Auto Blitz: Bugatti

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Halo Intersceptor Design Study is a Bugatti-like Flying / Swimming Car for Billionaires

I wasn't aware of this, but apparently billionaires absolutely despise leaving their cars to board other modes of transportation. You can just imagine Donald Trump sighing heavily in the back of his Maybach, "Do I really have to open the door and climb up those five little steps to board my Gulfstream V?"

No doubt feeling deeply for these disheartened millionaires, U.K. concept designer Philip Pauley has come up with the Halo Intersceptor [sic], a futuristic study for a car that can be transformed into a plane, a helicopter and even a boat.

Bugatti's Veyron is the Mustang of the hypercar pack. With a special/limited edition seemingly coming out every few months, it certainly isn't lacking in color choices. The only problem has been that under all the fancy paint options, the only real "option" has been to Gran Sport or not to Gran Sport.

If there was ever a supercar suitable for the likes of Sacha Baron Cohen's fictional alter-ego, Borat the 'Kazakh', this is it: the Mansory Bugatti Veyron 16.4 LINEA Vincero d'Oro (Italian for "gold"). It's a follow up on last year's LINEA Vincero drenched inside and out in gold and dark-colored carbon fiber.

Exterior modifications over the standard Veyron include a new front fascia with a unique grille in a gold finish and a different apron, a shorter bonnet, LED daytime running lights, side skirts, modified fenders and a new rear diffuser. Mansory also added larger air outlets at the rear and at the sides of the car along with new wheels made from a special gold-colored alloy.

What you're looking at here is the Hidalgo, a re-skinned Mercedes-Benz SLK AMG with obvious styling influences from the 1930-era Bugatti Type 57 models including the iconic Atlantic. It's the work of a Swiss firm called Helvetic Motor Company (H.M.C.), which to be honest, we have never heard of before.

Think of the Hidalgo as something like the European equivalent of Japan's Mitsuoka Himiko Classic which is based off the MX-5. The Swiss replica is powered by the SLK AMG's 5.5-liter V8 engine producing 355HP and 376 lb-ft of peak torque, good enough to get the Hidalgo from zero to 100km/h (62mph) in a claimed 3.4 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 250km/h (155mph).

The ludicrously powerful Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport special may have set a new world speed record a couple of weeks ago at the VW Group's Ehra-Lessein proving grounds in Germany, but (apparently) the supercar is still being tested on normal roads. Our amigos from Diariomotor stumbled upon an undisguised example of the Super Sport hanging out with two more "standard" Veyrons somewhere in Spain and made good use of their camera and camcorder.

If you're a fan of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, then you're going to love the new, limited edition Super Sport model that was officially revealed on Sunday. The crème de la crème of the Veyron family is faster, lighter and of course, more powerful than the... banal series production model.

How much more powerful and faster, we hear you ask? Well, the carbon-fiber skinned Veyron 16.4 Super Sport gets a massaged 16-cylinder turbocharged unit pumping out 1,200HP, or 199HP more than the standard model (or at least that's the official number from the automaker).

Over the weekend, Bugatti's engineers took the black and orange Super Sport to the VW Group's proving grounds of at Ehra-Lessien nearby their headquarters at Wolfsburg.

"In the presence of the German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV) and a representative of Guinness Book of Records the Super Sport achieved an average top speed of 431.07 km/h [268 mph]," said the company in a statement.

A couple of weeks ago we showed a video (see it here) with a Bugatti Veyron crushing a pair 730HP Nissan GT-R Switzer models in a straight-line duel in Moscow, Russia. Now a second video has appeared on the web with some Russian guys pitting the 1,001HP Veyron model once again against the Nissan GT-R at a drag strip.

We don't know if it's the same cars or not, but this time, the Veyron gets its bulbous buttocks whipped by the GT-R. Don't ask us how Godzilla managed to pull that out - maybe it was hooked up to up to a nitrous bottle or something, maybe the Veyron had some sort of problem, we have no idea- but it did. Watch the second round after the jump.

While we sincerely hope that no other supercar maker will ever follow in the degrading footsteps of Aston Martin and it's luxed-up Toyota iQ, the Cygnet, we have no problem whatsoever with photoshop artists attempting to imagine the impossible.

In this case a pair of Bugatti and Bentley superminis, both of which would, in theory, be based on the VW Group's Polo, Ibiza or Fabia hatchbacks. The two designs were created by Autoblog.nl reader Jasper van der Heiden. Check them out after the jump.

A group of students from China's Xi'an University displayed their creativity and artistic ability by building a Bugatti Veyron (or at least something that resembles the supercar) out of 10,280 discarded cigarette packages. The life-size replica, which is powered by an electric motor, is said to weigh some 300 kilograms or about 661 pounds. The... smoking work of art was created to raise awareness for this year's world "No Tobacco Day" on May 31.

The answer to the question we posed in the title comes to us in the form of five different conceptual studies, all made by Russian designer Vladimir G. The drawings show proposals for various kind of boats inspired in design by Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati and Bugatti models as well from Mercedes-Benz's SLS AMG Gullwing supercar. Hit the jump to see the complete gallery.

When it comes to straight-line acceleration, there are a few (if any...) street-legal cars in this world that can compete with the VW Group's 1,001-horsepower-strong Bugatti Veyron 16.4 supercar.

