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The Bugatti EB112 concept was a supercar with a sedan body

Ultra high-end luxury cars are common today, with the likes of Lotus, Porsche, and even Ferrari offering four-door crossovers. But three decades ago, the most expensive and technologically advanced cars in the world were all sports cars — your F40s, 959s and Diablos. Then along came Bugatti with the EB112 concept, a four-door sedan with supercar bones.  Unveiled at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show, the EB112 caused quite a sensation. Partially it was due to the extremely polarizing styling. Styled by design legend Giorgetto Giugiaro, it translated the look of early 20th-century Bugatti classics like the Type 57 Galibier to early 1990s bar-of-soap aesthetics. References to classic Bugattis like the Type 57 SC Atlantic came in the form of a subtle spine along the dorsal line. "The EB112 in many respects was a dream car and a forerunner to what we today know as high-performance fastback models," Giugiaro said. Squint and you might see shades of Porsche Panamera or Tesla Model 3 in the profile. Some found it beautiful, others found it hideous.  What's less subjective is the cutting edge technology beneath its controversial skin. The underpinnings were heavily based on Bugatti's EB110 supercar introduced in 1991, such as aluminum panels draped over a carbon fiber monocoque.  Power came from a 6.0-liter V12 designed with Volkswagen's help, a bit of foreshadowing about the company's future. Each cylinder had five valves for a total of 60, and the engine was mounted in a front-midship design aft of the front axle. The unit generated 460 horsepower at at 6,300 rpm and 435 lb-ft of torque at 3,000 rpm, which was fed through a 6-speed manual transmission to an AWD system similar to the EB110's with a 38/62 front/rear torque split. Bugatti's own tests said the EB112 could reach 0-100km (0-62 mph) in 4.3 seconds. Its top speed is said to have broken the 300 kph (186 mph) barrier as well.  Unfortunately Bugatti, then owned by Italian businessman Romano Artioli, went bankrupt in 1995 and the EB112 never saw production. Venturi owner Gildo Pallanca Pastor purchased what was left and found three partially finished EB112s, two of which he completed with spare parts, though these hand-built units each had minor differences.  Volkswagen bought Bugatti in 1998 and continued to evolve the EB112. In 1999 they debuted the EB218 concept, equipped with a W18 engine and a Lamborghini Diablo VT's AWD system.

The Art of Bugatti exhibit opens at Mullin Automotive Museum

Southern California's wonderful jewel, the Mullin Automotive Museum, opened its latest exhibit this week and it is worthy of a road trip. Titled "The Art of Bugatti," the new show is an intimate look at more than a century's worth of Bugatti family creativity - automotive enthusiasts associate the name with cars, but the Italian-born, French-based Bugattis were accomplished sculptors, painters, furniture makers as well as car collectors. The work on exhibit in coastal Oxnard, about an hour northwest of Los Angeles, includes more than 40 automobiles (and an aircraft) from Ettore Bugatti, nearly two dozen pieces of sculpture from Rembrandt Bugatti and more than 40 pieces of furniture from Carlo Bugatti.
Peter Mullin, the museum's founder and chairman, owns the largest private collection of Bugattis in the world. This exhibit celebrates the achievements of the Bugatti family. "It was one of the rare artistic and artisanal families of the era. Everyone in the family just exuded huge artistic talent," said Mullin.
At an early private peek at the collection, our eyes were glazed over by the spectacular 1932 Bugatti Type 41 "Royale" Coupe de Ville, with a massive 12.7-liter straight-eight, and the 1927 Bugatti 35C race car, one of its most successful competitive models. The famed 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic is also on display, which recently sold in the range of $30-40 million. One of the most unique items is the Bugatti 100P, a full scale reproduction of a V-tail wood twin-engine aircraft designed by Ettore Bugatti and Louis de Monge, built for the 1939 Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup Race (there are plans to fly it in the near future).

Bugatti fully restores the first Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport prototype

Bugatti proved a car doesn't need wire wheels and a carburetor to be considered a classic by restoring an important part of its recent heritage. It purchased and renovated the first Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport prototype from 2008. Finished in white silver metallic with a cognac leather interior, the topless hypercar was presented to enthusiasts at the 2008 edition of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It joined the Bugatti fleet after its champagne-soaked debut and became an unregistered demo car that logged miles in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. It then presumably ended up in private hands, and it largely fell off the radar until Bugatti spotted it in 2020. "Following the official confirmation of the car's status as an important historic model and the prototype that helped launch the Veyron Grand Sport in 2008, the car rapidly attracted attention from a number of captivated collectors, and it was acquired almost immediately," explained Luigi Galli, the man in charge of La Maison Pur Sang, Bugatti's in-house restoration and certification program. He added the firm keeps details about past models in its archives. Back in Molsheim, the picturesque French town where Bugatti's headquarters are located, the Veyron underwent a four-month restoration that brought it back to its 2008 configuration. The body panels were removed and repainted, the cabin was completely refurbished with leather upholstery and aluminum trim pieces, and a new center console was installed. There's no word on whether the quad-turbocharged 16-cylinder engine required an overhaul as well. Bugatti's in-house restoration expertise extends far beyond relatively new cars like a Veyron. It has access to a wide range of documents, blueprints, period photos, and experts that can help it piece together a car's history, regardless of whether it's a 13-year old prototype or a dismantled 100-year old race car stashed in a barn since the 1980s. Related video: