As interest in the Deutsche de La Muerthe Cup Race revived in the 1930s, race car designer Ettore Bugatti began a design to compete in the speed competition. The Bugatti 100P was under construction when WWII intervened. Unfinished, the aircraft was moved from his Paris factory in 1940 as Germans advanced and stored in the countryside. In 1970 a collector in the USA bought the aircraft for the two Bugatti engines in the racer and sold the airframe for restoration. Donated to the US Air Force Museum in 1979, it was kept stored until donated to the EAA Museum in 1996 and a restoration completed.