It can be argued that every Bugatti Veyron is the stuff of legends, but only 18 of them—each one a 1200-hp Grand Sport Vitesse—are one of the six Bugattis “Legends” models, produced in a very limited run of just three cars each. The first of the series, commemorating Jean-Pierre Wimille, debuted one year ago during the Pebble Beach Concours weekend, and the last of the series is this car, commemorating none other than company founder Ettore Bugatti, will be unveiled exactly one year later at the same posh venue.
The so-called “Bugatti Legend ‘Ettore Bugatti’” not only memorializes Ettore, but is also fashioned in the likeness of one of the most famous Bugattis in history: the impossibly long and unspeakably elegant 1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale, chassis number 41111. Yeah, that one: the blue-and-gray town-car-style limousine that made it into every childhood toy collection and onto more than a few bedroom walls.
The Ettore Bugatti Legends vehicle features a “yin-yang” color scheme, with polished aluminum on its front fenders, hood, doors, and mirror caps, while the rear fenders, doorsills, and A-pillars are finished in exposed dark-blue carbon fiber. The diamond-cut wheels also wear the Ettore Bugatti name. As for the horseshoe grille and EB logo in the back? They’re platinum, folks.
Inside, brown calf leather covers most surfaces, while “parts that are typically touched by hand”—including the steering-wheel rim, gear lever, door handles, center-console armrest, door-handle recesses, and switchgear in the doors and roof—are covered in natural cordovan leather that takes six months to cure. Blue carbon fiber makes its way inside, too, as does a relief of the Type 41’s famous dancing-elephant hood ornament in the center section between the seatbacks. Finally, a portrait and the signature of Ettore Bugatti are found on the doorsills.
As the last of the Legends series, and among the last Veyrons ever built, the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse “Legends Ettore Bugatti” will be spectacularly expensive: €2.35 million, or $3.14 million.
It will be shown for the first (and perhaps only) time alongside all five of the other Legends edition models on Friday, August 15, at the Quail Motorsports Gathering and on Sunday, August 17, at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Should be quite a sight.
