Bugatti is marking the 20th birthday of its extraordinary Veyron with a special-edition hypercar that pays tribute to the ‘mad genius’ who designed it, Ferdinand Karl Piëch. But there’s bad news if you’re a billionaire car collector. The ‘FKP Hommage’ is a one-off, coach-built creation. And it has already been sold.
Still, a lack of buyability has never stopped us from reading and writing about Veyrons before. So here are the details of this strange creation, which combines old and new elements pulled from the Bugatti parts cupboard.
Bugatti
Bugatti Head of Design Frank Heyl introduced the FKP Hommage at a glamorous event in Paris last week. He was flanked by four different production Veyrons, following a spectacular nighttime parade of historic Bugatti models through the streets of Paris, escorted by official French horse guards.
The FKP is best described as a ‘what-if’ model. What if Bugatti had continued making and developing the Veyron beyond its 2006-2015 production lifespan? As a result, it sits on the latest evolution of the Chiron Super Sport chassis, with its superior braking, wheels, and aerodynamic packages, and uses the Chiron’s 1,600-hp quad-turbocharged, eight-liter engine. Bugatti has declined to release performance figures, but the Chiron Super Sport has a top speed of 273 mph (~440 km/h) and reaches 0–62 mph in 2.4 seconds.
The exterior carries familiar older Veyron cues, including its odd, leaning-back posture and dropping beltline, while adding a distinctive multi-layer ‘Rouge Jubilé’ paint finish. This is an evolution of the original ‘Absolute Red’ seen on the Veyron. Eyewitnesses report extraordinary visual depth, contrasted by black-tinted exposed carbon fiber.
Bugatti
Detail updates include slimmer LED daytime running lights, tinted ‘tunnel’ LED rear lights, and a more sculpted, muscular body with larger air intakes. The retractable rear wing remains, but there is a rear diffuser that’s two inches larger, along with active front diffuser flaps for added high-speed stability.
The horseshoe grille and steering wheel are machined from solid aluminum blocks. Somewhat oddly, the center of the dashboard features a bespoke 43-mm-wide Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Tourbillon watch. It is fully integrated into the dash and can be rotated. Bugatti appears slightly embarrassed by this flourish and has been quick to point out that it was added at the customer’s request.
The most subtle tribute of all is Ferdinand Piëch’s date of birth, April 1937, almost invisibly etched into the driver’s knee rest.
Bugatti
For those unfamiliar with him, Piëch was an eccentric and autocratic engineering mastermind responsible for the original Audi Quattro and the modern VW Beetle. While riding a bullet train in Japan, he sketched the idea for an 18-cylinder road car and purchased the Bugatti company name in 1998 to make it a reality. The Veyron 18.4 Concept debuted at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show. Piëch eventually settled for 16 cylinders, but still created a car capable of accelerating from 0-62 mph in under three seconds while remaining comfortable enough to take him and his wife to the opera. The Veyron was shown in production form in 2005, with customer cars arriving a year later.
Veyron production may have ended, but Bugatti is still milking the idea. Two ‘unique masterpieces’ are built each year under what is known as Programme Solitaire. The company says it offers “enthusiasts the opportunity to create truly bespoke, one-of-a-kind vehicles that reflect their individual vision.” The enthusiasts in question are not your average car fans of course. Car Magazine researched the costs of the one-off FKP and estimated a price of around half a million UK pounds (~ US$670,000)… just for the in-dash clock.
The whole car is believed to have cost the owner more than €10 million (around US$12 million). The buyer remains unknown, although it has been confirmed that the car will stay in Europe. Bugatti Solitaire’s first creation, the Brouillard, went to a well-known and extremely wealthy Bugatti collector based in the Netherlands.
Source: Bugatti
