The Bugatti EB110 – The Veyron’s Stepfather And The Difficult Life It Had -Long Post-

When people talk about Bugattis they usually talk about two companies:
-The original company, “Automobiles Ettore Bugatti”, which was founded in 1909 and made its last road car for a customer in 1965 (a Bugatti Type 101 with a body by Virgil Exner) after technically already ending operations in 1963 when the company was sold to Hispano-Suiza (with the ’65 101 being a car that took a long time to finish, with Ghia handing the (shortened) chassis off to Virgil.
-The company “Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S” founded by Volkswagen in July of 1998 after purchasing the rights to the name “Bugatti”, who (aside from a few concept-cars) made the hypercars “Bugatti Veyron 16.4” and “Bugatti Chiron” and is still existing to this day.

Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. - A Short-Lived dream

Another car-manufacturer with the famous name is often ignored, the “Bugatti Automobili S.p.A.” founded in 1987.
The company came to existence after Romano Artioli, an Italian entrepreneur and Bugatti-collector who had made most of his money in the real estate business had established a holding-company (“Bugatti-International”) to buy the rights to the name “Bugatti” the previous year.
Within days of the new company being registered the architect Giampaolo Benedini was contracted to design (and also supervise the construction of) a state-of-the-art factory in Campogalliano (Italy), just over 20 minutes away from the Ferrari-Factory.
Paolo Stanzani, the man behind the design of cars like the Lamborghini Miura and Lamborghini Countach, joined the new company and presented the plan for the revival of the brand in 1989.
The company announced the EB110 GT, claimed to be the most technically advanced supercar ever made.
Meanwhile, design-proposals from
Paolo Martin, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Nuccio Bertone and Marc Deschamps failed to convince Artioli.

The explanation of the name is pretty simple, “EB” referring to Ettore Bugatti and “110” pointing at the 110th birthday of Mister Bugatti in 1991, the year the new car was supposed to debut.
At that event the company also announced that they hired Pavel Rajmis, the man who invented Audi’s Quattro-System.

The projected advanced a huge step in January of 1990, when “Carbone Industries” delivered 7 aluminium chassis for prototypes.
Two of the chassis were kept inside the factory for testing, while five (numbered A1 to A5) were turned into completed cars and painted in different colours:
-Silver (A1)
-Dark Blue (A2)
-Metallic Middle Blue (A3)
-Bugatti Blue (A4)
-Metallic Royal Blue (A5).
The silver car is delivered straight to Pininfarina to spend a couple of months in the wind tunnel, before being transported to the factory in Campogalliano for its first dynamic run on the small test-track that is housed on the factory’s premises.

A week later the car is brought to France, to the Michelin-owned Ladoux-track.
This is the first time that Loris Bicocchi (Bugatti’s test driver) and Jean Philippe Vittecoq (Michelin’s man responsible for high performance tire-tests) work together.
Vittecoq impresses the Bugatti-staff accompanying the car, and he is hired pretty much on the spot.
The factory is officially inaugurated on Saturday the 15th of September 1990, Ettore Bugatti’s 110th Birthday.
Work on the project is underway during that time, with a small part of the factory being “shined up” for the celebrations.

Always at the risk of falling behind schedule the work on the project continues throughout 1990 with 7 workdays per week and night-shifts being the norm.
With the testing showing the first few flaws the A1 and A2-cars differ more and more from one another since the A1-car was chosen to be used as reference, remaining in original condition for the time being.
On the 14th of January 1991, while most of the staff puts the final touches on the A3, 4 and 5-cars, a small group of just three Bugatti-employees takes the A2-car to the Monza track, before beginning a “tour” to other race-tracks (including Varano di Melegari, Ladoux, Monza, Misano, Maggione, Jerez de la Frontera and the Nürburgring.
The first flaw found are the tires, with the 17-inch Michelin MXX being reported to be too thin to properly transmit the power, while the chassis seems to be a little too soft.
Michelin provides new 18-inch tires which are first fitted to the cars in April of 1990, needing Bugatti to broaden the car with plastic adapters around the rear wheel arches.
The chassis-rigidity isn’t directly targeted, instead the hope relies on a carbon chassis proposed by Aerospatiale.
Their first chassis-prototype weights just as much as the aluminium-ones (115kg), but is twice as stiff.
All the while the two test-drivers work on finding the right setup for a supercar that can still be easily driven every single day.
Vittecoq focusses on the four-wheel-drive system, eventually deciding to have the car send 28% of the power to the front and 72% to the rear.
With the A1-prototype being no longer needed it is dismantled (with the chassis lying in storage until it’s re-used in 1991 for a styling study).
With the A1-car gone the remaining cars are re-numbered, with the former A2 receiving the number 001, making it officially the first Bugatti of the new era.