As you can see in this video that was most likely shot in Russia, even a pair of heavily-modified Nissan GT-Rs tuned to churn out some 730HP (or so it is claimed) are having a hard time keeping up with the Veyron. Of course, the Bugatti costs as much as two-dozen or so Nissan GT-Rs, but that's another tale for another time... For now, follow the jump to watch the clip.

Terry Cook (owner of Deco Rides in New Jersey, a company that creates Generation II Boattail Speedster bodies) wanted something special, something along the lines of a Bugatti and Delahaye. The catch, other than price, was that he wasn't willing to cut up an original.

"Starting with one of his composite bodies,...he radically modified the design incorporating styling ideas from a number of different cars, [while] the body itself was designed eight years ago for Cook by top hot rod builder/designer Chip Foose."

On its way to a debut August's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is this number one stunner: the Delahaye Bella Figura Bugnotti 57S.

Developed in concert with Revolution Design Studios and drawing inspiration from the Bugatti Type 57S, it's meant as a tribute to Jean, Ettore Bugatti's son.

The Bugnotti's carbon fiber body was crafted with help from 3G Services. Delahaye will offer "a carbon fiber finish where you can see the weave of the cloth through a clear coat. Or you can have your choice of a painted body of carbon fiber and composite, or all composite." There will be three body styles available: Coupe, Drophead Coupe, or Targa.

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis does NOT like Bugatti's Veyron. No really, he utterly hates it. For example, he recently call Bugatti's Veyron a "piece of junk", saying it only beat McLaren's F1 in the famous Abu Dhabi Top Gear race after ten tries.

Dennis vented a bunch in an interview with Arabian Business, and his actual words are decidedly more entertaining than mine.

"The Bugatti Veyron is a complete piece of junk. I think it is. I believe I can look at a range of women and I can see beauty in most of them, but I can look at a Bugatti and I think it is pig ugly."

"The Veyron doesn't do anything for me. I've been looking at it for years, and I don't see one single thing that makes me feel good."

The more we see of the Bugatti 16C Galibier, the higher the chances that the VW Group will green light the super saloon for production - that is, if the Germans haven't signed it off already.

In this new batch of photos that were released after a special media presentation at the Volkswagen Group Evening on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show, Bugatti included pictures of the 16C Galibier in a black-only finish.

The VW Group threw a special party in Geneva for all its automotive brands the night before the opening of the Swiss international motor show. Those that attended the event had the chance to check out some of the many debuts planned for the Geneva Salon that runs for the public from March 4 to 14.

Among the cars on show were Porsche's 918 Spyder Concept, Bentley's Continental Supersports Cabrio, the Seat IBE Coupe concept, Skoda's Fabia RS, the Audi A1, Lamborghini Gallardo SV, VW's Sharan MPV and Amarok pickup truck and the Bugatti 16C Galibier that's pegged to enter production in the near future. Hit the break to for the complete photo gallery.

We're not sure when or if Bugatti will present a direct successor to the 1,001-horsepower Veyron, but if the VW Group-owned company does, John Mark Vicente, a Canadian graduate of the Communication Design program at the Emily Carr University, would like to believe that it may look something like this. Named the Bugatti Renaissance, the conceptual proposal builds on the qualities of the 16-cylinder supercar. Hit the jump to check out the rest of the photos.

Source: Jmvdesign , Via: Carpictures

Bugatti Files Trademarks for 16C Galibier Sport Sedan

The bean counters over at the Volkswagen Group are still gauging customer reactions to the Bugatti 16C Galibier concept to see if there's enough interest to build a production version, but just to be on the safe side - we all remember the Chinese Rolls Royce Phantom clone - they decided to trademark the design of the sports saloon at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The trademark was applied for the concept model, so there's new to be seen in the design sketches.

If the 16C Galibier receives the 'green light', it will most likely go on sale after Bugatti ends production of the Veyron production in 2012.

The almost production-ready concept model features a 16-cylinder, 8.0-litre flex-fuel engine with two-stage supercharging that is believed to produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 horsepower.

Power is channeled to all-four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission while Bugatti also developed a unique suspension and special ceramic brakes for the sports saloon.

Bugatti Unveils Trio of Special Edition Veyrons at Dubai Motor Show

To honor the importance of the Middle East market to its automotive business, Bugatti swiped the wraps off two unique cars, the Veyron "Sang d'Argent" and the Grand Sport "Soleil de Nuit", as well as a special series of five Veyrons dubbed "Nocturne", all of which will be sold only in the Middle East, at this week's Dubai International Motor Show.

Limited to just five units, the Veyron Nocturne sports a black finish with polished aluminum body parts and custom rims along with galvanized side windows. Inside, this special edition Veyron features a black nanocoated magnesium dashboard and a centre console in galvanized Platinum.

Moving on to the one-off specials, the Veyron "Sang d'Argent" coupe combines a silver paint finish with polished aluminium parts and a Havanna interior with quilting pattern on seats and saddle and other personalized items.

The Grand Sport "Soleil de Nuit" features a two-tone paint scheme with the Black Blue Metallic color enriched by mirror shine body parts and trim while the interior is finished in a strong burnt orange shade.

All three cars will be available for delivery to their Middle East owners in the first quarter of 2010 with prices ranging from €1.45 million for the "Sang d'Argent" and €1.55 million for the "Soleil de Nuit", the Veyron and Grand Sport one-off models, to €1.65 million for the five car "Nocturne" series.