Manufacturers  /  Bugatti

Bugatti

Molsheim, France · est. 1909

Three production eras, each defined by low-volume engineering.

Models
14
Top value
€40M
Period
1909–
Explore modelsManufacturer profile
Bugatti — manufacturer stage

Curated entry points

The essential Bugattis

Three cars that explain the manufacturer: its origins, its engineering peak and the shape of its modern ambition.

1924–1930

Type 35

The most successful racing car ever — thousands of wins.

Collectibility
95 / 100
Indicative value
€3.5M
1936–1938

Type 57 SC Atlantic

Riveted-spine coupé, four built — the holy grail.

Collectibility
100 / 100
Indicative value
€40M
2005–2015

Veyron 16.4

1,001 hp W16 — the first road car past 400 km/h.

Collectibility
92 / 100
Indicative value
€1.8M

Complete catalogue

Every Bugatti on file

14 models · 3 families

Vintage · Type Era

5

The cars Ettore Bugatti built in Molsheim between the wars — the dominant Grand Prix Type 35, the impossible Royale, and the Type 57 family crowned by the Atlantic. The very top of the vintage market.

Modern Hyper-GT

4

The line that brought the name back — from the Campogalliano EB110 to the W16 era of Veyron and Chiron, and on to the Tourbillon. Each one the fastest, most extreme road car of its day.

Coachbuilt & One-offs

5

The Chiron-era specials built in tiny runs or for a single client — track weapons, design tributes and the great one-offs. By definition the rarest cars Molsheim makes.

The house

Three production eras, each defined by low-volume engineering.

Ettore Bugatti built cars the way a jeweller sets stones — every casting finished by hand, every line drawn for beauty before function. From the little Molsheim works came the Type 35, the most successful racing car of its era, and the colossal Type 41 Royale, of which only six were ever made.

The Type 57 SC Atlantic is the high-water mark: a riveted-spine coupé of which just four were built, and the car most often called the most valuable in the world. When the original company faded after the war, the name carried a weight no successor could ignore.

Volkswagen reinvented Bugatti for the modern age with the Veyron — a 1,001 hp, quad-turbo W16 that rewrote what a road car could do — and the Chiron that followed. Today, under Rimac, the marque builds the Tourbillon and a stream of coachbuilt one-offs that sell out before they are shown.

Founded
1909
Ettore Bugatti established the company in Molsheim; the first car bearing his name followed in 1910.
Historic output
7,950 cars
Bugatti gives this total for Types 13 through 251 before the original factory closed in 1956.
Engineering priority
Low mass through integration
The 1924 Type 35 combined a cast-aluminium wheel, removable rim and brake drum to reduce unsprung mass.
2020 auction result
£9.535 million
Gooding sold the 1934 Type 59 Sports at its Passion of a Lifetime auction.

Selected milestones

A bloodline, not a list.

  1. 1909

    The Molsheim company

    Ettore Bugatti establishes his own automobile company in Molsheim.

  2. 1924

    Type 35

    The new Grand Prix car debuts at Lyon with cast-aluminium wheels and integrated brake drums.

  3. 1934

    A common Type 57 base

    Jean Bugatti consolidates the road-car range around one base model offered with different engines and bodies.

  4. 1991

    The Campogalliano return

    The EB110 brings the name back to production with a carbon monocoque, quad-turbo V12 and all-wheel drive.

  5. 2005

    Veyron production begins

    The 1,001 PS Veyron enters production at the new Molsheim Atelier after recording 407 km/h.

  6. 2024

    A V16 hybrid platform

    The Tourbillon is unveiled with a naturally aspirated 8.3-litre V16 and three electric motors in place of the W16 platform.

What defines Bugatti

Reduce mass at the component

The Type era used hollow axles and integrated wheels; the EB110 and modern cars use carbon structures.

Keep performance road-usable

The road cars combine high-speed engineering with the cooling, braking and cabin requirements of sustained road use.

Build finite series

Limited production and detailed factory configuration make exact identity central to collecting the later cars.

The hands

Who drew and built the Bugatti files

One name in the register stands behind this manufacturer. Their own file follows the work wherever it went.

The whole register of people

The mark

Sixty pearls, one oval.

Molsheim, 1909: Ettore Bugatti fixes an enamelled oval to the radiator of the Type 13, his first car under his own name. The design is family work — his father Carlo, celebrated maker of Art Nouveau furniture and jewellery, is its presumed hand, and it shows: sixty pearls set around a red oval, the reversed-E-and-B monogram above the name.

No badge in the industry is more literally jewellery: today’s macaron is struck in solid 970 sterling silver by a Bavarian mint. Through five owners and a half-century pause, the oval itself has barely changed.

Attributed to Carlo Bugatti, 1909 — the founder’s father

Bugatti crest, 1909–1963

1909–1963

The macaron: red oval, sixty pearls, the reversed-E monogram above the name.

Bugatti crest, 1963–2007

1963–2007

New owners, same badge — proportions tightened, the monogram enlarged.

Bugatti crest, 2007–2015

2007–2015

The Veyron era: deeper crimson, a cooler rim, more compact type.

Bugatti crest, 2015–2022

2015–2022

Rendered as metal — silver rim, gradients, the pearls cut through.

Bugatti crest, 2022–

2022–

Interbrand flattens the macaron for the Rimac era; the oval itself stays put.