After the death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947 the company he founded that bore his name struggled on in it’s original incarnation for another 5 years.

During that time the original Type 73C and parts for a further four vehicles of the same type were kept in storage.

A new road car the Type 101, the protoype for which was based on a Type 57 chassis was manufactured from 1951 to 1952. Five Type 101 vehicles appear to have been completed before the factory shut down, a further two Type 57’s were converted to Type 101’s at owners request.

There was a brief Bugatti resurgence in 1955 and Gioacchino Colombo better known for his designs for Ferrari, designed an unusual Formula One car with a transverse mounted straight 8 motor behind the driver.

Maurice Trintignant drove the Type 251 for 18 uncompetitive laps in the 1956 French Grand Prix before Bugatti name went into a hiberantion so far as road and racing cars were concerned for 30 years.

A sixth Bugatti Type 101 chassis had a body designed by Virgil Exner that was built and fitted by Ghia in 1965.

In 1987 Italian Romano Artioli acquired the Bugatti road car brand from French Aerospace manufacturer Snecma and built a new factory in Campogalliano, Italy to build a new model.

The protoype EB110 GT was designed by Marcello Gandini while
Giampaolo Benedini was responsible for the final design that was launched on the 15th September 1991, the 110th Anniversary of Ettore Bugatti’s birth.

The EB110 GT is powered by a 5 valve 3.5 litre / 213 cui quad turbocharged V12 motor with 5 valves per cylinder, that’s 60 in all (!), producing over 550 hp.

Performance for the EB110 GT is said to include a rest to 62.5 mph time of 4.2 seconds and top speed in excess of 210 mph.

It is believed just 95 EB110 GT models were built between 1991 and 1995 when Bugatti Automobiles SpA, where former Ferrari engineer Mauro Forghieri was serving as technical director, went under.

Thanks for joining me on this “110th Anniversary Edition” of “Gettin’ a li’l psychoontyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !