The little Frenchman with the big name
For a short time, Ettore Bugatti seriously considered that he should also offer a car to less well-heeled Frenchmen under his brand.
Presumably, the highly gifted car designer did not dream of lowering his demands on his idea of a car. Due to that fact it is no wonder that the planned small car turned out as very opulent for its vehicle class. Designed as a closed coupe version, the car offered space for two passengers which entered through gullwing doors. Perhaps he wanted to convey a sense of sitting in a well-known, noble and large Bugatti. The overall appearance and especially the striking radiator grille at the front underlined this characteristic, which was partly reminiscent of the Type Atlantic.
The small gull-winged car got the in-house type designation 68. The – presumably – only built copy of the mini-roadster dated to the year 1942.
Whether the ongoing war thwarted the plans of the small car is not certain. Just as well Ettore Bugatti could have lost interest in the project. But the general idea of a small car never really got out of his head.
Just two years later, in 1944, he devoted himself again to the construction of a “mini” Bugatti. This time, however, he designed a much simpler car – a small roadster. The small two-seater had no doors and no roof; not even a fabric top. The protruding fenders were much simpler designed than on the first vehicle of 1942, although the basic structure showed borrowings from the predecessor model. In Bugatti’s typology, taking the gullwing into account, the car got the designation 68B. However, this designation does not reveal whether Ettore Bugatti intended the production of both small cars or rejected the gullwing version.
