There’s been a lot of talk lately on the psychology of why the super wealthy choose incredibly dangerous pastimes to keep them happy. Well, it’s fair to say that one billionaire’s journey into space is another’s bespoke Bugatti Chiron Super Sport ‘Golden Era’.
The result of two years of bespoke craftsmanship, featuring entirely new techniques, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport ‘Golden Era’ (nice car, shame about the name) is the very embodiment of the Bugatti Sur Mesure offering. For the uninitiated, this is where loyal customers’ ambitious visions for their vehicles—which stretch beyond the already near-infinite levels of Bugatti customisation—are brought to life in a painstaking collaborative process with the design team.
A Bugatti for the ages
This particular vision in gold—and that’s a bespoke gold, a shade created and named ‘Doré’, btw—came from a Bugatti collector with a deep appreciation for the a brand (super fast cars since 1909), not to mention the intricate engineering of the W16 engine.
The customer who, frustratingly, remains anonymous—just imagine him as a Bruce Wayne type for now—chose a Chiron Super Sport to celebrate the combustion engine design, but he wanted to appropriately pay homage to the history that had led to the creation of this engine.
With an idea in place, the design team developed a proposal that captured the essence of Bugatti, told through its most memorable and extraordinary creations and thus, ‘Golden Era’.
Capturing the legend of Bugatti
The overall project for the car would capture the legacy of Bugatti, a story told through a composition of beautifully intricate sketches depicting milestones from the legendary brand. On the passenger side, 26 hand-drawn sketches reveal icons like the Type 41 Royale—lauded as the most luxurious car when revealed in 1926—and the Type 57 SC Atlantic, widely regarded as the most beautiful car ever designed. It is a showcase of the moments when Bugatti changed the course of automotive history with its new innovations. On the driver’s side, 19 sketches portray the rebirth and enduring success of Bugatti since 1987, tracing from the EB110, through the Veyron and Chiron. A beautifully simple representation of the 3,712 individual components that come together to create the legendary W16 engine—the most advanced automotive engine ever built—rightfully takes its place as a part of the masterpiece.
Not to be outdone, three Bugatti icons were hand-applied to the interior door panels with a bespoke paint and fine paint brush that would allow one of the design team to draw directly onto the leather. The EB110, Veyron and Chiron, legends of the present day, are facing the icons of the past that had inspired them: the Type 35—the world’s greatest racing car, and again, the Type 57 SC Atlantic and Type 41 Royale applied to the opposite side of the interior.
The most challenging Bugatti of all-time
Achim Anscheidt, former Bugatti Design Director in charge of this creation explains, “A very important customer came to us and during our conversations, he expressed that he believed the Chiron Super Sport and its W16 engine represented a landmark moment in the world of the automobile. He wanted to do something truly unique in celebration.
“We looked back through Bugatti history to find a number of these landmark moments, including the times of Ettore Bugatti, Jean Bugatti and Roland Bugatti, which really marked the first golden era for the brand. And then, of course, the modern-day incarnation of Bugatti from 1987, picking out the icons from these times that came to define the Bugatti brand.
“Our team proposed a concept featuring 45 sketches of the brand’s icons that would be hand-drawn directly onto the car itself, and the owner immediately fell in love with the idea. The implementation may sound quite straightforward, but achieving a perfect finish, and one that would last the test of time, took more patience and craftsmanship than you could ever imagine.
“We usually see no more than one or two creations on this scale each year. Given the vision and exacting nature for this project—and the fantastical ideation we wanted to realise—‘Golden Era’ is probably the most demanding piece of tailored personalisation work that my team and I have ever worked on.”
The car now awaits an official handover to its owner at Monterey Car Week. Let’s hope they don’t prang it on the the way.