The house of Bugatti is known for producing some of the fastest, most exclusive cars of all time. Iconoclastic founder Ettore Bugatti was born to a family of sculptors and architects in Milan. Rather than follow in his famous father’s footsteps, Ettore brought the family aesthetic to designing engines and racing vehicles. By 1900, when he was 19, Ettore had already built his first car, and went on to work as a designer for a series of European automobile manufacturers. In 1907, while working for Deutz in Cologne, Ettore built a small car with a four-cylinder, eight-valve 1208 cc engine and shaft drive in his basement apartment on his days off. The “Pur Sang” - or Pure Blood - would become the prototype for the cars he was to build when he resigned from Deutz in 1909 to open his own business in an old dye works at Molsheim, in the Alsace region of France.

In the early years, Bugatti earned a reputation for advanced engineering, despite Ettore’s lack of formal training, becoming the first manufacturer to design racing cars as an entire concept, rather than treating chassis and body separately. Only five cars were built in the company’s first year, but by 1911, Bugatti began its domination of Grand Prix racing, winning the first ever Monaco Grand Prix. Ettore shut down his factory and retreated to Paris to design aircraft engines during the First World War, returning to Mosheim in 1918 with renewed vigor for racing. The legendary eight-cylinder Type 35 was introduced in 1924, and went on to become the most successful race car of all time, a record which still holds today.

Jay would love to add a Type 35 to his collection, but they’re pretty hard to find, since only 96 of the cars were made. In fact, only about 7,900 Bugattis were produced during Ettore’s lifetime, of which about 2,000 still exist. Jay’s 37A was a more affordable option for consumers in the 1920s, offering the Type 35’s Grand Prix winning chassis and transmission for road car money. Hand built, this two-seater features Bugatti’s distinctive horseshoe shaped radiator in German silver, and the body hangs on the car with a complex safety wire system. The 37A’s four-cylinder, 90 hp, 1500 cc, Rootes-supercharged engine still gets up to 122 mph. Considering that its contemporary, the Model T, had an engine that was double the size, but only clocked about 42 mph, Bugatti’s reputation as an automotive genius is easy to see.