In September 1991, French automaker Bugatti released fast-looking supercar on the occasion of Ettore Bugatti’s 110th birthday. It was predictably named EB110. If you’re reading about this car only now, it’s because it was never on the same level popularity-wise with the likes of the Ferrari F40, the McLaren F1 or even Bugatti’s own Veyron. But that doesn’t mean the car wasn’t a special engineering achievement. It was. And for this very reason, Bugatti is paying tribute to its memory with the very limited (and very expensive) Centodieci hypercar (the name so obviously means “110”).
“With the EB110, Bugatti catapulted itself to the top of the automotive world once again with a new model since 1956,” says Bugatti president Stephan Winkelmann in a press statement. “We are proud of our long history, that’s why we’re celebrating a reinterpretation of this extraordinary vehicle.”
The Centodieci will be produced in extremely limited numbers. A grand total of 10, to be exact. Each of these cars is already spoken for as you read this. The few lucky buyers will have to shell out €8,000,000 (or about $9,000,000) to be able to park this thing in their air-conditioned garages. The price tag makes the €5,000,000 Divo look like a bargain (though it still pales in comparison to the amount Bugatti was charging for the one-off La Voiture Noire). The manufacturer expects to deliver the finished product within two years.
Powering this stupendously priced automobile is Bugatti’s famed 8.0-liter W16 engine that now produces 1,600hp (substantially up from the previous 1,479hp). This powerplant enables the Centodieci to gallop from rest to 100km/h in a jaw-dropping 2.4 seconds, to 200km/h in 6.1 seconds, and then to 300km/h in 13.1 seconds. For the engine’s (or probably the driver’s) sake, top speed will be electronically limited to 380km/h. Which the would-be owners should find easy to hit on the tarmac of their sprawling properties.
The Centodieci also makes other Bugatti models look like obese creatures. Compared to the Chiron, for instance, it boasts a weight reduction of 20kg. Bugatti claims a power-to-weight ratio of 0.88hp per kilogram.
If someone had told Ettore Bugatti that someday a car costing several mansions would bear his name, he probably would have just laughed it off. But here we are, thanks to insanely rich people who have more money than they know what to do with.
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