Ettore Bugatti, born in Milan in 1881, became fired with enthusiasm for the new-fangled pastime of motoring when, as a lad, he was allowed to ride the De Dion-Boulton tricycle. Ettore achieved the distinction of competing in his first race and getting a ‘works’ drive before his 17th birthday. Thus began a lifelong passion for racing that led him to design and build some of the most beautiful racing cars the world has ever seen. Bugatti’s racing history – told here fully for the first time in one volume – was a roller coaster of triumph and tragedy.

The racing successes, interrupted by the years of the First World War, carried through into the 1920s with the birth of the legendary Type 35, one of greatest racing cars of all time. Then, in the early 1930s, came the gradual decline, which was accelerated by the arrival of the mighty German teams and the politicising of grand prix racing. The battle for dominance, and also the record of the more humble Bugatti’s in sports car racing, is described, at times day by day, in absorbing detail. In the mid-1930s the marque’s fortunes revived for a while, with victories in the 1937 and 1939 Le Mans 24-hour race, but unhappily this recovery was not to last. Post War, the moment of glory had passed for Bugatti, but although attempts in the 1950s and again in the 1990s, to revive the marque’s racing fortunes, proved a disappointment, enthusiasts everywhere continue to revere the name of Bugatti.

Meticulously researched text is supported by a wealth of historic photographs.

Appendices detail the principal drivers and specifications of the main competition cars.

Hardback. 256 pages