It is at that point that the design is suddenly seen as no longer nice enough, a statement that causes (the already unhappy) Stanzani to quit.
Giampaolo Benedini, the architect who designed the factory, is brought in to lead the search for a better design, with the only set points being:
-Smother shape
-Fixed headlights
-The Horseshoe has to be implemented (done in the form of a small intake in the front bumper)
Several clay models are made and tested at the Pininfarina wind tunnel, all of which are equipped with a strange cover over the rear wheel.
Apart from that, the models increasingly resemble the eventual production car.

Artioli’s ambitious plan eventually works out, with a handful of special guests (celebrities, pre-order owners, local politicians and personal friends) being invited to the “Centre International de l’Automobile”-museum in Pantin (France).
They’re treated to a buffet and can take a seat (but reportedly not drive) the A4 and A5-prototypes.
Meanwhile the actual EB110 is brought to the La Défense Square in Paris for the official presentation later that day.
Rumors say the schedule was so tight that the car had been finished the night before and was polished while in the back of the truck bringing it to Paris.
Fitting Artoli’s personality the official presentation is a huge spectacle, held in the square alongside the CNIT and in front of the Great Arch.
A few dozen classic Bugattis are parked on the square forming the horseshoe, with a flower-arrangement forming the Bugatti-bade the size of a bus at the top of it.
The new car is placed in the center of the horseshoe, hidden under a blue silk sheet while 5.000 guests and journalists (including the VIPs from earlier) pile up in the square.
A brief press-conference is held, and after Romano Artioli holds a speech Renata Kettmeier (Artioli’s wife) and the French actor and fellow Bugatti-collector Alain Delon lift the sheet off the car.
The car presented is prototype number C6, the first car with Aerospitale’s carbon chassis, and is about 95% like the production-cars.
It has the chassis-number 39005 and is finished in Bugatti Blue with a light grey leather interior.
Wanting to proof that his masterpiece actually works the car eventually embarks on a drive from the place of the premiere past the Champs Elysées to the Place de La Concorde, occupied by the two test-drivers and with the A2 and A4-cars escorting it.
The day, which is a full success, ends with a concert and a dinner for 1.800 guests at the Orangery at the Palais of Versailles.
After a public presentation the next day the car goes on a world-tour, being in the hands of a different journalist pretty much every day.
Meanwhile the employees at Bugatti race to finish the car in order to be able to keep delivery-dates with the people who already paid for their car, a phase that started with Bugatti taking delivery of eight carbon chassis (numbered #39006 to #39013) for final tests and changes.
The cars C7 and C8 (finished in Bugatti Blue and Deep Black) are development prototypes, carrying a pretty bare interior.
Changes to the C6 include a shorter lateral air intake and a longer rear wing, the latter change resulting in two air-vents on the sides of the wing being removed.
Both cars originally stood on BBS GT-wheels, but it seems like C6 received different wheels at a later point in time.
The C7 and C12 (the latter being finished in silver with golden wheels) are spotted in January of 1992 doing ABS-tests in Sweden, with the two test-drivers sharing the cars with a group of Bosch-engineers.

