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Bugatti will stop chasing speed records to focus on 'other areas'

Bugatti made international headlines when it became the first automaker to break the 300-mph barrier. The French firm won't return to the Ehra-Lessien track in Germany to try beating its 304-mph record, because it's done chasing speed records for good. "This was the last time for us," affirmed company boss Stephan Winkelmann during a short speech filmed in the company's factory. "From now on, our minds and our focus will stay on different projects," he added. He stopped short of delivering details about the projects he has in mind. Bugatti's retirement doesn't come as a surprise; the company had started to shy away from setting speed records after it released the Chiron. At the time, its lost interest came as a surprise, because it had made history on several occasions by reaching jaw-dropping speeds with the Veyron. The 267-mph Super Sport variant of the car held the coveted title of the world's fastest car for years. The company spent much of 2019 celebrating its 110th birthday with special cars like the one-off La Voiture Noire unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, and the limited-edition Centodieci first shown at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering in California. While it won't continue releasing two special projects annually in the foreseeable future, Bugatti will keep the momentum going in the coming years. "One thing is for sure: we will have a great future," Winkelmann concluded. Time will tell whether it involves a long-tail Chiron variant inspired by the record-breaking car, a long-rumored SUV, or something else entirely.

Trump reportedly says he wants to wipe German cars off the U.S. map

BERLIN/FRANKFURT — A report that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pursue German carmakers until there are no Mercedes-Benz rolling down New York's Fifth Avenue dented shares in the luxury car manufacturers on Thursday. An excerpt from German magazine Wirtschaftswoche's article, which cited several unnamed European and U.S. diplomats but did not include any direct quotes, could not be independently verified, while a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Berlin referred questions to Washington. The news and current affairs magazine said Trump had told French President Emmanuel Macron in April that he aimed to push German carmakers out of the United States altogether. Macron's administration in Paris declined to comment on the report. The Trump administration last week opened a so-called Section 232 trade investigation into vehicle imports, which could result in a 25 percent tariff on cars on the same "national security" grounds Washington used to impose metals duties in March. This could destroy exports by German carmakers, which control 90 percent of the U.S. premium market and are the biggest European Union exporters of cars to the United States. BMW owns Rolls-Royce, while Daimler has Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen controls Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche and Audi. Daimler, BMW and Audi declined comment. Porsche was not immediately available for comment. BMW shares were trading 0.5 percent lower at 0939 GMT, while Daimler and VW's shares were down 1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, underperforming Germany's blue-chip DAX. Trump has railed against German carmakers before. And in early 2017, in an interview with German newspaper Bild, he said he would impose 35 percent tariffs on imported cars. At the time, the president called Germany a great car producer but said that the business relationship with the United States was an unfair one-way street. Germany's auto industry association VDA says its members exported 657,000 vehicles to North America last year, with total exports of vehicle components, cars, engines, as well as second-hand vehicles totaling 31.2 billion euros in 2016. Imports from the United States to Germany amounted to 7.4 billion euros, meaning a trade deficit of 23.8 billion euros the VDA's latest available figures show. However, German brands also have huge factories in the United States, where they built 804,000 cars last year, VDA said, providing jobs for U.S. workers. Berlin has reacted angrily to the U.S.

Bugatti Vision Le Mans designer's concept is ion-powered

Bugatti hasn't raced since the middle of the 1990s when Romano Artioli, its former owner, built an EB110 for the IMSA GT series and converted a second example to Le Mans specifications. The company is not actively planning a return to the track, don't expect to see a Chiron compete in 2020, but it still embraces its vast motorsport heritage, so one of its youngest designers dedicated his thesis to exploring what form a comeback could take. The Vision Le Mans concept shown in renderings puts a forward-thinking spin on the Type 35. Max Lask, a talented student who recently graduated from the Brunswick University of Art in Germany, explained his goal was not to create a retro-styled racer. That would have been too easy. Instead, he wanted to design a car that would be as advanced in 2050 as the Type 35 was when it made its debut at the 1924 Grand Prix of Lyon. There's a futuristic interpretation of Bugatti's horseshoe-shaped grille up front, but that's where the similarities between the Vision Le Mans concept and current members of the automaker's range end. The rest of the car is an ode to the principles of aerodynamics. Every wing, vent, fin, and scoop serves a specific purpose. Speculating what Le Mans-bound race cars will run on in 2050 required intense mental gymnastics. Motorsport is often at the forefront of innovation, so even 2020's most advanced technologies will look comically obsolete in 30 years. To that end, Lask envisioned a powertrain that runs on ions — and not the Saturn kind. It sounds far-fetched, but spacecraft already use xenon ion thrusters, and MIT successfully tested an ion-powered plane, so the technology exists. In his thesis, Lask opined it could sooner or later trickle down to the automotive industry. Bugatti stressed the Vision Le Mans concept is a one-off project Lask created to complete his design program, and it's not a preview of an upcoming model. While the French company is rooted in racing — the aforementioned Type 35 earned over 2,000 victories between 1924 and 1930 — the Circuit de La Sarthe isn't currently on the company's radar. Related Video: