The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 has been on the market for eight years now, but we can’t say we’ve grown tired of it yet. In its most recent iteration, the Grand Sport Vitesse, it’s actually the fastest roadster on the planet—recently setting an open-top speed record of 254.04 mph on Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien test track. Now Volkswagen’s ultra-luxury subsidiary is offering the Bugatti Legend Jean-Pierre Wimille, a model designation that masks the fact that it’s actually an elaborately made-up Grand Sport Vitesse.
The Legend Jean-Pierre Wimille, of which just three examples will be built, is named after a former Bugatti test driver and two-time Le Mans winner. It’s the first in a series of six “Legend” models, which the French marque will launch throughout the year—all of them based on the Grand Sport Vitesse. And right now, Bugatti will say only that each Legend edition will bear the name of a person that has played a pivotal role in the brand’s history.
The Legend Jean-Pierre Wimille is finished in light blue paint and blue carbon fiber, a color scheme that alludes to the original Bugatti 57G Tank that won Le Mans in 1937. The specific application of paint and carbon fiber manages to lend the Veyron a slightly more angular and contemporary look than its bulbous silhouette would otherwise suggest. The Legend Jean-Pierre Wimille’s interior is modified as well, styled to give “history a modern makeover,” as Bugatti designer Achim Anscheidt puts it.
- Feature: 200-mph Club—Scorching the Mojave Mile in a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport
- First Drive: 2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport
- Feature: Inside Château Bugatti
No changes have been made to the Grand Sport Vitesse’s remarkable powertrain, and that’s just fine by us. The Legend Jean-Pierre Wimille’s quadruple-turbocharged W-16 still churns out a whopping 1200 horsepower. We can’t wait to find out to which technological heights the next generation of the Veyron will take us, but we can already tell you that we will miss the legend that is the current model.
Source: CarAndDriver
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