The Bugatti EB110 S Concept - The EB110's Big Brother

A month later rumors show up in the media about a “hot” EB110 being in development (because a normal Bugatti is so boring, you know) for customers who want less of a GT and more of a supercar.
The rumors are proven right on the 5th of March 1992, when the EB110 S (for “Supersport”) is presented at the Geneva Motor Show.
The car is based on the C9-prototype (numbered 39008), and carries a modified body.
Changes include a less rounded nose (actually the design the GT later receives), rounder side-mirrors, the rear side-windows are replaced with a cover that holds 9 intake-holes, the rear window is replaced by two giant air intakes, the rear wing is static rather than retractable and the wheels are changed to resemble the classic 5-spoke Bugatti-design.
This is also the first car to have the “window in window”-system that has only about half the window rolling down with the rest being fixed in place.
The interior misses all comfort equipment (electric windows, air condition, Nakamichi sound-system and electric seats), instead carrying two bucket seats to either side of a simplified center console with the driver and passenger looking at a carbon fiber dashboard rather than one with wooden inserts.
Bugatti claims that the car weights 1.418kg (200kg less than the GT) and delivers 447 break horsepower.
In the last week of May 1992 a group of Bugatti-employees travelled to the high-speed-track in Nardo (Italy), bringing the A5, C7 and C8-cars with them.
The official objective is to get the performance-data needed to make the car road-legal, unofficially the group also wants to break the speed-record for a production car.
The black C8-prototype is used for support while the C7 is the car that does the runs (with the A5 being spotted at the site, but its role is unknown).
The C7 was weighted to 1850kg to simulate a passenger and got a few aerodynamic optimizations (low ground-clearance, taped up intakes in the front, removed wipers), before Frederico Trombi (Bugatti’s head test driver) takes the wheel and starts the record run.
And the results are as desired, if not better:
-0-100kph: 3,46 seconds
-400m-sprint: 11,4 seconds (final-speed 200,4kph)
-1000m-sprint: 20,7 seconds (final-speed 259,7kph)
-Top-Speed: 342kph (212.5mph)
The group achieves its goal, the EB110 is the most powerful production car.

1993 - The Dream Comes True

Bugatti presents the C12-car, an EB110 GT, at the Paris Motor Show in the fall of 1992, rather than a prototype this is seen as a pre-production car.
The main difference to the last generation of prototypes are the doors which now open much easier, and the simplified rear extractor.
The EB110 is officialy registered as a road-legal mass-production car on the 16th of September 1992, with the homologation-process finishing with the C14-prototype being crash-tested (52kph head-on impact into a concrete barrier) at the UTAC in France.
On the 1st of December 1992 a Swiss Gentleman by the name of Franz Wassmer travels to Campogalliano in order to pick up his EB110, the first one ever made.
The car resembles the prototype presented in Paris the year before, being painted Bugatti Blue with a grey leather interior.
However, the car disappears after that, with the most likeable reason being that Mister Wassmer returned the car (which was far from the later production standard) due to problems coming from driving a car that is mostly a prototype.
This theory is supported by the chassis-number showing up on a car produced almost a year later.
Four EB110s are delivered to (or alternatively picked up by) customers before deliveries briefly stop.
The next three EB110, all already bought by customers, arrive in London on the second of February 1993 for the official Launch-Party held near Hyde Park the next day.
All three cars are left hand drive (an RHD-version of the EB110 did not exist) and were delivered to their owners in the last week of the month.
The production-version of the EB110 GT weights 1735kg (including a full tank and a driver), and is powered by 3,5 liter DOHC 60° V12 with 5 valves per cylinder.
The engine (which is mounted in front of the rear wheels, with a tiny 72 liter luggage compartment separating it from the cabin) is supplied with air through four IHI-turbochargers (with standard boost-pressure being 15.23psi) and produces 411kw at 8.000rpm and 611nm of torque at 4.200rpm.
The engine is mounted to a manual 6-speed gearbox that gives the power to a permanent all-wheel-drive system with a 50% locking differential at the rear wheels.
All that stands on 18-inch BBS-wheels made of magnesium, while ventilated 322mm discs at all four wheels take care of deceleration.

Meanwhile most of Bugatti’s engineers work on the Supersport-project, gradually turning the C9-car presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 1992 into an experimental machine.
The car shows up with hardly noticeable changes at the Paris Motorcar Show in October 1992, before, at the next appearance in March 1993 in Geneva (alongside the concept of the EB112, a 4-door sedan that didn’t make production), it features additional intakes, changed headlights, black wheels and slick tires.
The first Supersport-chassis enters the production-line in April of 1993, carrying the number SS39004 since the first three Supersports had been ordered by the Sultan of Brunei, who wished for his cars not to be driven before he gets them.
Some rumors even claim that he never drove one of his EB110s, having it parked alongside other supercars just to enjoy the sight.

In late May of 1993 Bugatti sends a crew to Nardo along with the C9 and the SS39004.
The C9 has evolved even further, featuring the large rear wing of the SS39004 and having lost the large double-intake on the rear.
Despite coming off the production-line the SS39004 is not 100% like the later production-version, carrying a different front lip and slightly different rear side-panel (the one that replaces the rear side-windows).
After a few smaller tests to “get a feel for the car” Vittecoq went for it on the 29th of May, and he doesn’t fail to live up to the expectations.
-0-100kph: 3,26 seconds
-400m-sprint: 10,9 seconds
-1000m-sprint: 19,61 seconds
-Top-Speed: 351kph (218.1mph)
The Supersport de-throned his “little brother” and after another run later that day (in the opposite direction, as the world-record-rules demand) is awarded the title of the world’s fastest production-car.

