Ettore Bugatti's personal pasta machine,

The Amelia Island Auction|5 March 2020, 11:00 EST|Fernandina Beach Golf Club

Ettore Bugatti's personal pasta machine,

custom fabricated to Bugatti's design in his factory in Molsheim and accompanied by three pasta dies, 17 inches long x 7 inches wide x 10 inches high not including the wheel.

Footnotes

Besides being a legendary craftsman and car maker, Ettore Bugatti was also a very particular gourmand. Famously well mannered, and expecting the same from his guests, he is understood to have refused to sell a gentleman of royal lineage a car on account of his poor table manners. Ettore's attention to detail when it came to dining stretched from his building a hen house on his property to provide the freshest eggs to a personalized table setting with his own custom made cutlery--all of which were engraved with his initials.

The story of this contraption goes that Ettore's Italian chef reported that the pasta machine had broken and it would be some time before a new one could be delivered to Alsace. Not wishing to go without his noodles, Ettore drew up a design for his own machine and had his team in the Bugatti factory custom fabricate it. While most pasta makers are powered by a hand crank, Bugatti pulled a Type 46 steering wheel out of the parts bin and installed that instead. It seems rather fitting that he would rather steer his way to spaghetti than tirelessly crank as if attempting to start a dead car.

Fitted with a mounting bracket, it is designed to be mounted on the edge of a table with the steering wheel perpendicular to the ground. Three beautifully assembled pasta dies accompany the device, any one of which can be fitted into the tightly fitting threaded aperture at the bottom of the pasta maker.

It is pretty safe to say that this overbuilt pasta making machine solved Ettore's pasta plight permanently, and as such he never made another. While most of Bugatti's products just produce fumes out the back end, this one makes something much more delicious!

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