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Bugatti Study Centre

A Type 35 Bugatti. This image is copyright free

Ettore Bugatti built racing cars and luxury road cars in the early part of the twentieth century. While Bugatti is remembered for his engineering achievements, he can also be seen as a reaction against the industrial age. Carlo, Ettore's father was an artist and furniture maker, heavily influenced by John Ruskin. Ruskin was a leading figure in the nineteenth century Arts and Crafts movement, which set itself against mass production and machine made artifacts. Autocar's W.F. Bradley visited the Bugatti factory at Molsheim in 1929 and said: "John Ruskin's soul would have been delighted at the example of Bugatti." (Quoted in Bugatti, The Man and the Marque by Jonathon Wood)

Although machine tools were being used to help build the cars, traditional skills and local craftsmen were also important. Bugatti's desire to largely hand build small numbers of cars found its natural outlet in motor racing. Bugatti offered racing cars for sale in 1924. The Type 35 Bugatti was the mainstay of European motor racing 1926 - 1931. Bugatti also supplied the market in luxury cars, for all those people who thought they were too important for mass produced vehicles. This, in reality, is what the hand build philosophy of Ruskin and Bugatti meant. "Hand built" may have had the image of good honest craftsmen producing products in a humane way for honest sale, when in fact goods produced in this way were only affordable by the rich. The fundamental benefit of standardisation and mass production, was to make quality products available to people on modest incomes. The use of mass production techniques eventually made its way even into the limited preserve of motor racing where Bugatti had, for a while, held a monopoly. Henry Miller, for example, was well known for hand building racing engines in the United States between the wars. Miller was an individualist and a perfectionist, but Miller showed his desire for quality in the standardisation of machine tooled parts. According to Griffith Borgeson, "interchangeability of parts compared favourably with the passenger car field" (quoted in Automobile Design ed Barton and Harding, P218). Bugatti himself felt these contradictions. Although he was at heart a hand-build specialist, he produced in partnership with Peugeot, the ancestor of today's small cars for people on a budget, the Bebe Peugeot. This car sold well between 1913 and 1916.

Bugatti was the John Ruskin of car making, and he illustrates many of the tensions and confusions that continue to surround ideas of mass production today. The Bugatti Study Centre near Cheltenham would be a good place to learn more. The collection here includes cars, models, engineering drawings, components, documents and photographs. By prior arrangement informal talks with slides can be provided.

 

 

Address: Bugatti Study Centre, Prescott Hill, Gotherington, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 9RD

Opening Times: Monday to Friday, 10am - 4pm.

Directions: The Bugatti Study Centre is a few miles north of Cheltenham at Prescott Hill, off the B4632. Click here for an interactive map centred on Bugatti Study Centre

Access: No information available.

Contact:

telephone: 01242 677201

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