1993 ends with Bugatti announcing their international dealerships, those being:
-British Motors (mainly an Aston Martin dealership) for France
-The Garage de I’Athénée for Switzerland
-Alvan Motors for Belgium
-AutoKoenig for Germany
-Winter BV for the Netherlands
-Autspeak for Italia
-HR Owen for Great Britain
-Nicole Racing joins the list in January of 1994, for Japan

1994 - Never Been Better, Never Will Be Better

1994 sees the production finally fully operational, with the number of sales being sufficient (though not as high as estimated).
At the same time the Supersport is about to enter production and can be ordered, a plan is made to enter the American market, and (after the car was only available in Bugatti Blue, Dark Blue and Deep Black) a larger colour-palette is announced.
Also, on the 11th of March 1994, the US Deparment of Transportation gives a temporary exemption from the usual requirement for an airbag-system, but demanding reduced emmissions and the passing of the American crash test.
The demand is met in August of 1994, with Bugatti (with the help of Lotus, which Artioli purchased from GM the year before) presenting the EB110 America.

The first car to be adapted is an EB110 Supersport (numbered SS39017), and the adaption required (according to different sources) 15-20 changes to the car including structural improvements to make the car tougher in some spots while allowing the body to crumble and take up energy in case of a crash in other spots, the relocation of the Bugatti-badge to a place higher up the front, lateral reflectors on the front and rear bumpers and new mounts for the rear-wing so it won’t come off too easily.
The modified car is presented at the 1994 Concorso Italiano in Monterey, winning the People’s Choice Award there.
Bugatti used the car for some testing in the heat of Nevada throughout 1994, before putting it on display at the Chicago Auto Show early in 1995, once again getting amazing feedback from the public and the press.
At the same time an American Dealership-network is set up, contracting dealerships in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia and West Palm Beach.
1994 also saw two very special EB110 leaving the factory.
One (numbered GT 39051) was a half-finished car (barely capable of driving) that went to the Switzerland-based company “Rinspeed” who fitted the car with a two-colour leather interior (light gray/blue), a unique aluminium dashboard and a futuristic bodykit only leaving the wheels, roof and side-windows from the EB110.
The car was then painted Bugatti Blue and presented at the Geneva Motor Show as the “Rinspeed Cyan” before joining Rinspeed’s own concept car museum.

The other car was a Supersport (numbered SS39020) that was finished on the 28th of April 1994.
The Bugatti Yellow Supersport has the full interior of the GT (except for the steering wheel) in blue leather with all available options installed.
But the special thing isn’t the interior but the German gentleman who travelled to the factory to pick it up: It’s seven-time Formula One-Champion Michael Schumacher.

With another US-spec Supersport being made in Campogalliano (numbered SS39025) the silver prototype is sent back to Europe, first going to Monaco-based Monaco Racing for some modifications, before being taken to Oulu (Finland) where it is used to set an Ice Speed Record on the 2nd of March 1995, running 296,34kph at the end of a 1km straight.
After that the car is taken to Geneva, where it is on display at the 1995 Geneva Motor Show, alongside a normal production EB110 Supersport and an EB110 GT that had been modified to run on methane.

Another milestone is set on the 20th of October 1994, with Bugatti presenting an RHD-version of the EB110 at the Birmingham Motorshow.
The car is not a normal EB110 GT or a regular Supersport, but a mixture of both.
It is based off a GT, keeping that car’s chassis, engine and spoiler, but features the modified exterior of a Supersport including the additional intakes (some if which, somewhat ironically, go nowhere due to the intakes not “matching” the canals in the normal chassis.
While the steering wheel (sitting in front of a “mirrored” dashboard) and the pedals moved to the right the gearbox (and thus the gearstick) sit in their original place, meaning the driver has to reach notably further to reach the first two gears.
While the car is presented in the United Kingdom the intended main market is the far east, mainly Japan and Australia.
One English customer who took delivery of an LHD-car the month before is known to have sold his car and bought an RHD-version, and there are records for 5 more finished RHD-cars.

