The road to revival of the famous Bugatti name and the involvement of Giorgetto Giugiaro had many twists and turns and involved a wide range of characters. In the beginning, some time in the mid-1980s, there were three main players: Ferruccio Lamborghini, Jean-Marc Borel and Romano Artioli. Lamborghini, who was in retirement, needs no introduction having already created his own brand of supercars; enthusiasts of the marque would know the name Borel as the author of some books on Lamborghini and his cars. Borel’s daytime occupation was director of a French finance company.

It took some time and a great deal of negotiating—and money—to secure the rights to the Bugatti name, but by October 1987 Borel had registered Bugatti Automobili in Modena. To run the new enterprise and direct the engineering of the new car, ex-Lamborghini engineer Paolo Stanzani was recruited along with several colleagues who had been operating a consultancy. A site was selected to build a spectacular factory in the Emilian town of Campogalliano, a few kilometers out of Modena. Work on the site began in early 1988 with early layouts of the proposed new car beginning at around the same time.

It was to be a car at the leading edge of technology. Its specification seemed surreal at the time: all-alloy, midship, 3.5-liter dohc V12 engine with four turbochargers driving all four wheels through an in-house designed and built transmission system. Considerable input was sought from specialists in carbon fiber technology, aerodynamics and tires.

Artioli asked renowned freelance stylist Marcello Gandini—he had an enviable CV in designing supercars, the Lamborghini Diablo being among his designs—to design the new car’s body, a process that evolved through 1989 and into 1990. He never completed the design of the EB110 and the end result is a little challenging aesthetically if you wanted to be super-critical.

Giugiaro was well aware of the activities at Campogalliano and was looking for an opportunity to design his version of what the forthcoming Bugatti could look like. A set of engineering drawings was provided by Artioli and in mid-1989 Giugiaro sat at his drawing board and sketched what became the ID90 concept car.

Read more about Giugiaro's Bugattis
Volume 46 Number 2