This yr marks the thirtieth anniversary of the disclosing of the Bugatti EB110. Whereas this effort to revive Bugatti for the fashionable age failed, it laid the muse for the model’s revival underneath Volkswagen Group stewardship.

The EB110 was the brainchild of Italian businessman Romano Artioli, who as a 20-year-old vowed to revive Bugatti when manufacturing ceased in 1952. Artioli acquired the rights to the Bugatti title within the Nineteen Eighties, and commissioned a brand new manufacturing unit in Campogalliano, Italy.

Artioli’s Bugatti Cars S.p.A. unveiled the EB110 in Paris on September 15, 1991, on what would have been Ettore Bugatti’s one hundred and tenth birthday. The EB110 was some of the excessive supercars of its day, boasting a quad-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-12, carbon-fiber bodywork (then a novelty for street automobiles), and all-wheel drive.

The V-12 made 552 hp in the usual EB110 and 592 hp within the Tremendous Sport model. Bugatti quoted 0-62 mph in 3.2 seconds and a 218-mph high velocity. Nonetheless spectacular by as we speak’s requirements, these numbers had been earth shattering in 1991. The EB110 was briefly the world’s quickest manufacturing automotive, although the file would quickly go a sure McLaren F1.

After the preliminary pleasure died down, issues rapidly unraveled. Monetary points, together with money owed incurred by Artioli after an funding in Lotus, despatched Bugatti into chapter 11. Simply 128 automobiles had been accomplished earlier than manufacturing ended, though a handful of further automobiles had been later accomplished by Germany’s Dauer utilizing spare chassis, a few of which had been additionally used for the SP-110 Edonis Fenice introduced in 2018.

VW acquired the rights to Bugatti in 1998 and the remaining, as they are saying, is historical past. In 2019, Bugatti unveiled a tribute to the EB110 known as the Centodieci. It is a coach-built particular primarily based on the Chiron, with styling impressed by the EB110 and an $8.9 million price ticket. All 10 automobiles rapidly bought out.