Intervista a Giampaolo Benedini: Designer della Fabbrica Bugatti e della EB110 (SUBS)

One day Romano Artioli called me and said: “I bought a field
in Campogalliano where I want to build the new Bugatti factory”.
I didn’t know anything about this and I was surprised by his words.
We already met once because he called me to work on what later became
a Subaru branch, located near Trento and he liked the speed of execution:
he wanted to trust me again.
So we started to plan how the factory should have been.
The first building we made was the one where the engines were assembled:
the engine was nearly finished and they needed test rooms to try it out;
then we started building the others.
The factory was built following some functional aspects such as
quickness of execution, visual impact (something always useful)…
We also tried to change the idea of “factory” from a dark place,
full of shadows, to a bright location: hence, the idea of sunshades that
turned laterally so when someone walked in was amazed by this open space.
Everything went right, we made it on schedule, without problems.
I went back to do my job in a “old school” way:
I was always at the construction site and decided what to do along the way.
Then the first bodies came: Romano was not fascinated by the first work (made by Gandini);
there were other drawings by Bertone,
but they decided to ask Gandini a second option.
I discouraged him back then: “Gandini uses strong lines that are inconsistent with your ideas:
the evolution of his drawings in my opinion will always follow the Lamborghini style”.
But he decided to keep going, there were other reasons to do so:
relationships, Stanzani wanted to work with Gandini…
Anyway, when the second prototype was finished,
Romano saw it and said: “I don’t like it, I don’t want to sell this car…”
and then added: “… listen, if you have got some ideas, try to put something together”.
I don’t want to take credit for Gandini’s work: the design is his.
I just modified the front end and other things like the interior and this is the result.
Something controversial was the front grill because everybody wanted
the Bugatti grill, but frankly I didn’t know how to put it on the front of the car:
I simply made it smaller and put it there.
It was criticized but there was no time to go back, so mine was a “fallback”:
“Here it is, if you want it: the 14th September is around the corner”.
They later accepted it.
From my point of view, the car was a bit of a contradiction:
a sports car that wanted to be refined at the same time to give a sense of luxury
on the inside was contradictory, but he was the one who wanted it that way.
So I did my job, I worked with Frau, I reused some Bugatti stylistic details
that was again a bit of a stretch to me because I like to use clean and simple lines:
as an architect you need to listen to your customers’ needs
and even if they are against your ideas, you try to humor him and minimize the “damage”.
So the EB110 was unveiled: a good result, the performance specs were excellent,
the car was finally appreciated and became a milestone because of many aspects:
performance, but also technology, well-managed complexity because
those who bought this car were enthusiastic about it.
It was a great project, but there was the urge to make our voice heard,
due to the crisis of the supercar market during those years.
When the EB110 was ready, the supercar industry was going downhill:
the F40 was sold for a billion lire, but you could find them for a third of that money;
Ferraris above all were sold “virtually” because they reserved them
and when they started making them, they followed the reservations,
but many gave up because they didn’t have the money to finish paying off the car.
This, together with other things, started a crisis.
Bugatti too had to completely change its initial philosophy
that consisted of selling the cars in Campogalliano,
something similarly done by Ettore Bugatti years before:
sell each car to the single customer, which is safe in a certain way
because you don’t need to put the car on the market, you don’t send them to the US,
to Britain…: who wants it, comes here. So there was no supply department.
There was this urge to do something new as I said:
this gave me the excuse to develop the SS, which was ready in a few months
for the Geneva Auto Show, trying to bring the car nearer to my ideas
and my passion for the races: so I replaced the Frau seats (even though the interior was still made by Frau),
I simplified here and there, saved some weight, changed the wheels,
made some holes, put a fixed wing on, a few more horses…
… and we showed it in Geneva with a big #1 on the hood,
as if we had this inclination for racing while Artioli said:
“I don’t want to hear about racing: you only lose money with races”
but the fact we put this #1 on this prototype whet the appetite of those
who saw a racing future for this car.
Indeed, some people came with a request.
At that time there was a GT championship dominated by the F40.
Martino Finotto, a wealthy pharmaceutical entrepreneur
who made a turbocharged racecar with Carlo Facetti that he raced in the IMSA championships in the US,
came to Bugatti (in his helicopter, an 8-seat Agusta) with Carlo Facetti.
He asked if something could be done with the Bugatti Super Sport.
I think Carlo Facetti himself advised him against this;
he probably thought the car was too complicated.
The car probably needed more development to be competitive.
Even if there was some potential, maybe the four-wheel drive should have been removed
to make it just rear-wheel drive. This is for many reasons:
a racecar has different needs from a road car.
People who buy these cars want to buy a dream. And that is a dream.
A man who spends an important figure on it can say that has 4 turbos, instead of 2,
4WD, a carbon-fiber frame: only 10% of the people here can really drive these cars,
so Materazzi was right if we focus just on the racing purpose.
If you wanted to make that car race, you needed to remove something
and probably simplify, but if we talk about marketing, he’s wrong.
This car in my opinion set a new standard for the supercar world;
it was a reference point for all the Italian brands;
the only one was maybe McLaren when Peter Stevens made the F1
with the BMW engine, but even there, there was less “appeal” …
they also made this car with 3 seats, it’s something…
I don’t know how to say it: the car is like the armor of a knight,
it’s hard to change the reference points.
So the car was great (the SS, but also the GT) and it also sold well.
Unfortunately it didn’t end well for several reasons:
you could write a book on the reasons of the closure,
but I have to say (and I think he could say the same) that it was an extraordinary experience,
then confirmed by the following one with Lotus.
When Artioli bought Lotus, he asked me: “What kind of car can we make?” …
There was the Isuzu-powered Elan that had the Isuzu name on the engine cover,
so he decided straight away to change that: “How can you put an Isuzu engine on a Lotus?
Change the camshaft cover at least!”.
That was a wrong car though because it was made of plastic,
but designed by people who wanted to build a car made of steel
so there were many parts while you should use as few as possible for production reasons.
I allowed myself to say: “Let’s go back: what is the DNA of this brand? Lightness”.
Lotuses had become heavy: they added weight here and there with the Esprit
while the original design by Giugiaro was gorgeous.
There’s a photo of the Mark I Esprit from above where you can see these perfectly straight lines.
So we held a design contest where people like Fioravanti, Peter Stevens, Tom Tjaarda participated.
Lotus started in this way. I was very glad when a few months ago
a British magazine entitled an article for the 25th anniversary:
“The car that saved Lotus”.
I was just a car enthusiast, I didn’t work with them, but passion
is probably this too: understanding the sense
of the product that could interest an enthusiast is the first thing to make a fascinating product.
I kept working for the motoring industry because I designed the Aprilia headquarters
I worked together with Ivano Beggio, a great man.
He had a similar view of the product, but unlike Romano he was a racing enthusiast.
He basically “invented” many Italian racing bike riders
and brought Italy back on track after the MV Agusta, Guzzi etc…
So it was a great time.
With Gianpaolo Benedini
Written and directed by Davide Cironi
Filmed and edited by Stefano Ianni
Filmed by Francesco Colantoni
Translated by Elia Pozzani
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