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www.thevillagenews.co.za
20 November 2019
Two rare breeds meet face to face Writer Elaine Davie
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fter a successful land grab of the slipway in Betty’s Bay by the Stoney Point penguins, members of the boat club decided the best they could do would be to turn the situation to their advantage. Which is how it came to pass last Wednesday that two of the world’s rarest species came face to face at the scene of the take-over. Visitors to the endangered African penguin colony at Stoney Point got more than they bargained for that day, as five of the sleekest, most expensive and rarest cars in the world growled to a halt outside the boat club, each sporting the famous EB marque of the House of Bugatti, 110 years old this year. The eyes of the bemused bystanders popped, and gasps of astonishment could be heard as the owners rolled rather than climbed out of their unique, low-slung works of automotive art. This elite group of well-heeled aficionadas and their passengers, mainly from Germany and Argentina, were on a tour of the Western Cape and on into a small piece of the Eastern Cape. Every year for the past five years a group of these Bugatti fans have travelled to a different part of the world, to see the sights, of course (hence the penguins), but most of all to test their cars under different road and climatic conditions and to share notes and their passion with one another. This is luxury travel at its most exclusive. The convoy of six of these supercars (one of them confined to a carrier van until the owners, side-lined by visa problems, can be reunited with it) is accompanied by 24 support staff, including a doctor, technicians, security staff and car cleaners. The smallest organisational detail has been taken care of by the specialist travel company ‘2 Fast 4 You’ based in Milan, Italy. Its director, Franco Majno, is himself the proud owner of a vintage 1922 Bugatti, and is President of the International Bugatti Club. Since 1995 Franco has organised over 80 luxury car tours, but as he confesses, “Of course, each one has been special, but what can I say, the past five with Bugatti, they have been extra-special. My clients and I, we are all in love with the same thing.” So what is it about Bugatti that elevates it above all the rest? Well, it’s the history of course; it’s the engineering and hand-tooling, as well as the speed and performance of the cars; it’s their rarity and their classic beauty. Now part of the Volkswagen stable, they are still manufactured in limited numbers in the town where they were first launched in 1909, the brainchild of Italian entrepreneur, Ettore Bugatti. Born in Milan to a family of artists, he was only 17 when he designed his first car and 28 when he founded his own sports car manufacturing plant In Molsheim, Alsace, then part of Germany. The first cars he produced were of course racing cars in which he merged innovation and creativity with tradition. In the 1920s his Type 35 set all records, winning more than 2 000 races including the Grand Prix de Monaco. This record is still unbeaten. His engineering skills were legendary and he introduced ground-breaking
ABOVE AND RIGHT: Four of the five Bugatti hyper sports cars during their pitstop in Betty's Bay on Wednesday. FAR RIGHT: Bugatti owners hold up a Springbok flag to show their support after South Africa's Rugby World Cup win. innovations, including the use of aluminium wheels 95 years ago in his Type 35 racer. In all, he registered 500 patents and his son, Jean is credited with having designed some of the most beautiful cars in the world. The Bugatti brand dominated the race tracks between 1925 and 1930. However, for the Bugatti family at least, the story would not end well. Before, during, between and after the two world wars, the province of Alsace ping-ponged between Germany and France, with both countries at different times nationalising the firm. Ettore poured everything he had into suing the French government for return of the company that he had built from scratch with so much love and hard work. The court case was won in 1947, but sadly, by that time Ettore had passed away, a broken man. Shortly after that the company closed down and although the brand changed hands a couple of times, its only noteworthy achievement occurred in 1995 when the then owner, Italian entrepreneur, Romano Artioli, launched the very first car made of carbon fibre, the EB110, before going into liquidation. Finally, in 1998, Volkswagen bought what was left of the once proud company and decided to recreate it from scratch in its original setting in Molsheim. By that time, the car had morphed into what had become known as the hyper sports car. In 2005, amidst great fanfare, the magnificent Bugatti Veyron was launched, followed two years later by a five-car production run of the Veyron Pur Sang. In 2013 one of these ultra-rare cars came on the market for US $2.98 million. The Veyron brand was discontinued in 2015 when it had reached a total production run of 450 cars. Fulfilling the dream of Volkswagen’s top dog, Ferdinand Piech, it was described as ‘the world’s most powerful, fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive production super sports car’. However, in 2016 the fabulous Chiron was launched with a planned limited production run of 500 cars spread over a period of several years. Earlier this year exactly one model was produced of La Voiture Noire at a price of US $19 million, but that aside, on the 2019
