Editing Jean Bugatti

{{short description|Automotive designer and test engineer (1909–1939)}}
{{Refimprove|date=May 2007}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Jean Bugatti
| image              = Jean Bugatti 1932.jpg
| caption            = Bugatti in 1932
| birth_name         = Gianoberto Maria Carlo Bugatti
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1909|1|15|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Cologne]], Germany
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1939|8|11|1909|1|15|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Duppigheim]], France
| death_cause        = [[Car accident]]
| resting_place      = [[Dorlisheim]], France
| occupation         = Engineer, car designer and test driver
| years_active       = 1926–1939
| parents            = {{ubl | [[Ettore Bugatti]] | Barbara Bugatti }}
}}

'''Jean Bugatti'''  (''[[Birth name|né]]'' '''Gianoberto Maria Carlo Bugatti'''; 15 January 1909 – 11 August 1939) was a French automotive designer and test engineer for [[Bugatti]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jean Bugatti |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Jean-Bugatti/6000000085755688904 |access-date=1 January 2021 |website=geni_family_tree |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Double 110th Birthday for Bugatti |url=https://www.bugatti.com/media/news/2019/double-110th-birthday-for-bugatti/ |access-date=1 January 2021 |website=www.bugatti.com |language=en |archive-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120111044/https://www.bugatti.com/media/news/2019/double-110th-birthday-for-bugatti/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Moda |first=Scuderia |title=Information about Jean Bugatti from historicracing.com |url=https://www.historicracing.com/driverDetail.cfm?driverID=2088 |access-date=1 January 2021 |website=www.historicracing.com}}</ref> He was the son of Bugatti's founder [[Ettore Bugatti]].

== Biography ==
[[File:Bugatti Type 41 Royale Esders 001.jpg|thumb|left|Bugatti standing next to the ''Royale Esders Roadster'' prototype in 1932]]
Born in [[Cologne]], Jean Bugatti was the eldest son of [[Ettore Bugatti]]. Soon after his birth the family moved to the village of [[Dorlisheim]] near [[Molsheim]] in [[Alsace]], Germany, where his father built the new Bugatti automobile manufacturing plant. Born into a family of creative people, from boyhood he was interested in his father's business. His grandfather [[Carlo Bugatti]] had lived in France for several years when he relocated from his native [[Milan]] to live in [[Paris]]. The Bugatti family were multilingual and in France, Gianoberto became known as Jean.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Oagana |first=Alex |date=13 September 2020 |title=Ettore Bugatti: A Royale Story |url=https://www.autoevolution.com/news/ettore-bugatti-a-royale-story-2934.html |access-date=1 January 2021 |website=autoevolution |language=en}}</ref>

During [[World War I]], the family lived in Milan, Italy. After the ceding of Alsace by Germany to France after the end of the war in 1919, the company became subject to French jurisdiction. By the late 1920s, young Jean Bugatti was an integral part of the company and had already demonstrated his vehicle design abilities. In 1932, at the age of twenty-three years, he did most of the design for the company's [[Bugatti Royale|Type 41 Royale]]. His body designs complemented his father's engineering skill, making Bugatti one of the greatest names in automobile manufacturing. Additionally, Jean Bugatti designed four bodies for the [[Bugatti Type 57|Type 57]], the Ventoux, Stelvio, Atalante and Atlantic models. Regarded as the finest of all the Bugatti touring models, the supercharged Bugatti 57 was debuted at the 1936 Paris Salon. Jean Bugatti also showed his engineering skills by working on new independent suspension systems to replace solid front axles and on twin-cam engine applications.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />

He frequently tested the company's prototypes. On 11 August 1939, while testing the [[Bugatti Type 57#Type 57S Tank|Type 57 tank-bodied racer]] which had just won the [[24 Hours of Le Mans]] race that year, not far from the factory on the road near the village of [[Duppigheim]], 30-year-old Jean Bugatti was killed when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree, after avoiding a cyclist.<ref>{{cite book |title=Bugatti, The Man and the Marque |last=Wood |first=Jonathan |publisher=The Crowood Press |isbn=978-1-85223-364-8 |year=1992 |page=332}}</ref> He is interred in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim. There is a monument to him at the site of his accident.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=80 years ago – Bugatti wins 24 Hours of Le Mans |url=https://www.bugatti.com/media/news/2019/80-years-ago/ |access-date=1 January 2021 |website=www.bugatti.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Savage |first=Mark |date=5 January 2018 |title=Die-cast: Ixo’s 1937 Bugatti Type 57G Le Mans winner |url=https://savageonwheels.com/2018/01/05/die-cast-ixos-1937-bugatti-type-57g-le-mans-winner/ |access-date=1 January 2021 |website=Savage On Wheels |language=en}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}{{Bugatti}}{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bugatti, Jean}}
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:1939 deaths]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Cologne]]
[[Category:Expatriates in Italy]]
[[Category:German automobile designers]]
[[Category:Bugatti people]]
[[Category:German automotive pioneers]]
[[Category:Road incident deaths in France]]
[[Category:20th-century German businesspeople]]