Check out This $5000 Bugatti…Pasta Maker
Bugattis regularly top two lists: the fastest cars on the market, and the most expensive cars on sale. The Centodieci costs as much as a fighter jet, and buying the fastest production car in the world, the Chiron Super Sport, would set you back almost $4 million. And classic Bugattis aren’t much cheaper, either. But you may soon be able to get a Bugatti for as little as $5000. Only it’s not a car—it’s a pasta maker.
Ettore Bugatti’s early years
As Donut Media and AutoEvolution explain, Ettore Bugatti was born into a family of artists. Only instead of architecture or painting, he decided to make machines. During his apprenticeship at a tricycle and quadricycle (early automobiles) company in Milan, Italy, he designed the Typo Uno, a dual-engined tricycle. This was followed by his first true car, the Typo Duo, which won Bugatti an award and a position as a technical director with German automotive firm De Dietrich. He was 17 at the time.
After working there for a few years, Bugatti left to pursue his solo automotive career. After marrying his wife Barbara, he signed a contract with another German automotive company, Deutz. At night, he would work on his own car prototypes. And, after the birth of his son, he left Deutz to found his own company: Bugatti.
In the years before WWI, Bugatti produced not only designs for a number of other companies, but its own unique cars. It was the 1910 Type 13 that helped start the company’s reputation. The Drive reports that it pioneered several important technologies: it was the first car with 4 valves per cylinder and the first to have suspension at every wheel.
This success continued after WWI when Bugatti relocated to an honest-to-goodness French chateau in Molsheim. A Bugatti won the first-ever Monaco Grand Prix, as well as the 1937 and 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans. And the Type 35, originally built in 1924, has been called one of the most successful race cars of all time. It was still winning races as late as the 1950s.
But it was the later, more luxurious Type 46, that’s responsible for Ettore’s pasta maker.
The pasta maker
Given that his father was a luxurious furniture and jewelry designer, and his siblings were artisans, Ettore Bugatti held himself and his clients to high standards. Allegedly, when a customer complained that his Type 55 had trouble starting on cold mornings, Ettore replied, “My dear man, if you can afford a Type 55, you can certainly afford a heated garage!”
And, as Bonhams reports, this perspective extended to food. He had a hen house built near his home—which was also the Bugatti factory—and custom silverware engraved with his initials. He even had an Italian chef on-staff to make pasta.
The story, according to Hagerty, goes that one day, the chef tells Ettore that the pasta maker is broken, and the parts won’t come for quite some time. In response, Bugatti decided to design his own pasta maker. And that’s the pasta maker that’s going to be auctioned off.
It was made by actual Bugatti factory workers out of cast aluminum and comes with 3 unique pasta dies. It’s meant to be mounted on a table before use, but instead of a traditional crank, it’s fitted with the steering wheel from the Type 46. And, of course, it’s engraved with Bugatti’s initials.
Bonhams predicts it will go for $5,000-$10,000. Which is a lot for a manual pasta maker; Sur La Table offers one for less than $100. But $5,000 is roughly 1% the cost of a new Bugatti car—and you’ll honestly be able to say you’ve got a Bugatti sitting in your kitchen.
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