Written by F r a n c i s c a G a m b i n o
Luxury carmaker Bugatti has tipped the scales on speed and price tag with the launch of its new supercar offering, La Voiture Noir. French for The Black Car, the one-off hypercar boasts a black carbon-fibre body, 1,500 horsepower 16-cylinder engine, and carries a whopping US 18.9 million dollar after-market price tag. Unveiled at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the most expensive car ever to hit the open market has been sold to a Bugatti aficionado to whom singular trumps price.
Built as a 100th birthday present to itself, the luxury car-maker sifted through Bugatti’s back catalogue of exceptional vehicles to reimagine this offering in a model appropriate for the 2020 buyer of distinction. Inspired by the 1936 Type 57 Atlantic, La Voiture Noir is a stealth beast, six exhaust pipe exceptional piece of engineering that reaches 100 km/h in 2.4 seconds and has a top speed of 420 km/h.
Simply a seductive piece of automotive excellence, Bugatti has set the bar on the luxury car market to unattainable. La Voiture Noir features an extended front and a dorsal seam that runs the length of its body. The bumpers are smoothly integrated into the body and the windscreen seems to flow seamlessly into the windows at the sides.
The headlights are more expansive and the cockpit glass area has a visor look. And, despite its black paint finish, this work of automotive art’s chameleon attribute changes the car’s form according to whatever reflections play across it.
Rumoured to have been purchased by former Volkswagen Group Chairman, Ferdinand Piech who spearheaded the resurrection of the Bugatti brand in
1998, La Voiture Noir combines Bugatti’s commitment to “extraordinary technology, aesthetics and extreme luxury” in a single
offering.