Chiron 'Golden Era' celebrates Bugatti's incredible history

10th August 2023

Ethan Jupp

It’s the end of an era for Bugatti this year as its last-ever W16 quad-turbo hypercars roll out of Molscheim. For a name with such a rich history, both in terms of the W16 era and far further back, beyond the war, it’s no surprise that a dedicated collector and aficionado has commissioned this: the ‘Golden Era’ Chiron Supersport. It’s as much a 1,600PS (1177kW), 300mph hypercar as it is an art tapestry of the history of Bugatti, with imagery quite literally pencil sketched on the car’s sides.

“Given the vision and exacting nature for this project – and the fantastical ideation we wanted to realise – ‘Golden Era’ is probably the most demanding piece of tailored personalisation work that my team and I have ever worked on,” explains Achim Anscheidt, outgoing Bugatti Design Director.

"We looked back through Bugatti history to find a number of these landmark moments, including the times of Ettore Bugatti, Jean Bugatti and Roland Bugatti, which really marked the first golden era for the brand. And then, of course, the modern-day incarnation of Bugatti from 1987, picking out the icons from these times that came to define the Bugatti brand.

“Our team proposed a concept featuring 45 sketches of the brand’s icons that would be hand-drawn directly onto the car itself, and the owner immediately fell in love with the idea. The implementation may sound quite straightforward, but achieving a perfect finish, and one that would last the test of time, took more patience and craftsmanship than you could ever imagine."

Black at the front, the Chiron bleeds into gold via 45 sketches of cars from Bugatti’s incredible history, from its ‘golden era’ to today. The sketches come straight from the designers’ canvass, with the sides of the Chiron looking like the kind of mood board the design team will almost certainly have been working with while sketching out the lines of Bugatti’s hotly-anticipated, new hyper hybrid, due in 2024.

“It was very clear to us from the beginning that we can only achieve an authentic finish for these sketches – and at Bugatti authenticity is paramount – if we actually used the pencils that we use for sketching on paper – anything else would result in something looking fake or low in quality,” Anscheidt continues.

“So that’s why we had to find a process that would allow us to use pencils and do all of the sketches by hand, directly onto the paintwork.”

On the driver’s side, Bugatti’s rebirth, from EB110 through the Veyron and Chiron and various special editions and one-offs. On the passenger side, incredible machines from Bugatti’s first founding decades, including the Type 41 Royale, Type 57 SC Atlantic and more.

Likewise on the inside, further imagery of landmark models, through the Chiron, Veyron and EB110, to the Type 35, Type 57 SC Atlantic and Type 41 Royale, appears on the doors. Yes, hand-painted on, just as the exterior imagery was hand-drawn.

The car will be handed over at Monterey Car Week and indeed, we wonder if the marque has up to this point, quite so decisively lived up to Ettore Bugatti’s mantra: “If comparable, it is no longer Bugatti”. There’s certainly nothing quite like this.