Bugatti sets record with US$18.9M model
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/03/2019 (2611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
To mark its 110th anniversary, the French automaker Bugatti celebrated in singular style, unveiling the most expensive new car in the world — La Voiture Noire, or “the black car” — in Geneva.
In case interested buyers have US$18.9 million lying around, Bugatti already sold its one-of-a-kind creation. The luxury brand said that the jet-black sports car with a 16-cylinder engine, 1,500 horsepower and six exhaust pipes was handcrafted for a car collector who probably identifies with the motto of company founder, Ettore Bugatti: “If it is comparable, it is no longer Bugatti.”
Bugatti was founded in 1909 and acquired by German automaker Volkswagen in 1998.
While Bugatti refused to identify the buyer, speculation points to former VW chief executive officer and chairman Ferdinand Piëch as the new owner. Piëch was known for his tough leadership style before quitting Volkswagen in acrimony in April 2015.
While there’s no mention of Piëch in Bugatti’s statement, which described the new owner only as an “enthusiast” for the brand, it was Piëch who signed off on some of Bugatti’s outrageous development costs.
There is — intended or not — a hint of Darth Vader providing some inspiration.
“The windscreen seems to flow seamlessly into the windows at the sides like the visor on a helmet,” Bugatti said.
At its debut Tuesday during the Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland, Bugatti chief executive Stephan Winkelmann said the car he deemed both “elegant and puristic” was inspired by an earlier model, the Bugatti Atlantic, of which only four were made.
“And if you look at the body work,” he noted, “there is not one line too many.”
The most expensive car ever sold is said to be a Tour de France-winning 1963 Ferrari 250 GT. It was purchased in June by David MacNeil, chief executive of the automotive accessory maker WeatherTech, for a reported US$70 million.
As Motor Trend wrote in its initial appraisal of La Voiture Noire: “As the black car sits, the thing is further proof that now more than ever, it’s good to be filthy, stinking rich.”
— Washington Post