Description
When, in 1987, Romano Artioli and his high-profile associates – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Paolo Stanzani and Jean-Marc Borel – decided to reincarnate Bugatti, one of the most famous automotive marques of all time, they had in Ferruccio Lamborghini, Paolo Stanzani and design legend Marcello Gandini, three of the most prominent names in the Italian supercar firmament, suggesting a bright future for the marque.
Eight years later, Artioli’s dream was over. Bankruptcy was declared, the factory was closed, and the beautiful campus reduced to a ghost building. Not even a decade had passed between the first germs of an idea and the end in 1995, yet there are enough ingredients for an exciting action-filled story: discord, rivalry, pride, power, money, prestige, stars, crises and a dramatic end.
What happened? Why did it happen? Bugatti: The Italian Decade answers all that and more.
400 pages
Hard cover with dust jacket
219mm x 304mm (portrait format)
790 images
Author: Gautam Sen
Internationally acknowledged as the leading automotive journalist and writer in India, having founded the country’s first newsstand car magazine Indian Auto in 1986, Gautam Sen also launched Auto India in 1993, which became India’s best-selling car magazine ever. Later he also launched the Indian editions of auto motor and sport and BBC’s TopGear magazine. Since 2007 Sen has been back in the driver’s seat at Auto India and has been dividing his time between Paris, where his family lives, and Mumbai.
Though less publicized, Sen has also been directly involved with the automobile industry in India and Europe, beginning with his first automotive job at Maruti Udyog Limited, India’s leading carmaker, and then subsequently consulting at various levels in the areas of technology, design, product development, marketing and joint ventures, and in the process, interacting with the likes of Hero Motors, Hindustan Motors, Ideal Jawa, Mahindra & Mahindra, San Motors, Tata Motors, and TVS-Suzuki. Sen also lead the design and development of India’s first sports car, the San Storm.
Whilst working on design and development projects, Sen has worked with eminent designers such as Gerard Godfroy, Tom Tjaarda and Marcello Gandini.
Sen has authored several critically acclaimed books on automobiles: The Maharajas & Their Magnificent Motor Cars (published in French by E.T.A.I., in English by Haynes Publishing and in German by Heel), The Car Design Book, Rolls-Royce 17EX A Fabulous Destiny, and A Million Cars for a Billion People, other than co-authoring The Story of the Star in India and The Royal Udaipur RR GLK 21.
