Not many special editions make it onto the pages of CAR magazine, but when it’s Bugatti calling the shots at next week’s Pebble Beach celebrations it’s time to sit up and pay attention. This is the sixth and final special edition of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, bowing out in a style not that dissimilar to an ageing Ford Mondeo repmobile.
Apart from the €2.35 million price tag (£1.86 plus taxes!), 1184bhp power output and 0-62mph time of 2.6 seconds, that is…
Bugatti Veyron ‘Ettore Bugatti’ Legend edition: the background
All six of the Bugatti Legends series are based on the open-top Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse. That’s the roadster version of the more powerful Super Sport, so power swells from the regular Veyron’s 987bhp.
The Ettore Bugatti edition, named after Bugatti’s eponymous founder, follows suits. Extra grunt from the 8.0-litre W16 stands at 1106lb ft, available all the way from 3000-5000rpm. Small wonder that 0-62mph is dispatched in a scant 2.6 seconds.
And with a 254mph top speed – with the roof down, claims Bugatti! – the Veyron ‘Ettore Bugatti’ Legend is the world’s fastest production roadster.
Spot the Ettore Bugatti edition by its duo-tone composite body: the front is hand-polished aluminium finished in a clear lacquer (Bugatti says it’s the only manufacturer with the wherewithal to do this), while the rear is exposed dark-blue carbonfibre.
There are polished, diamond-cut wheels, colour-coded in navy blue and inspired by Bugatti’s original eight-spoke wheels on racing cars such as the Type 35. EB’s signature is marked on the fuel filler flap (you’ll be spotting it regularly if you drive flat out, then) and inside is trimmed with calf leather and cordovan leather, which takes six months to tan.
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Veyron ‘Ettore Bugatti’ Legend at Pebble Beach
See the final special edition Veyron at the Monterey Car Week’s exclusive Quail gathering on 15 August 2014. The company is planning to present all six Bugatti Legends models together for the first and only time.
‘Ettore Bugatti always strived for the creation of a total work of art,’ said Wolfgang Durheimer, president of Bugatti. ‘His ideas and vehicles set the foundation stone for an automobile brand that was lauded then and now as the most valuable in the world. Ettore Bugatti himself is a legend. It was clear from the start that we should dedicate the final Legends model to him personally.’