Pebble 2019: Bugatti Centodieci recalls the EB110

Bugatti has debuted its latest hypercar, the Centodieci, at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering in Carmel Valley as part of the Monterey Car Week.

The Centodieci, which is Italian for 110, is a Chiron-based homage to the Bugatti EB110 of the nineties. The original EB110 was one of the seminal designs of the modern hypercar, initially done by Marcello Gandini but completed by Giampaolo Benedini, who softened Gandini’s design after ‘the Master’ refused to compromise his angular vision for the car.

The EB110 – which stood for Ettore Bugatti 110, after the 110^th anniversary of the founder’s birth – had a number of innovations which previewed the modern hypercar. Its chassis was a monocoque made of carbonfibre, it sported an active aerodynamics system and it featured all-wheel drive (as well as a quad-turbocharged engine, which has only been seen since on current-era Bugattis).

The homage revealed at Quail is Chiron-based, designed with graphic elements that recall the EB110; the tiny horseshoe grille at the nose, the five circular cut-outs behind each side window, plus a very prominent rear wing. Angular vents and boldly-spoked wheels complete the package.

Narrow, deeply inset L-shaped headlight graphics transcribe the outline and unique air outlet around the EB110’s large quadrilateral units, creating a subtle aero channel and assuring a unique DRG. The massive C-shaped side vent of the Chiron – itself a homage to Bugattis of old – is removed and smoothed-over, while a line instead wraps around the back of the five-hole intake and then runs as a crease into the front wheel, similarly to what we saw on the Divo but more angular in execution.

Beneath the bridge-like break in the rear bodywork – itself inspired by the EB110’s diffuser outline – two pairs of stacked exhausts sit within a vast diffuser with colour-matched edging.

Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti’s design director, commented on the challenges of merging EB110 and Chiron: “The EB110 is a very flat, wedge-shaped and graphically quasi two-dimensional supercar of the late 1980s. It was technically challenging to transport this classic look into the new millennium and integrate it into the underlying Chiron platform, to say the least. We had to create a new way of combining the complex aerothermal requirements of the underlying Chiron technology with a completely different aesthetic appearance.”

The homage itself may preview the design of a rumoured SS model of the Chiron, although if that does transpire, there will nevertheless be enough differences to ensure the Centodieci is a unique design statement.

Production is to be limited to ten cars, each with an eye-watering $9m (£7.5m) price tag. If you like what you see, then bad news: it’s already sold out.