Molsheim, France - Bugatti is paying tribute to the EB 110 supercar of 1991 with this radical new machine that also happens to be the French marque’s most potent production car to date.
Only 10 of these will ever be made, each one selling for 8 million euro - which is a whopping R136 million in our money.
Fittingly, its name, Centodieci, means ‘110’ in Italian, but let’s get to the exciting stuff first.
The limited edition hypercar is powered by a more powerful version of Bugatti’s familiar 8-litre W16 engine. In this form it produces a whopping 1176kW at 7000rpm, which is 73kW more than you get in the Chiron.
According to Bugatti, the Centodieci, which also happens to weigh 20kg less than its sibling, will shunt from 0-100km/h in just 2.4 seconds, with 200km/h coming up in 6.1 secs and 300km/h in just 13.1 - which is quicker than some entry level hatchbacks can get to 100km/h.
But it’s not the fastest Bugatti in a straight line, with the top speed having been limited to 380km/h, which is down from the Chiron’s 420km/h top end, but since when are you going to find a road to do that kind of speed anyway?
Or, as Bugatti boss Stephan Winkelmann puts it: “It’s not just the top speed that makes a hyper sports car. With the Centodieci, we once again demonstrate that design, quality and performance are just as important”.
“The increased power and lower weight further improve performance – for even better acceleration at high speeds. The Centodieci offers our customers an improved power-to-weight ratio and even more dynamic handling.”
Not only is it more agile, but the Centodieci will never be mistaken for a Chiron out on the street, thanks to totally distinctive, and somewhat radical new design that harks back to the EB 100, without being overly retro.
“The challenge was not to allow oneself to be captivated too much by the design of the historic vehicle and work solely in retrospect, but instead to create a modern interpretation of the shape and technology of that time,” said Bugatti design boss Achim Anscheidt.
“We faced a number of technical challenges in terms of the development and design of the Centodieci,” Anscheidt elaborated.
“The EB110 is a very flat, wedge-shaped and graphically quasi two-dimensional super sports car of the late 1980s. Transporting this classic look into the new millennium without copying it was technically complex, to say the least. We had to create a new way of combining the complex aerothermal requirements of the underlying Chiron technology with a completely different aesthetic appearance.”