1995 - Bugatti Dies

While the company liked to spend the first half of 1995 pointing at the EB110’s use in the North American WSC GT-races they had to admit that the company was in serious financial trouble by June of ’95.
More than 20 suppliers demand payment from the cash-strapped company, which fails to sell Lotus or enter the stock-market.
The EB110’s production is put on hold in August of 1995, forcing the company to stop work on 16 (much needed) orders from the USA, forcing them to pay back much of the 1.5 million Dollars they would’ve gotten.
Potential buyers for the company include BMW, Benetton and an investor from India, but eventually none of them buy the company.
The end comes on the 23rd of September 1995:
The Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. is declared bankrupt, having piled up over 200 million Dollars in debt.
A “Curatore”, a judicial administrator, locks and seals the factory, causing 220 employees to lose their job over night.
Despite the company’s end in September a Bugatti-display can be seen at the Tokyo Motor Show a month and 5 days later, it is assumed that the importer asked customers to borrow their cars for the duration of the Show.
Some hope comes up in January of 1996, with Lotus being sold to Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (also known as Proton), a Malaysian car-manufacturer.
The new money is not enough, though, and the Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. is removed from the register by the first of February 1996.
It is the failure of Artioli’s dream, and the end of Bugatti in Italy.
A group of (according to different sources) 9-12 employees is brought back with time-limited contracts, tasked with completing as many of the unfinished cars as they can with the parts in store (since no supplier delivers anything) and adapting surviving prototypes to be road-legal if possible.
Five cars are said to be made during that time, recognizable by odd engine/chassis/equipment combinations due to decisions like using the engine from a (un-repairable) crashed prototype for a production-car.
The number of cars produced is unknown, different sources put it in between 130 and 150 cars (including the prototypes), while Artioli having claimed for a while that there were 180, before changing his stance to being highly unwilling to talk about the company at all.
The story of the Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. ends on the 4th of April 1997, with a public auction being held to sell off all pieces, tools and machines left at the factory (and then the factory itself).
Notable buyers are:
-The Volkswagen Group buys the rights to the name and the associated trademarks
-An Italian furniture-company buys the factory, but goes bankrupt itself before moving in, leaving the factory abandoned since 1996
-Gildo Pastor-Pallanca, the boss of Monaco Racing, buys the two US-prototypes and the EB112 concept as well as parts that were meant for an EB112 prototype.
In 2001 his company builds 2 EB112, with a third one being rumoured to have been built for an anonymous German collector being made in December of 2001/January of 2002.
One of the cars (numbered GE700935) is dark-anthracite/varnished black with a black leather interior and is (according to reliable information from 2014) with an owner in Switzerland.
The car has different front and rear lights, since those weren’t among the parts sourced from the auction.
Pallanca himself kept the (modified) concept-car (numbered X067), with its current whereabouts being unknown.
-Dauer Racing GmbH, a German sportscar-company owned by Jochen Dauer that is known for having made a road-legal Porsche 962, bought the spare-parts the company had in stock, unfinished cars in various stages of assembly as well as the “EB110” name and logo.

Dauer EB110 Supersport - The Bugatti EB110 Supersport Reborn

The first stage of the “Project EB110 Reborn” was rather simple, since it consisted of a small fleet of trucks transporting all the parts and 27 nude carbon chassis to Dauer’s workshop in Nuremberg (Germany), along with the unfinished cars.
The number and version of these cars are still a mystery, it is assumed that the cars were 1 GT and 3 Supersport.
Dauer built a new workshop and assembled the unfinished cars, producing at least 3 Supersport (one of which had to be equipped with electric windows and the GT’s seats due to a shortage of the right parts), delivering to the original customers and getting much-needed funds.
During that phase the company hired technicians that had worked at the factory in Campogalliano and set up a system to provide the regular servicing for EB110s.
In 1991 Dauer presented two freshly built Supersports (now officially called the Dauer EB110 Supersport, with Volkswagen unwilling to allow Dauer to call the cars Bugattis), a Bugatti Blue US-version with a mixed GT and Supersport-interior and a European version finished in Bugatti Yellow with black wheels.
A few pictures for the press are taken at the workshop before the cars are taken to Paris for an extended shooting at the Vendôme square and in front of the Grand Palais.
The announcement that a production-version of the Dauer EB110 Supersport is planned creates a “split” feedback, with some saying that it’s great that the car gets a second chance while others think that the EB110’s era should’ve ended with Bugatti.
Mister Dauer uses the blue car himself, while the yellow one makes its next public appearance at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco in May 2000.

