Bugatti Black Bess

Description

The gold-coloured accents which made the Type 18 Black Bess so unmistakable find a modern interpretation on the black-painted carbon body of the legendary Vitesse. For the first time, body parts of a Bugatti have been coated with 24-carat gold. The Bugatti horseshoe, the EB logo at the rear of the vehicle and the wheel hub covers also gleam in this precious metal. The effect is enhanced by gold-coloured stripes in ray formation that converge across the front wings towards the door pillars on both sides. Not to be overlooked are the fuel and oil filler caps, into which the lettering “Black Bess” has been engraved and finished with gold-coloured paint.

The most remarkable features inside the vehicle are the two door panels. Both leather-clad panels show different scenes depicting the Type 18 Black Bess and Roland Garros’s plane. The sketches were drawn by hand in ink directly onto the leather, in the same way that luxury car components were hand-painted in the early 20th century. A new impregnation process was developed to protect the drawings from everyday wear. Such immaculate implementation of traditional details while meeting modern quality demands and production standards is unprecedented in automobile manufacturing.

With its fifth model in the Les Legéndes de Bugatti series, the brand is commemorating the Type 18, which went down in automotive history as the first road supercar to take the name “Black Bess”. As one of the fastest road cars in the world at the time, it is considered the direct ancestor of the Bugatti Veyron, current holder of the world speed record.

The first person to own one was the French aviation pioneer Roland Garros, who had successfully crossed the Mediterranean in an aeroplane after a string of victories in flying events in 1912. His attention was first drawn to the Type 18 by Ettore’s victory at Mont Ventoux. Roland Garros was a speed fanatic, so he was looking for a car that would permit him to travel as fast on land as in the air. His choice of the Type 18 was a tremendous marketing coup for Ettore Bugatti. The world premiere of the legendary Vitesse Black Bess took place at Auto China Beijing in April 2014.