The completion of the Bugatti Diatto Avio 8C 1919

2019 marks the centenary for the final completion of the Bugatti Diatto AVIO which has lain dormant since 1919.

In 1914 Bugatti told select clients that he was ready to create a luxury vehicle to surpass any known automobile. This coincided with Bugatti’s design of the AVIO 8C aero engine – his first experiment with a straight 8 engine. Historians see this WW1 aero-engine more as an automobile engine than solely for aviation. Indeed, they deduce that this massive 14.5 litre AVIO 8C engine may be regarded as the prototype for Ettore Bugatti’s Royale engine.

In 1915-1925 Ettore Bugatti was actively working together with Diatto’s capable technical team and using Diatto’s factory as test facility for his new ideas. In 1919, following the First World War, attention turned to car production and development of the AVIO aero-engine ceased – but obviously was not forgotten.

Later this 8-cylinder aero-engine, along with a big Diatto chassis, were discovered in the Biscaretti Collection in Turin, Italy. The project had never been finished, and how it found its way to the museum was a mystery. It is this project that after a century has finally been completed – to be revealed at Sherborne Castle on July 21st.

Read more about the history of this incredible car – download ‘THE LOST BUGATTI – The history behind the completion of Bugatti Diatto AVIO 8C’.