The fifth, and so far the coolest, model in Bugatti’s six-part Legends Edition makes it official debut at the 2014 Beijing Auto Show in company of the original car that was the inspiration behind it. It is the Bugatti Vitesse Black Bess, on display next to the magnificent Type 18 “Black Bess” from 1912.
Limited to three units and priced at € 2.15 million, the Bugatti Vitesse Black Bess is finished completely in black on the outside, garnished with gold-coloured accents – some of them made from real 24-carat gold – and gold-coloured stripes.
Inside, the headliner, footwell, seats, elongated centre console and rear bulkhead are covered in beige leather, while dashboard, dash panel, door trim panel and cowl panel are wrapped in Havana, and the steering wheel in Crimson red.
The main feature of the interior is the scenes embossed in the Havana leather pieces, depicting the historic Type 18 “Black Bess” as well as Roland Garros’ airplane, a Morane Saulnier Type H. They have been hand-painted directly onto the leather.
These exquisite visual features almost makes the Vitesse’s amazing W16, quad-turbo, 1,200 horsepower engine seem uninteresting. But that is what makes the car the fastest open-top vehicle in the world, with a 0 to 100 km/h time of 2.6 seconds, and a maximum speed of 408.84 km/h with the roof down.