list of the world’s most expensive cars, Bugatti fills both the 6th and 10th places. The 2019 Chiron comes in at just under US $3 million and at a road speed of 261 mph is the fastest production car in the world. And there were five of them, these indescribable beauties, outside the Betty’s Bay boat club, with the penguins in the background. Bugatti CEO, Stephan Winkelmann, whose own net worth has been estimated at around US $1.2 billion, once described the typical Bugatti customer as ‘a selfmade man, from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Japan who collects cars (in his garage the average car number is 30) and may own private jets and yachts’. And there some of them were, nonchalantly greeting the locals and taking a comfort break. With customers who expect to get what they want at a snap of the fin-
PHOTOS: John Floyd gers, planning for a trip like this has to be meticulous, and organiser, Franco and his assistant, Elena Preda made three scouting trips to South Africa over a period of a year. “We originally thought we would do a trip round the whole of South Africa,” says Elena, but we were so impressed with what the Western Cape has to offer that we decided to go no further. From a driving point of view, the roads are excellent and the terrain is so varied – I mean, there are coastal roads, mountains, the flatness of the Karoo, everything – and the scenery of course is fabulous. The owners like to get off the beaten track a bit, too, so that’s why we chose Betty’s Bay for a stop. But she says the clincher for them was the friendliness of the people and the food. “We are Italian,” she laughs, “you
can imagine how important food is for us and this area is a gastronomic paradise – everything is so fresh, so well-prepared. We knew our clients would love it and the excellent accommodation available.” And then with a diminishing growl they were gone, these exotics; all but one that is… owner had lost his car key! Italian drama; chaos; running round in circles, cell phones clutched to ears; German owner striding up and down with clenched jaw. Mama mia! Who had it last?! Ah… One of the other drivers, well on his way to the next stop, had picked it up by mistake; it was in his pocket. Problem solved. A team member dispatched to bring it back and beers all round. A memorable visit to Betty’s Bay – nothing ordinary for Bugatti!
Some impressive figures: The Chiron utilizes ten radiators: three heat exchangers for the airto-liquid intercoolers, three engine radiators, one for the air conditioner, one to cool the transmission oil, another to cool the differential oil and finally one to keep that engine cool. The top speed is electronically limited to 420 km/h for safety reasons, specifically related to the specially developed tyres. The manufacturer states that no ordinary tyre would be able to handle the stress at the Chiron’s maximum speed. Acceleration figures according to Bugatti are 0-97 km/h (0-60 mph) 2.4 seconds, 0-200 km/h 6.5 seconds and 0-300 km/h 13.6 seconds. A modified Chiron driven by Andy Wallace, became the first production hypercar to crack the 300 mph (482.803 km/h) mark with a speed of 304,77 mph (490.479771 km/h). A continuous top speed run is only possible for approximately 12 minutes as the fuel consumption at full
power would empty the 100-litre tank within that time. You would be covering 7 km of road every minute requiring more than 84 km of said road, not including braking distance. Fuel consumption at top speed is around 120 l/100km, but at normal driving speeds the Chiron would return 22.5 l/100 km. Such speeds require a serious braking system. Carbon fibre, cross-drilled, radially-vented discs with lightweight aluminium monobloc calipers employ eight titanium pistons up front and six at the rear ensure that the Chiron’s hyper speed is rapidly retarded. As a safety precaution the handbrake is equipped with anti-lock braking and at speeds above 200 km/h the rear wing becomes a 55-degree air brake in just 0.4 of a second. As well as being the world’s fastest production car it also ranks as the world’s most expensive new car. Bugatti’s La Voiture Noire, of which only one will ever be built was sold for a staggering $18.68 million. It
will take two and a half years before it is delivered to its new owner. Every new Chiron which began production in 2017 is priced at around $3 million before personalizing and taxes and only 500 will be built. The 1937 Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupé of which only three remain are worth in excess of $40 million (R588 000 000). Perhaps you consider this type of vehicle an example of world excesses, I see it as a culmination of man’s unbelievable ambition to preserve a motoring legend and continue to develop and produce one of the world’s greatest cars, it ranks, in my book, as the earth-bound equivalent of a Concorde. Each car built is sold at a loss, so why does VW continue to produce it? I think it is simply for the immense pride and the fact that they can.
Read motoring journalist John Floyd’s full story at Floyd on Cars on thevillagenews.co.za
