1993 Designs for Two Attempted Brand Re-Creations

The original Bugatti company failed a few years after World War 2.  In the late 1980s a revival attempt was made.  A factory was built.  Engineering was worked on to near-completion.  A famous design firm was hired to create a prototype sedan, and one car was built.  Then the company went broke in 1995 before production could begin.  The Bugatti brand was later acquired by Volkswagen.

In that general time-frame, Aston Martin, then owned by Ford, explored reviving its Lagonda brand.   Again, a running prototype sedan was built.  And the project was abandoned so as to have Aston Martin focus on its own brand.  Later, Lagonda was revived for a few years.

Some parallels: Both automobile brands were strongly upscale.  One protoype sedan was built.  The stylists were highly qualified.  Those prototypes appeared in 1993, and therefore were influenced by the same design fashions and by the same state-of-the-art factors.

Some background on the Bugatti EB112 is here, and that on the Aston Martin Lagonda Vignale is here.   (The name Vignale, that of a former Italian coachbuilder, was owned by Ford, as was the Ghia coachbuilding firm that made the car.  I often wonder what folks in marketing departments are thinking.)

As for styling, the Bugatti was designed by the great Giogetto Giugiaro of Italdesign.  The Lagonda's exterior design was by Moray Callum, who later held important styling positions at Ford.

Besides both being sedans, the cars were of similar size.  Wheelbases were 122 inches (3100 mm) for the Bugatti and 122.75 inches (3118 mm) for the Lagonda.

Now let's take a look.  Images below are mostly from the carmakers, coachbuilders, or a firm selling an EB112 built from leftover parts.

Gallery

Bugatti EB112
One of two cars completed after Bugatti folded.  Note the traditional Bugatti horseshoe-shaped grille, here blended into the frontal streamlining.

Aston Martin Lagonda Vignale
Oddly, the Lagonda's grille appears to be a flipped version of the EB112's.  The only traditional Lagonda feature here is the vertical grille bars, not the shape of the frame.  I'm pretty sure Callum was unaware of what Giugiaro was doing in terms of grille design.

EB112 side view.

Lagonda side view.  The Bugatti has a higher aft passenger compartment greenhouse profile than Lagonda's.  The latter features a mild, quasi- notchback shape suggestive of traditional British early postwar saloon (sedan) styling.  The clean fenderline and  smooth sides recall Gerald Palmer's 1953-1957 Riley Pathfinder that I wrote about here.

The EB112 is actually 1.7 inches (43 mm) shorter than the Lagonda, but seems more massive from this viewpoint.  A crease runs down the centerline of the top, creating a two-piece backlight window.  This crease was a gesture to the famous Bugatti 57SC Atlantic design.

Logonda's aft styling, harkening to traditions, yields what looks like less luggage space than the Bugatti's.

Closer look at rear end styling.

Both designs are far simpler than today's fashion.  The Lagonda looks very English from this perspective -- the smoothness, the 1947-size backlight window, the UK-size license plate framing.  Bumper protection seems questionable, and would have been upgraded for production cars.  The tail light assembly extending abaft from the side trim strip is a nice touch.
To summarize, the Bugatti's styling is more contemporary-international (with gestures to Bugatti iconography), whereas the Lagonda's is a clever harking to traditional English design, yet conforming to the emerging aerodynamic standards of 1993.  Aside from the curious grille-inversion feature, I find the Lagonda's styling more interesting (though perhaps less attractive) than the Bugatti's.