Dietrich, Mathis and Deutz after an apprenticeship with bicycle manufacturers Prinetti & Stucchi of Milan, Bugatti's home town.

The first car to bear the Bugatti name was the Type10, the prototype of which was built in the cellar of his house in Cologne. After parting company with Deutz towards the end of 1909 he rented an old dye factory at Molsheim in German Alsace where he started production of the Type 13 which was similar to the prototype but with the 4-cylinder engine enlarged to 1,327cc.

It was a conventional chassis with half-elliptic springs both ends and beam axles with shaft drive to the rear. The engine was more interesting having a single overhead camshaft operating the valves through curved tappets to the 8 valves. The cylinder was not detachable from the cylinder block.

Ettore Bugatti had previously worked with Ernest Friderich at Mathis and Deutz and so it was natural for him to rejoin Bugatti in 1909, after 2 years of military service, and then follow him to the new venture at Molsheim. Friderich was a good engineer and a competent racing driver and entered a little Type 13 Bugatti for the French, Grand Prix du Mans in 1911. Not only did it win it's class, but it was second overall to the 6-litre Fiat driven by Hemery. Racing continued to be a major feature of the marque Bugatti for the next 28 years.

The following year a small number of 5-litre cars with chain drive were made which were designated Type 18, but are better known by the name "Garros" after the famous aviator Roland Garros who was a friend of Ettore Bugatti. The engines of these cars, giving 100bhp, were the first Bugattis to have 3 valves per cylinder, a design feature that continued right up to the introduction of the twin overhead camshaft design on the Type 50. One of these "Garros" type cars was converted to shaft drive for Indianapolis in 1914. Roland Garros's own car, which still survives, was raced at Brooklands and known as "Black Bess". Two others have also survived.

Production of Bugatti cars before the outbreak of war in 1914 was about 345 in all.

Ettore Bugatti designed a small car of 855cc in 1911 with a conventional layout apart from having two concentric propeller shafts for the two speeds. It was, ultimately, made by Peugeot after the German firm of Wanderer turned it down. It was known as the "Bebe" Peugeot and 3,095 were made from1912 to 1914.

A few weeks before the war Ernest Friderich returned to France and joined the 8^th Artillery, whilst Ettore Bugatti went back to Milan with two racing cars, but before leaving they had removed and buried the camshafts from the other three 16 valve racing cars. The two racing cars Bugatti took to Italy were hidden in a cave which, unfortunately, was flooded. It was not until 1915 that they were recovered and taken to Paris where Bugatti had gone, with his family, to design and built aero engines for which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In August 1915 Friderich was recalled from the "front" to work alongside Bugatti before being sent to America to supervise the building of a V-16 aero engine to be made by Duesenburg.