11 May 2015

Bugatti Type 13 Bugatti was a genius. He was a clever engineer but also built some of the most beautiful cars ever made. The Type 13 was the first production car he built. It was based on a car he crafted by hand and hauled his family around in for years. In 1910 he made five of these cars and entered the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in 1911. The tiny pedal-car like Bugatti looked odd on the starting grid but took second place after seven hours of racing. World War I put a halt on production. Bugatti moved his family to Milan and took two of the cars with him. The story goes that he buried the parts for three more cars near his factory and returned after the war to recover them. He then resumed the serious business of racing and the success of this little car put Ettore Bugatti on the road to fame and fortune.