Bugatti Supercars

A Century of Genius

Lance Cole

In a fresh view of Bugatti, this book frames the design highlights of a series of Bugatti supercars that colour the marque's journey from its origins as an early 'supercar' to its reborn reality as a modern 'hypercar'. These Bugatti's have been chosen to tell a story that uniquely covers the original Bugatti's and the very latest iterations of Bugatti.

Joining the two Bugatti camps, old and new, together creates a new roadmap of Bugatti coverage that is essential reading for both those familiar with the marque and for more recent Bugatti enthusiasts across a wider motoring landscape. Blending engineering, styling, art and more, Bugatti's unique story has stretched over one hundred years, giving us cars that capture the soul through exquisite engineering and design.

Illustrated with stunning photographs, many of which are previously unpublished, the seasoned enthusiast, the established aficionado and the younger generation of Bugatti newcomers are provided with an up-to-date album of Bugatti information. The text is a guide by which to enter and explore Bugatti and also a conversation about Bugatti details and delights for those with deeper knowledge of the marque.

About the Author
Having trained in art, photography, and industrial, interior and automotive design, Lance Cole switched to writing (as the 1983 Sir William Lyons Scholar) and has subsequently spent over thirty years writing about design, cars, and aircraft for many transport publications. He has also worked as a news and geo-political reporter worldwide for major newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The South China Morning Post, and has also run PR for some famous names and academic bodies. After a period in broadcast media, his passion remains art and design and studying Bugatti. A Bugatti Trust member and Bugatti Owners Club member, with a total of over 20 published books. His interests include gliding, horse riding, painting, photography and travelling in Africa and the Australian Outback.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd
• 28 x 22 cm, 192 pages
• To appear December 2024
• Hardback €53,95
• ISBN-10: 0719843723, ISBN-13: 978-0719843723
• More info

Review

At first glance the book's well illustrated with a choice of interesting Bugatti's and many photographs, mostly new. And, when I read compliments on my efforts in: "The amazing story... , nor would it be sustained today without the owners, the Bugatti Owners' Club, Bugantics, the web-based Bugatti Pages, the wonderful Bugatti Revue and, of course, the utterly essential Bugatti Trust, ...", I start appreciating the book, naturally.

However, when Mr. Cole starts comparing the orginal Ettore and Jean Bugattis with the newer models, especially the Veyron and Chiron, he stops being believable (though more than one time he writes that everybody is entitled to seeing things differently from him). Comparing the new Bugatti's with classic ones, and stating that their design philosophy is largely the same, in fact that they possess an equally defining ethos, that's where Mr. Cole really doesn't see the real picture of what the original Bugatti's were about: They were about driving FUN, through lightness, exactness in steering and control, and of course sufficient power. The modern Bugattis are really not about lightness, and I doubt if the driving fun will be the same. And; they do not have sufficient power. Yes, they have sufficient power for a train locomotive, but for an automobile it is way too much to really have FUN, except for when accelerating in a straight line. And yes, I know they are brilliantly engineered and their steering has been designed in such a way that you have maximum control.

In that respect, the real successor to the Bugattis was the EB110, much better than a Centodieci, and useable in real life. I'm afraid that the new Bugattis are indeed celebrity footballers' ego trips (as Cole states, though he adds that they are much more), despite all their exquisite engineering and design. The classic Bugatti's were also more affordable in their day (for some that was only second- or third-hand, and I'm still talking of the 1920's and '30s), than the Veyron, Chiron and Tourbillon are or ever will be.

As an expert it may be that it is not fair to Mr. Cole, who wrote this book mostly for the general public and not for the Bugattiste and less so for the Bugatti expert, but the book is really full with errors. Type numbers switched (though I must admit that the Bugatti type numbers are a chaos when looking at them in detail), technology and history errors and much more. The book would have benefitted by a thorough review by a marque expert. Maybe something for a 2nd edition? Because, even when a Bugatti book is ment for the general automobile lover, it still should be without errors!