Description

Bugatti is a name that all car enthusiasts know, probably mostly for all the legendary cars from before and after the Second World War. But all cars developed by the company’s founder Ettore Bugatti had a type number, so somewhere early in history there must have been a ’Type 1’, which was the foundation stone for everything that followed. But when was it from and what did it look like?

Let’s go back hundred and fifty years, when in 1874 two enterprising gentlemen founded the company ’Prinetti e Stucchi’ in Milan, to produce machine parts. Soon after, they started making parts for vehicles, and eventually entire vehicles, such as trains and bicycles. They also acquired a license to build the French De Dion Bouton tricycle for the Italian market.

The company had a young apprentice named Ettore Bugatti, who soon became noticed for his good ideas and understanding of technical components and their functions.

When the newly started Italian Automobile Club organized a race in Reggio Emilia in 1899, Ettore was allowed to participate on one of the company’s tricycles. He ended up fitting two engines to the vehicle and made quite a few other modifications. The finished three-wheeler was dubbed ’Type 1’ (Bugatti Type 1). Won three out of four races.

In addition to Ettore Bugatti, there were quite a few names among the 90 registered participants, who in the following years would become quite well known. There was Giovanni Agnelli and Carlo Biscaretti, who later founded FIAT, or the Prince of Borghese, who would win the famous Peking-Paris rally. They were all left in the dust by the 17-year-old Ettore Bugatti.

That same year he used his Type 1 in three other races, of which he won two and finished second in the third. He then concentrated on four-wheelers, the first of which was called ’Type 2’.