GRR

The ‘La Voiture Noire’ is Bugatti’s tribute to the Type 57

05th March 2019
Seán Ward

This is the Bugatti ‘La Voiture Noire’, a one-off Bugatti special and, in Bugatti’s own, very confident words, “the most expensive new car of all time”.

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Created for a “Bugatti enthusiast”, the La Voiture Noire (which translates to ‘The Black Car’…) is a tribute to the Type 57 SC Atlantic, of which four were built between 1936 and 1938. “We are paying homage to our heritage and bringing speed, technology, luxury and aesthetics forward to a new era,” said Bugatti’s President Stephan Winkelmann. “It is a fest of asthetics,” Winkelmann continued.

However, it is, to all intents and purposes, a rebodied, tweaked Chiron, with the same 8.0-litre W16 engine producing 1,500PS (1,480bhp) and 1,690Nm (1,180lb ft) of torque.

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There’s only one thing that doesn’t make sense, and that is Bugatti’s justification for the six exhaust pipes, Bugatti saying “six tailpipes at the rear bear witness to its incredible power and are also a tribute to the 16 cylinders”. Right…

The price? According to Bugatti, the La Voiture Noire relieved that “Bugatti enthusiast” of €11million before tax, or approximately £9.48million. Is that too much money for a new car? Quite possibly, but what’s too much to the world’s wealthiest car collectors? If you’re a die-hard Bugatti fan and have, somehow, worked your way into the position of being able to afford such a creation, then it probably isn’t too much at all.

  • Bugatti

  • Type 57

  • La Voiture Noire

  • Geneva

  • Geneva 2019

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