Batmobile-like Bugatti, most expensive new car ever made, snapped up by mystery buyer for US$12.5 million
- Bugatti president, Stephan Winkelmann, said the car combined ‘extraordinary technology, aesthetics and extreme luxury’
- The car has a black carbon fibre body and a 1500-horsepower, 16-cylinder engine
Bugatti unveiled – then sold what it’s claiming is the most expensive new car ever.
The “La Voiture Noire”, sold for US$12.5 million after debuting this week at the Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland.
The buyer of the new “hyper sports car” has not been publicly revealed, but the car maker says it was sold to a “Bugatti enthusiast”.
“As the black car sits, the thing is further proof that now more than ever, it’s good to be filthy, stinking rich,” Motor Trend wrote in its initial appraisal.
Built to mark the automaker’s 110th anniversary, La Voiture Noire, which is French for “the black car”, resembles the classic Batmobile.
The two-door car has a smooth, distinctive shape and a carbon fibre body. It has a 16-cylinder engine and six tailpipes.
Bugatti described the car as a homage to the Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic, of which only four were made between 1936 and 1938. The fashion designer Ralph Lauren is the owner of the last Atlantic produced.
The Bugatti president, Stephan Winkelmann, said the car combined “extraordinary technology, aesthetics and extreme luxury”.
“We are paying tribute to a long tradition, to France and to the creative work of Jean Bugatti,” he said.
The most expensive car ever sold is said to be a Tour de France-winning 1963 Ferrari 250 GT. It was bought in June by David MacNeil, chief executive of the automotive accessory maker WeatherTech, for a reported US$70 million.
Bugatti was founded in 1909 and acquired by German carmaker Volkswagen in 1998.
Tribune News Service, The Guardian and The Washington Post
