There is only one Bugatti La Voiture Noire and no one knew who owned it. The answer was in the Porsche garage

For years, the owner of the most exclusive car in the world It was quite a mystery. Only one example of the Bugatti La Voiture Noire exists and, since its presentation at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, no one has officially confirmed who had purchased it.

That made the Internet full of theories and speculation: from elite footballers to oil sheiks. So much so that the then CEO of Bugatti, Stephan Winkelmann, publicly denied that the buyer of this gem of collecting out Cristiano Ronaldoone of the most repeated names for having several Bugatti in his garage and enough financial liquidity to afford their purchase.

The mystery had remained intact until now.

A work of art inspired by a missing car. He The Black Vehicle was born as an obsessive tribute to one of the most legendary automobiles in history. Bugatti designed this unique example looking at the Type 57 SC Atlanticcreated in the 1930s by Jean Bugatti, son of founder Ettore Bugatti. Only four units of that Atlantic were manufactured, and one of them, precisely the one known as La Voiture Noire, disappeared without a trace before the Second World War, and has never been found.

The 2019 model takes up that heritage with an overwhelming technical proposal in the purest Bugatti style: 8-liter W16 engine with 1,500 HP, four turbochargers and six exhaust pipes that emerge on each side of the body as a direct nod to the design of the original Atlantic. With its black lacquer finish, sculptural lines and the weight of a legend on the body, Bugatti sold this unique specimen to an unknown owner for around 16.7 million euros.

The mystery solved: Ferdinand Piëch, grandson of Porsche. It is now known that the Bugatti La Voiture Noire never really left his home since it was Ferdinand Piëch who acquired it. Piëch was the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the brand that bears his surname, and one of the most influential engineers and managers of the 20th century in the automotive world. During his time at the head of the Volkswagen Group, he was the main architect of the Bugatti revival as an extreme luxury hypercar brand, driving the development of the impressive W16 engine that beats under the hood of La Voiture Noire.

The history of that engine has its own epic. The concept of the W16 block was hand sketched by Piëch On paper he was traveling at 320 km/h on a Japanese bullet train. As if it were a premonition, that same engine turned the Bugatti Veyron into the first production car to become a missile. capable of exceeding 400 km/h. Ferdinand Piech passed away in 2019the same year that La Voiture Noire was presented to the world. The car, however, was not delivered until 2021, then passing into the hands of his son Anton Piëch as heir.

The twist: the heir needs liquidity. Anton Piëch thus inherited the most expensive hypercar in the world at the time of its delivery. Now, however, he has made a decision that closes a symbolic circle: wants to sell it. According to sales documentation to which has had access to the German economic newspaper Handelsblattthe La Voiture Noire is offered through a discreet bidding process for 23 million Swiss francs, approximately 25 million euros.

The reason for the sale of such a motorsports legend is the need to finance Piech Automotivetheir own electric vehicle startup founded in 2017. The company has been trudging along for over a decade and still doesn’t have a production vehicle. According to sources cited by Handelsblattthe company is also exploring a possible integration under the umbrella of the Chinese group Chery, although neither party has confirmed the details.

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Image | Bugatti