In early June of 2000 the company changes its name to Dauer Sportwagen GmbH, presents a new logo and hires more former Bugatti-employees.
On the same day Dauer presents the first Dauer EB110 Supersport (numbered TP7289).
The car is based off a US-spec EB110, is lightened (1690kg compared to the original EB110 America’s 1920kg) and it has an uncounted number of small changes done to the drivetrain to improve the performance.
Instead of an aluminium and steel body the new car’s body is made completely of carbon fiber, and a new intake, new turbochargers and a new ECU raise the power to 480kw, which can be increased to 525kw with an optional less restrictive exhaust.
The car receives just a clear coat over the carbon fiber rather than a paint-coat, and is equipped with a Supersport-interior wrapped in tan leather and upgraded with a Kenwood navigation system (including a DVD- and TV-player).
Optional features that were not installed in the car include GPS-tracking, a camera above the number plate for parking, a restyled rear wing and a new plate-mount (in Germany cars have to carry a license plate on the front at 90 degrees to the road) to allow for the plate to be mounted off-center, leaving the horseshoe-intake uncovered.
The new car tested (with a lot of publicity), delivering the following figures:
-0 to 100kph in 3,3 seconds
-1km from a standstill in 19 seconds
-Top Speed: 370kph
4 cars are made, one in Bugatti Blue with a grey interior, one in silver with a red interior, one in silver with a black interior and one in black with a white interior, the last one being delivered to its owner in 2003.

The Mysterious Dauer EB110 "Snake" & The End Of Dauer

In late 2005 photos appear of another mysterious Dauer EB110, nicknamed “The Snake”.
It is assumed to have been built in early 2005, and over time the following information has been acquired:
-The car is very light
-It only has rear wheel drive
-It has a gold paintjob and bright red wheels
-It is decorated with an artwork by an artist called “W. Maurer”, giving it the nickname.
Unconfirmed rumors also claim that the car has lapped the Nordschleife in under seven Minutes.
The owner or story of the car is unknown, and there hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of it since October of 2005.
Dauer Sportwagen GmbH didn’t re-start operations after the 2005-2006 winter, declaring insolvency soon after.
It was liquidated by 2009, with the (Germany-based) company “Toscana Motors GmbH” buying the remaining parts along with Dauer’s tools and 21 chassis and since providing the regular servicing as well as repairs for surviving EB110s.

The B-Engineering Edonis - The EB110-Successor That Never Was

In 2010 Toscana Motors sold the 21 chassis to the Italian company “B-Engineering”, which was founded by former Bugatti-employees with the goal of creating “an adequate heir” for the EB110.
They presented the Edonis in 2011, a heavily reworked EB110 with a completely re-styled body said to have rear wheel drive, a bi-turbo system rather than the EB110’s quad-turbo-system (delivering 507kw) and a top-speed of 365kph while reaching 100kph from a standstill in just 3,9 seconds.
Some rumors say that the mysterious “Snake”-Dauer EB110 was an early prototype for the Edonis.
Along with presenting two Edonis (a red one with black interior and a golden one with red/black interior and black wheels) B-Engineering also officially accepted orders, asking for 760.000 Euros.
However, it seems like homologation of the car for road-use failed, leaving the Edonis with just two concept-cars (the whereabouts of which are unknown).
The 19 remaining chassis have since been sold back to Toscana Motors.

Chassis ZA9AB01E0SCD103 - The Forgotten EB110

A special story comes up when one stumbles upon the EB110 GT with the chassis-number ZA9AB01E0SCD103.
It is the 103rd GT known, but it’s not the last EB110 for the simple reason that it has never been completed.
The unfinished car had been transported to the company “Poltrona Frau” in Tolentino (Italy) to be fitted with its leather upholstery.
But the Bugatti-factory went bankrupt while the car was waiting for the interior, and Poltrona eventually kept it as payment for debts.
The unpainted car, which had no wheels or engine, was stored in a backlot where it was spotted still sitting out in the open in 2008 looking understandably worn out after over 10 years out in the open without windows or paint.
There is no information on what happened to the car since, but with finishing it being pretty much impossible it is assumed that it either was already scrapped or will be eventually.

So that’s it, the story of the Bugatti EB110, the Bugatti in between Ettore Bugatti and Volkswagen’s Bugatti.

As usual I researched all information as good as I possibly could, but if you find a mistake please let me know.