Bugatti

Bugatti was founded in Molsheim, France, as a manufacturer of high performance automobiles by Ettore Bugatti, an Italian man described as an eccentric genius.

The original company is legendary for producing some of the most exclusive cars in the world as well as some of the fastest. The original Bugatti brand failed with the coming of World War II, like many high-end marques of the time. The death of Ettore’s son Jean was also a contributory factor. The company struggled financially and released one last model in the 1950s before eventually being purchased for its airplane parts business in the 1960s. Today the name is owned by Volkswagen Group who have revived it as a builder of very limited production sports cars.

Bugatti cars were extremely successful in racing, with many thousands of victories in just a few decades. The little Bugatti Type 10 swept the top four positions at its first race. The 1924 Bugatti Type 35 is probably the most successful racing car of all time with over 2,000 wins. Bugattis swept to victory in the Targa Florio for five years straight from 1925 through 1929. Louis Chiron held the most podiums in Bugatti cars, and the 21st century Bugatti company remembered him with a concept car named in his honour. But it was the final racing success at Le Mans that is most remembered—Jean-Pierre Wimille and Pierre Veyron won the 1939 race with just one car and meagre resources.

In 2000 Volkswagen AG founded Bugatti Automobiles SAS and introduced the EB 16/4 Veyron concept, a 16-cylinder quadruple turbo charged car with 1001 hp DIN (736 kW), 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.5 sec, and a top speed of 407 km/h (253 mph), at the Paris, Geneva and Detroit auto shows. Development continued throughout 2004 and the EB 16/4 Veyron was promoted to “advanced concept” status. In July 2005 Bugatti Automobiles SAS announced that the car would officially be called the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. It was said that the car—built in a brand new Bugatti factory in Dorlisheim would be delivered to clients in October 2005. In fact the Veyron finally entered production in late 2005, the first cars being delivered in early 2006. Minimum speed claims have been met in several high speed tests where the car slightly exceeded its target, reaching 408.47 km/h (254 mph)[4]. According to Car and Driver, the Veyron’s fuel consumption at 253 mph was 3.0 mpg (78 L/100 km). At full throttle, its 100 L (26 US gal/22 imp gal) fuel tank would empty in just 12 minutes 46 seconds. After 15 straight minutes at 253 mph the tires would melt.

Independent press tests have reported many failures (three out of five cars notionally available for testing in November 2005 were out of service), but the Veyron prototypes were put through the same grueling regimen as other Volkswagen group models, with each pre-production car logging over 50,000 miles.

The Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermès is the latest limited edition version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. It costs $2.3 million (not including tax) and has an interior designed and crafted by the French leather and silk specialist, Hermès. The Fbg in the name stands for Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the address of the headquarters for Hermès. The Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermès has no mechanical alterations and is still essentially the Bugatti Veyron 16.4; the only alterations are the calfskin composing the new interior.

The Bugatti Veyron was designed by a Slovak Jozef Kaban, the head of Volkswagen’s Škoda Auto Design Department.

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