Bugatti versus Ferrari, contrasts and similarities

Owning an authentic Bugatti or Ferrari is highly desirable and in recent years has led to a huge increase in the value of cars from both brands.
Unfortunately, some people want them so badly that large numbers of replicas are being built.

In the case of Bugatti, there are now presumably more cars driving around than were ever built by the factory, and recently the famous Ferrari GTO model fetched more than twice what Henry Ford is said to have wanted to pay for the entire Ferrari factory back in the 1960s!

Nowadays, the brands Bugatti (owned by Volkswagen) and Ferrari (owned by Fiat) are viewed differently. Both brands belong to the top segment of the market in terms of technology and image. The same can be said about their purchase price.

When both brands were still independent, the qualities mentioned partly applied as well. Just look at the engine blocks, for example; they are a sight to behold. The Bugatti engine is recognizable by its very clean and beautifully finished appearance, while the Ferrari power unit radiates sheer power. The story that the 'horses' of the Ferrari engine were really just foals has been disproved by its racing performance. In the Louwman Museum you can see an experimental four cylinder engine with a capacity of 3 liters, designed by Lampredi.

Car racing is also something that has brought Bugatti great fame, albeit in an earlier era than Ferrari. In both cases, the sale of 'normal' cars partly served to finance the racing division.

The use of cars in competition at race level is generally believed to have positive long term effects on production cars. This is indeed true. Many features that are now standard in modern cars have their origins in motor racing.

If you look closely at the technical development of the Bugatti and Ferrari brands, you can see that these brands pursued completely opposite strategies. We will leave open whether or not this was done consciously. At Bugatti, it was mainly the suspension and, to a lesser extent, the engines of the cars that did not undergo the same development seen elsewhere. These components of the racing car were actually old fashioned (rigid axles and limited progress in engine technology). As a result, the production cars gradually changed from truly sporty cars into what we would now call Grand Tourismos. At Ferrari, it was especially the engines that were famous. The chassis were certainly good, but sometimes not of a quality to make optimal use of the available horsepower. This led to Ferrari production cars gaining the reputation of being more or less disguised racing cars.

In terms of styling there are of course clear differences. To this day the authentic Bugattis are beautiful to look at, but the styling is in a certain sense limited by the radiator. Ettore Bugattis love of horses can be found in all Bugattis through its shape, a horseshoe. This determines the shape of the hood, even when the car was fitted with a body by a third party such as Gangloff, who built many bodies for Bugatti. Another aspect was the brakes. This not unimportant component was something about which Bugatti had the following to say: Cars are made to drive, not to brake, end quote.

Bugatti T35 with distinctive radiator

With Ferrari things were different. With designers like Colombo and Lampredi in house, the brand was assured of having plenty of horsepower. At times it seemed as if they were slow in adopting new technologies, such as brakes. Especially at Le Mans, where Jaguar dominated in the early fifties with cars fitted with disc brakes, Ferrari in a certain sense missed the boat. In fact, the Ferrari 750 Monza, which is in the Louwman Museum, was fitted with French-made disc brakes by its then owner, the Frenchman Jean Lucas (a good acquaintance of Ferrari), for the 24 Hours race in 1955.

When the English in the late fifties/early sixties placed the engine at the back of a Formula 1 car (as had already been done earlier by, among others, Auto Union in the thirties), it became clear how effective this was compared to the traditional layout. Ferrari stuck with the old cars for too long and, when they finally adopted the new way of thinking, they were behind. But, as so often, Ferrari was saved by the superior engine of the car with which Phil Hill even became world champion in 1961, after the accident of Wolfgang von Trips at Monza. The shape of the front of this car earned it the nickname Sharknose.

1961 Ferrari 156 F1 'Sharknose'

The above might give the unsuspecting reader the impression that things are not going so well for Ferrari. Nothing could be further from the truth. The brand's reputation is outstanding. It is the only marque that has taken part in Formula 1 from the very beginning, and how! Its record includes many world championships, not only for drivers but also for constructors. Over the long term this has of course had a major impact on the quality of its cars, which has risen enormously in recent years.

One thing that is still often debated is which type of Ferrari is the most appealing. Engine in the front or engine in the back? It is hard to give a definitive answer, but if you look at auction prices, it seems to be the front‑engined cars. For the record, the Louwman Museum only has Ferraris with the engine in the front!

Peter Helbach