BUGATTI CENTODIECI
It’s like asking the prettiest girl in school out on a date, but then realizing she’s ridiculously high maintenance, and her dad is going with you. When you’re paying $9 million for a car, you need to seriously think about exclusivity and it needs to be something that’s only reserved for a small, curated group of buyers. These limited edition cars will appreciate in value because there weren’t too many made, they all convey a sense of mechanical, as well as aesthetic beauty, and aren’t art pieces to be placed on a pedestal, but cars that can be driven to their insane limits regularly.
Bugatti wrapped the head-turning body around Chiron underpinnings. It’s made largely with carbon fiber to keep weight in check, and it’s powered by an 8.0-liter W16 engine, quad-turbocharged to 1,600 horsepower at 7,000 rpm, a 100-horsepower increase over the Chiron. Part engine and part work of art, the 16-cylinder sends its power to the four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission that can be left in drive, or shifted manually using steering wheel-mounted paddles. To add context, the EB110 used a quad-turbocharged, 3.5-liter V12 rated at 560 horsepower. It featured a six-speed manual transmission, and permanent all-wheel drive. The Centodieci hits 62 mph from a stop before you reach the end of this sentence; it takes 2.4 seconds. 124 mph comes in 6.1 seconds, and it gets to 186 mph in 13.1 seconds. Bugatti installed a speed limiter which caps the car’s top speed at 236 mph. Its body kit – including an EB110 SS-inspired adjustable rear wing – generates nearly 200 pounds of downforce.
The 10 examples of the Centodieci that Bugatti plans to build have already found a home. The French firm reached out to its most loyal clients shortly after it started the project, and it had no trouble selling the entire production run in spite of a base price pegged at 8 million euros (nearly $9 million). 10 wasn’t chosen at random; it’s a number that keeps the car exclusive, without summoning a dark cloud of disapproval from the customers who purchased the 40 available examples of the Divo, or the anonymous collector who allegedly paid over $18 million for the one-off La Voiture Noire unveiled at the 2019 Geneva auto show.
