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CORAL ISSUE - n° 19 - 2019 - € 10
The Art of Sailing
[ The CAR ]
It cost its mystery owner 11 million euro: we’re talking about the Bugatti La Voiture Noire, the one-off inspired by the legendary Atlantic and unveiled at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show
A perfect interpretation of functional aesthetics. The central line is unmistakeable and, as on the Atlantic, runs the entire length of the car, while the signature C line on the side is typical of modern Bugattis
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FOR HIS EYES
O N LY by Diego Tamone
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[ The CAR ]
T
here are a few cars – precious few if truth be told – that are so technically astonishing, they should be merely shown and exhibited, preserved in all their magnificence, rather than driven. These are sublime expressions of design more
than vehicles. Generally speaking, they tend to be supercars or, better still, hypercars,
and one-offs at that. Unique creations, bespoke-designed and built, lovingly crafted by hand. Just like in the good old days of the great coachworks which practiced the black art of automotive haute couture where satisfying the owner’s personal tastes was the only criterion. And also just like Bugatti, which produced a genuinely old-school design in 2019 to celebrate its 110th anniversary. Even the name had the flavour of yesteryear: La Voiture Noire. Last used at the end of the 1930s as the moniker of the personal Type 57 SC Atlantic of Jean Bugatti, son of founder Ettore. The most beautiful and elegant Bugatti ever made disappeared in mysterious circumstances at the start of the Second World War, and had never been found, with the result it has become the stuff of legend. At the last Geneva International Motor Show a prototype caused uproar because of the sum paid the anonymous owner that commissioned it and to whom it will be delivered in April 2021. That sum was 11 million euro, the highest price ever paid for a new car. But the uproar went beyond its price. Its spec caused huge excitement too: it will sport an 8-litre 16-cylinder engine that unleashes 1,600 Nm of torque and 1,500 bhp. The kind of figures more redolent of an aircraft than a car. And yet what makes La Voiture Noire so truly unique is there for all to see: its very concrete, tangible
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La Voiture Noire sports a superlative 8-litre 16-cylinder engine that unleashes an impressive 1,500 bhp and 1,600 Nm of torque
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[ The CAR ]
To side the designer Etienne Salomé , the creator of La Voiture Noire, a contemporary reinterpretation of the Type 57 SC Atlantic. Above two sketches
design. Sketched in words by its creator, Etienne Salomé. “We worked
entire length of the car. At the rear, the vent grilles are inspired by
long and hard on this car until there was nothing more we could
the windows in Atlantic. The modern Bugatti world is referenced
improve on. It’s not a retro design. There are no elements borrowed
by the signature C-shaped line and the horseshoe front grille. So
directly from the original model – just the spirit”. La Voiture Noire is
no matter what angle you look at it from, there is always something
a contemporary reinterpretation of the Type 57 SC Atlantic, a modern
that immediately marks it out as a Bugatti”. A unique car that is
triumph of functional aesthetics. “We took the centre crease line that
respectfully true to Ettore Bugatti’s motto: if it is comparable, it is
once traversed the car’s aluminium and magnesium alloy panels and
no longer Bugatti.
turned it into an aluminium inlay in the carbon-fibre that runs the
www.bugatti.com
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