Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
About Jean Bugatti
- Jean Bugatti (15 January 1909 – 11 August 1939) was a French automotive designer and test engineer.Born Gianoberto Maria Carlo Bugatti in Cologne, he 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. 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 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 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 twin-cam engine applications. He frequently tested the company's prototypes.
- On 11 August 1939, while testing the 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 hitting a cyclist, who had got onto the track through a hole in a treefence.
- 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.
Read more at Wikipedia
See Also
- Famous People's Birthdays on 15 January, Germany
- Famous People's Birthdays in January, Germany
- Famous People's Birthdays on 15 January, France
- Famous People's Birthdays in January, France
- Famous mechanical engineer's Birthdays on 15 January, Germany
- Famous mechanical engineer's Birthdays in January, Germany
- Famous racing automobile driver's Birthdays on 15 January, Germany
- Famous racing automobile driver's Birthdays in January, Germany
- Famous car designer's Birthdays on 15 January, Germany
- Famous car designer's Birthdays in January, Germany
- Famous mechanical engineer's Birthdays on 15 January, France
- Famous mechanical engineer's Birthdays in January, France
- Famous racing automobile driver's Birthdays on 15 January, France
- Famous racing automobile driver's Birthdays in January, France
- Famous car designer's Birthdays on 15 January, France
- Famous car designer's Birthdays in January, France