2012 Bugatti Veyron on 2040-cars

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Bugatti Chiron Noire only slightly less exclusive than 'La Voiture Noire'

Bugatti has only constructed one La Voiture Noire, the homage to the Jean Bugatti's now-lost 57 SC Atlantic, and as far as we know, Bugatti will only build one. The Molsheim manfuacturer has come up with a way to spread the sheen of The Black Car to a few more Bugatti owners with two versions of a single special edition. The Chiron Noire Elegance and Chiron Noire Sportive are two ways to dress the hypercar up in black, the difference being that one presents a gleaming black objet to admire, the other opens two doors to a singularity and perhaps a portal to the Planet of the Apes. The Elegance is the showy black one, all of its bodywork done in exposed carbon fiber. Two new mesh designs cover the front radiator grilles, highlighted by a Bugatti badge worked up in solid silver and black enamel. Matte polished aluminum caps the C-line swooping around the doors, tying in with the polished aluminum on the side mirrors and engine cover. Lower down, the word "Noire" on the rear fenders, scripted in black, of course, gives away the coupe's exclusive identity, as do the black brake calipers. Inside the black leather interior, silk-matte aluminum highlights the C-line between the seats, and Noire badging decorates the center console, armrest, and door sills. The Chiron Noire Sportive is the shadowy black one, all of its bodywork and normally metallic jewelry slathered in matte black, including the C-line and tailpipes. Bugatti appears to have dipped the interior in a tub of black, so not only is the leather the color of night, so too are all the usually aluminum parts; the C-line, the steering wheel, the center console, switchgear, buttons and knobs on the dashboard and the door handles, all of them want to swallow all the light. Bugatti will sell only 20 of this Chrion Noire special edition, builds to begin in the second quarter of next year. Either package can be ordered for the base Chrion for three million euros ($3.3M U.S.), or added to the more expensive Chiron Sport for an additional 100,000 euros ($110,865 U.S.).

Ferdinand Piech (1937-2019): The man who made VW global

Towering among his peers, a giant of the auto industry died Sunday night in Rosenheim/Upper Bavaria, Germany. Ferdinand Piech, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who conceived the original Volkswagen in the 1930s, was the most polarizing automotive executive of our times. And one who brought automotive technology further than anyone else. Ferdinand Porsche had a son, Ferdinand (called "Ferry"), and a daughter, Louise, who married the Viennese lawyer Anton Piech. They gave birth to Ferdinand Piech, and his proximity to two Alfa Romeo sports cars — Porsche had done some work for the Italians — and the "Berlin-Rome-Berlin" race car, developed by Porsche himself, gave birth to Piech's interest in cars. After his teachers in Salzburg told his mother he was "too stupid" to attend school there, Piech, who was open about his dyslexia, was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland. He subsequently moved on to Porsche, where he fixed issues with the 904 race car and did major work on the 911. But his greatest project was the Le Mans-winning 917 race car, developed at breathtaking financial cost. It annihilated the competition, but the family had had enough: Amid growing tension among the four cousins working at Porsche and Piech's uncle Ferry, the family decided to pull every family member, except for Ferry, out of their management positions. Piech started his own consultancy business, where he designed the famous five-cylinder diesel for Mercedes-Benz, but quickly moved on to Audi, first as an engineer and then as CEO, where he set out to transform the dull brand into a technology leader. Piech killed the Wankel engine and hammered out a number of ambitious and sophisticated technologies. Among them: The five-cylinder gasoline engine; Quattro all-wheel drive and Audi's fantastic rally successes; and turbocharging, developed with Fritz Indra, whom Piech recruited from Alpina. The Audi 100/200/5000 became the world's fastest production sedan, thanks to their superior aerodynamics. Piech also launched zinc-coated bodies for longevity — and gave diesel technology a decisive boost with the advent of the fast and ultra-efficient TDI engines. Less known: Piech also decided to put larger gas tanks into cars. Customers loved it. Piech's first-generation Audi V8 was met with derision by competitors; it was too obviously based on the 200/5000.

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse sets world record for fastest open-top car

Bugatti has come back from losing its "World's Fastest Production Car" title with a new superlative to add to the Veyron's trophy case: World's Fastest Open-Top Production Car. That's right, if you can't beat 'em, take the roof off and join them.
The record of 408.84 kilometers per hour, or 254.04 miles per hour, was set by a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse driven by Chinese racing driver Anthony Liu at Volkswagen Group's proving grounds in Ehra-Lessian, Germany. The speed was measured and verified by the German Technical Inspection and Certification Association, or TÜV.
That last point is important to note, as the kerfuffle over the closed-roof Veyron's record involved the Guinness World Records organization, which both sanctioned the car's world record run back in 2010 and then stripped Bugatti of the title after it was learned the car used to set the record had its speed-limited removed. Also, whereas Guinness calculates a car's speed based on the average of two runs in opposite directions, Bugatti doesn't say what criteria TÜV used to verify and calculate the convertible's speed.