The Bugatti marque has a long and interesting history going back to the original Automobiles Ettore Bugatti founded in France in 1909. Since then, Bugatti badged cars have been made in Italy before being bought by the Volkswagen Audi group to make the Veyron and Chiron models most people recognize today.
Bugatti has never made a motorcycle. Over the course of the last century, Bugatti has made many different kinds of vehicles from sleek sedans to racing airplanes to hypercars, but Bugatti has never produced a two-wheeled vehicle.
Bugatti’s design aesthetic is very compatible with the spirit of the motorcycle. A Google search will reveal many artists’ impressions of what a Bugatti motorcycle might look have looked like had any of the marque’s owners over the last century decided to go down that route.
What has Bugatti made?
All car aficionados will be very familiar with the art deco masterpieces of design produced by Ettore in the 1930s in France, arguably the most stylish nation on the planet right behind Italy. Cars such as the Type 41 Royale, the Type 46, and the insanely rare Type 57SV Atlantic completely epitomize the era with long hoods and sumptuous flared arches.
Bugatti also had great success on the race tracks of the 1920s. Bugatti racing cars reached the podiums in most major races between 1925 and 1930, and the Bugatti Type 35 even won the first-ever Monaco Grand Prix.
Not satisfied with speed on the ground, Ettore Bugatti took on the Germans by trying to win the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize. Although it never actually flew, the Bugatti 100P is a stunning airplane that looks fast just standing still.
A more successful project for Ettore was the development of the Autorail Bugatti, a rail engine and carriage which used a car engine to propel itself along the tracks. Despite only being made to sell off surplus car engines from a failed automobile, the project was a success in its own right.
After the creative diversity of Ettore Bugatti, subsequent owners were more conservative in their ambitions for the marque and stuck to building supercars and then hypercars.
Which supercar marques have made motorcycles?
Most supercar manufacturers, with the exception of McLaren, have dabbled with motorcycles at some point in their history. Porsche stuck to making engines for Harley-Davidson, but the others all produced a two-wheeled machine with varying degrees of success.
Lotus had already achieved great success in the bicycle world when it revealed the Lotus C-01 in 2013, which achieved modest sales of only a hundred or so units. The front forks of the bike are strikingly similar to the Lotus 108 pursuit bicycle, as is the carbon-fiber bodywork that wraps the engine in an aerodynamic shell.
In 1995, Ferrari also put their prancing pony on a motorcycle but it was built by David Kay of Britain’s MV Agusta who had asked special permission to build a custom motorcycle in tribute to the recently deceased legend Enzo Ferrari. The one-off custom bike was built from Reynolds 531 steel tubing and was designed in homage to the Testarossa of the time.
Lamborghini, having fallen on hard times despite the success of the Countach, created the Design 50 in 1986 in the hope of reaching new markets when the company came under the control of sugar magnates Jean-Claude and Patrick Mimran rescued the company in 1981. The motorcycle was criticized for looking too much like the Ducati 750 Paso nearly as much as it was for the $10,000 price tag which was perhaps the reason why only six were ever made.
Should Bugatti make a motorcycle?
Bugatti would be treading in well-worn footsteps were they to venture into the world of two-wheeled supersport. Undoubtedly, the VAG group has the funds and the technological capability to produce a truly awesome motorcycle.
Motorcycles, however powerful and technologically brilliant, are always going to be cheaper than a Bugatti hypercar by at least two zeroes, so it is plausible that speed-hungry Chiron owners might add a baby sister to the stable.
However, the middle-aged men who buy hypercars may well think their days riding two-wheeled pocket rockets is behind them. So while motorcycles are very popular with men in their 40s and 50s, they are likely to be drawn to comfortable cruisers more than to the head-down sportbike Bugatti would release.
Given that no supercar manufacturer has succeeded in making motorcycles in the last fifty years, it seems Bugatti would be wise to stick to the four-wheeled machines they know best.