BugattiBugatti has just made the most expensive new car that’s ever been made, La Voiture Noire.
Translated as The Black Car in French, the hypercar is a modern take on a classic Bugatti. It’s been based on the Type 57 SC Atlantic that was made in the 1930s.
Why is the car being valued at £12 million ($15.8 million)? It has 16 cylinders, four turbochargers, 1,500 horsepower and 1,180 lb-ft of torque. In other words, it’s an absolute monster.
An homage to the T57 Atlantic, it has some incredibly similar features like a central spine that runs nearly the entire length of the car. There’s also six tailpipes on the back, the same as the old Atlantic had.
View this post on Instagram‘La Voiture Noire’ – the highest level of Automotive Haute Couture one can reach.
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The car was first showcased at the Geneva motor show, with La Voiture Noire built to celebrate Bugatti’s 110-year anniversary. The black Chiron-based car has already been bought for £12m by a loyal Bugatti owner.
CEO Stephen Winkelmann told Top Gear that they are always looking to surprise customers. This one-off special certainly does that:
Customers expect us to continually surprise them and to move the goalposts beyond the limits of their imagination. We have just succeeded in doing so with ‘La Voiture Noire’.
As for the old Type 57 Atlantic’s, only four were ever made between 1936 and 1938. According to Top Gear, one of these belonged to Parisian entrepreneur Jacques Holzschuh before it got crashed into by a train. Another belonged to Baron Victor Rothschild and has been passed down over time to the American collector Peter Mullin. The third is currently owned by Ralph Lauren, the other one has been lost for 80 years.
The lost car is the “La Voiture Noire”, built and owned by the man who’d designed it, Ettore Bugatti’s son, Jean. Jean was killed in August 1939 while driving the very Bugatti that had won the Le Mans 24 hours race just a couple of months earlier. If the original La Voiture Noire was to be found, it would surely be one of the most expensive cars of all time.
The tribute to the legendary car is a great celebration of Bugatti’s history and the lucky millionaire is surely going to love his new ride. I’m only slightly jealous… just a little tiny bit.
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Matt Weston is a lover of electric cars, artificial intelligence and space. From Cornwall, he’s a UCLan graduate that still dreams of being a Formula One driver in the very near future. Previously work includes reporting for regional newspapers and freelance video for the International Business Times.