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Bugatti shows off the 10th and final Centodieci

Limited to 10 examples globally, the heritage-laced Centodieci has left the Bugatti range and entered the pantheon of automotive history. The company built the final car in its Molsheim, France, factory and delivered it to its anonymous new owner. Sold-out before its debut in August 2019, the Centodieci is a tribute to the EB110 released in 1991. It's related to the Chiron under the skin, but it's different enough that it was put through a series of tests before executives signed it off — hot weather testing notably took place in the American desert. Production of the first prototype began in August 2021 and Bugatti started building the 10 cars planned shortly after. Customers were invited to work directly with Bugatti to personalize their Centodieci's design. The last example (pictured above) is finished in Quartz White with Black Carbon accents on the lower part of the body and Light Blue Sport paint on the massive brake calipers. Light Blue Sport paint on the rear wing adds a finishing touch to the look, and Bugatti notes this color is inspired by one that was offered on the EB110. Light Blue Sport leather dominates the interior: It's on the seats, the door panels, the dashboard, and the headliner. The trim is either bare carbon fiber or black, and the door sills feature "Centodieci 10/10"-branded plates to underline the limited-edition car's serial number. Power for the Centodieci comes from a quad-turbocharged, 8.0-liter W16 engine tuned to develop about 1,600 horsepower (that's roughly 100 more than the Chiron's version of this engine) and 1,180 pound-feet of torque. Mid-mounted, it spins the four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Bugatti quotes a zero-to-62-mph time of 2.4 seconds and a top speed that lies north of 230 mph. The last Centodieci closes a chapter of Bugatti's history that also includes 40 units of the Divo and the one-off La Voiture Noire. Bugatti isn't out of cars to build, however. It's now shifting its focus to wrapping up production of the sold-out Chiron and it also needs to build the 99 planned examples of the Mistral (its last street-legal W16-powered model) and 40 units of the track-only, 1,824-horsepower Bolide.

Limited-edition Bugatti Chiron Sport bridges the gap between cars and planes

Bugatti is highlighting the little-known link between some of its earliest race cars and aviation with a limited-edition variant of the Chiron Sport named Les Legendes du Ciel. Although it doesn't gain wings and an air-cooled radial engine, the model features several design tweaks made to catch the eye of vintage car and airplane buffs alike. "Many successful Bugatti racing drivers, such as Albert Divo, Robert Benoist and Bartolomeo ‘MeoÂ’ Costantini, flew for the French Air Force. It is therefore almost an obligation for us today to pay tribute to the legends of that time and dedicate a special edition to them," explained company boss Stephan Winkelmann in a statement.  Starting with a Chiron Sport, stylists painted the body in a specific shade called Gris Serpent (which means "snake gray" in French) that's inspired by the color of some of the planes that flew during the 1920s. For contrast, they added a white stripe that stretches from the grille to the rear wing, and they painted the front part of each rocket panel blue, white and red. Exposed carbon fiber accents add a finishing touch to the overall design. Look closely at the front end, and you'll notice another edition-specific touch. Instead of mesh, the grille's insert is made with laser-cut strips of aluminum arranged to look like a group of planes flying in a formation.  Brown leather upholstery dominates the cabin, and aluminum trim pieces create another visual link between the Les Legendes du Ciel and planes built over a century ago. Each door panel gains a hand-sketched image showing a Bugatti Type 13 racing against a Nieuport 17 biplane. Released in 1910, the Type 13 was the first car to wear the Bugatti name. Launched in 1916, the 17 was a single-seater appreciated for its speed and reliability. Power for the Les Legendes du Ciel comes from a quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W16 engine, which produces 1,500 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque. It spins the four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission linked to steering wheel-mounted shift paddles, and it sends the Chiron to a top speed that's electronically limited to 261 mph. In other words, it's faster than some of the planes it pays tribute to. Bugatti will make 20 units of the Chiron Sport Les Legendes du Ciel, and pricing starts at 2.88 million euros, a figure that represents $3.41 million at the current conversion rate. It sounds like build slots are still available.

2022 Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance Mega Gallery | The show in pictures

COMO, Italy — Held annually, the Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance is, in many ways, Europe's version of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It takes place in a beautiful location, and it brings together an impressive selection of rare and valuable cars. It's a real treat for the eyes, the ears, and, if you're into champagne, the palate. The 2022 edition of the show was no exception: About 50 cars were shipped to Lake Como from over a dozen countries, and it wasn't just the usual suspects. Sure, there were a lot of pre-war cars (including a couple of one-off models), but some of the icons that younger enthusiasts grew up with (like the Lamborghini Countach) were present as well. This year's event was split into eight categories: The Art Deco Era of Motor Car Design, The Supercharged Mercedes-Benz, How Grand Entrances Were Once Made, Eight Decades of Ferrari Represented in Eight Icons, "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday," BMW's M Cars and Their Ancestors, Pioneers That Chased the Magic 300 KPH, And a design award for concept and prototypes. The jury gave the coveted "best of show" award to a 1937 Bugatti 57 S owned by Andrew Picker of Monaco, while the aforementioned classes were won by, respectively: The Bugatti 57 S, shown below, A 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet, A 1956 Chrysler Boano Coupe Speciale, A 1966 Ferrari 356 P Berlinetta Speciale Tre Posti, A 1961 Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL, A 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL, A 1989 Porsche 959 Sport, And the Bugatti Bolide concept unveiled in 2020. Winning at Villa d'Este is a big deal: The cars are judged by a panel of highly experienced judges. No one gave me a scoring sheet, presumably out of fear that I'd award points to the late-model Fiat 600 lurking in the parking lot, but several cars that didn't win an award caught my eye. One is a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, a grand-prix racer that was once owned by King Leopold III of Belgium and that has never been restored — its patina is inimitable. Another is a 1961 BMW 700 RS. One of two built (the other is in the BMW collection), it's a tiny, ultra-light roadster related to the 700 and powered by a 697-cubic-centimeter air-cooled flat-twin tuned to develop 70 horsepower. It won several hill-climb events during the 1960s, and it's one of the rarest cars ever to wear a BMW roundel. Aston Martin's freshly-restored 1979 Bulldog concept was cool to see as well; check out the cassette player integrated into the headliner!