Bugatti’s ‘La Voiture Noire’ GT Is The Most Expensive Road Car Ever
Bugatti is no shrinking violet when it comes to pricing its cars, but this is another level. Behold the new, one-off La Voiture Noire and its pre-tax price of €11 million – that’s £9.45 million, or $12.46 million. Plus tax.
The French company has named this ultra-special car in its own language but you don’t need to be Hercule Poirot to translate it to “The Black Car,” an overwhelmingly bland name in English but one that connotes a lot more about image and status in its native tongue.
Naturally, it’s based on the Chiron, but it takes heavy inspiration from Jean Bugatti’s own Type 57 SC Atlantic, which was held as the very finest of Bugatti’s touring models at the time. Jean was the son of company founder Ettore Bugatti and had a huge hand in the direction of the business through the late 1920s and 1930s, assuming a director’s post in 1936.
He died in 1939, aged just 30. He was testing a race-winning Type 57 that could pass 135mph, and at high speed hit a cyclist who shouldn’t have been there but had squeezed through a fence. Jean’s car spun and hit a tree. Only four Type 57 Atlantics were made between 1936 and 1938, placing the known remaining three – all customised differently – among the most valuable classic cars in existence.
The Voiture Noire’s carbonfibre panels have been created specially for this car only. Painted in deep gloss black, they are designed to create more of a visual flow than on the Chiron and make it look like it’s all cut from a single block.
The engine, on the other hand, is unchanged. You get a healthy 1479bhp from the legendary 8.0-litre W16 behind the two seats. Six exhausts are a clear statement of power and presence.
The one aspect we’re not sure about is the painted tyre effect, extending the silver blades of the two-tone wheels out over the rubber. We’re not sure it’s classy enough for a Bugatti of any breed, but we adore the huge, pale blue brake calipers visible behind the spokes.
So now we know what it costs to get Bugatti to make you a one-off hyper-GT. Time to ask for a promotion and a pay rise.
Comments
Bugatti Divo on steroids….
More like a gt version of Divo
They literally said it’s based on a Chiron
Kinda looks like a GTA version of the Chiron!
Dam
If you thought ‘Ferrari TheFerrari’ was a terrible name, wait until the ‘Bugatti The Black Car’ is pretty dumb too
laferrari sounds stupid only if people say it wrong, but bugatti the black car will always sound dumb
True, but as dumb as it sounds, the name actually has a legend behind it, something the article fails to mention in depth. The truth is that the “The Black Car” is a name that has been given to Jean Bugatti’s personal type 57 Atlantic, Chassis No. 57453, ever since it went missing after his death. Take a careful look at the windows of the 57 (No. 57453) in the photo above, notice that they’re fixed windows with a small hatch, something not found on other Atlantics. Also, the headlights are fixed lower on the fenders like the Aerolithe coupe, supposedly for aerodynamic purposes. It is suspected that this show car was a prototype/lightweight or grand touring version of the 57 Atlantic for Jean Bugatti’s own personal use. We do know it was raced, as photos exist of the car with ribbons and wreaths around it as though it had won a race somewhere, sometime ago. Somehow, it went missing and like msot cars of the time, it is unaccounted for due to the catastrophe of WW2. It is suspected that this car was destroyed in the war, with other plausible theories being that it was salvaged for parts, or even metal (as some suggest that the car had a magnesium body for shedding weight, but aluminum was valuable in the war effort too). Other theories exist, my favorite, and even crazier theory is that Ettore, who was known for burying things valuable to him, may have buried it, something which he is also suspected of having done with the Aerolithe. Anyway “The Black Car” was a name given to jeans personal 57 by Bugatti fans ever since the car was rediscovered in old photos, most of which are still available on google images. Funny enough, a Veyron special edition was also made in honor of the same car. It’s quite an amazing story actually! Well worth looking up!
Another bodykit on the Chiron?
Matt Kimberley Matt Robinson I know you guys are pretty stacked out with Geneva stuff atm but Koenigsegg have just released images of their incoming Jesko on their Facebook page!!!
We had some website issues but it’s coming in the next couple of minutes.
SIX EXHAUSTS!!?
I haven’t got enough hands to test it!
It reminds me a little bit of Lucra (at least front end)
no absolutely not
Speaking of Bugatti…I saw a Type 57SC Atalante the other day…
am i the only one who thinks its utterly stupid to pay 6 times the price for a bodykit Chiron?
cmon, is it seriously just me?
No it’s not. At this point these “we put a bodykit on it and nothing else but we’re chanrging you x amount over” type of cars arent even worth the time CT staff takes to make these articles. They’re for wealthy people who either want it as an investment that’ll only hold value with people of similar vanity or a really rich chav who just wants to one up his buddies at the next gala
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if Darth Vader wanted to buy a car on earth…