Bugatti's Holy Trinity
All-wheel drive, four turbochargers and a monocoque made of carbon, these are Bugatti’s proven and continuously improved ingredients for their super sports cars from the last three decades. The Bugatti EB110, Veyron and Chiron are seen as milestones in automotive engineering from the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Romano Artioli created the EB110. EB are the initials of Ettore Bugatti, while 110 stands for his 110th birthday. At the launch in Paris on 15 September 1991, Ettore Bugatti’s 110th birthday, Bugatti revealed a vehicle featuring a lightweight monocoque weighing just 125 kilograms, and also the first production car to be made of carbon. Aluminium and carbon, among other things, were used for the body, while the wheels were cast from magnesium, and the bolts are made of titanium. The car was powered by a 3.5-litre V12 mid-engine with four turbochargers.
The EB110 sprints from 0 to 62mph in 3.26 seconds, making it the fastest production car of its time. The vehicle had a top speed of almost 220mph. Bugatti set four world records with the EB110, among other things fo the fastest acceleration, fastest production sports car, fastest natural gas-powered sports car and fastest production car on ice. By 1995, Bugatti produced only 96 units of the EB110 GT, as well as fewer than 40 of the lighter and more powerful variant EB110 Super Sport and additionally two official factory race cars with 670 bhp.
With the market launch of the Veyron 16.4 in 2005, Bugatti presented a true pioneering achievement and made automotive history. The Veyron ushered in the new century and catapulted itself into a new dimension. Once again, the French manufacturer opted for a carbon monocoque, all-wheel drive and four turbochargers. The first true hyper sports car in the world delivers 1,000 bhp and had a top speed of over 252mph. The completely newly developed 8.0-litre W16 engine allowed the Veyron to accelerate from 0 to 62mph in 2.5 seconds.
The Chiron superseded the Veyron in 2016. With a maximum power of 1,500 bhp, a value never before achieved by a production vehicle, tremendous torque of 1,600 newton metres and a host of technical innovations, the Chiron set new standards in automotive engineering in the 2010s. The Chiron sprints from 0 to 62mph in 2.4 seconds.
In 2019, Bugatti was the first car manufacturer ever to exceed the 300 miles per hour mark with the Chiron. At the same time, the French luxury manufacturer set a new speed record of 304.773 mph.