Bugatti is well-known for its total win on the 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans, the place Jean-Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist piloted the Type 57G “Tank” to victory, however the model’s first manufacturing facility operating at Le Mans occurred six years earlier in 1931 and was, in typical French trend, a little bit of a protest. The three Type 50S race automobiles that competed at Le Mans in 1931 served because the inspiration for a brand new one-off Chiron Super Sport, and the story behind its untraditional black paint is fairly humorous.
While the corporate had seen main successes with small, light-weight Grand Prix race automobiles just like the Type 35, being aggressive at Le Mans was a complete ‘nother beast, requiring big, powerful engines that Bugatti just didn’t have. So alongside got here the Type 50S, which launched a brand new supercharged 5.0-liter inline-8 engine with twin overhead cams that produced about 247 horsepower, lastly giving Bugatti one thing to compete with and kicking off the corporate’s historical past of huge displacement. Jean Bugatti was satisfied that the Type 50S would have the ability to win at Le Mans, so the corporate entered three automobiles within the race.
From the start of auto racing, automobiles had been painted in a colour that represented the nation they hailed from, with essentially the most recognizable being purple for Italy, white or silver for Germany, inexperienced for England, and blue for France. The French blue has develop into a signature colour for Bugatti, however in 1931, the French authorities refused to sponsor the Bugatti group’s efforts, so the corporate painted all three Type 50S black in protest. (Bugatti says the black paint was additionally “a visual metaphor for a new approach” to the corporate’s racing.) Sadly, one of many Type 50S was concerned in an accident in hour three of the race after a tire failed at excessive pace, so Bugatti retired the opposite two automobiles to safeguard them from additional crashes.
Fast-forward almost 100 years, and a buyer approached Bugatti with the need to create a one-off Chiron Super Sport with a black-on-black colour scheme that will “appropriately celebrate Bugatti’s history.” Jascha Straub, the lead designer for Bugatti’s Sur Mesure division, used the Type 50S racers because the catalyst for the brand new Chiron, which is known as “Hommage T50S.” Specifically, Bugatti referenced chassis quantity 50177, the automobile you see in these pictures, that was pushed by Albert Divo (namesake of the brand new Divo) and Guy Bouriat within the 1931 race and now resides on the Loh Collection in Dietzhölztal, Germany.
Like the unique Type 50S, the Chiron is painted in “a dark and lustrous” black colour and has the quantity 5 painted on every door, the identical quantity because the Type 50S. The entrance grille has an aluminum encompass and a cool sq. mesh, with the quantity 5 prominently featured within the heart. “Le Mans 1931″ is written in script ahead of the rear wheel arches, and the underside of the active wing has the layout of Circuit de la Sarthe as it was in 1931.
It’s hard to make an all-black interior look interesting, but there are a couple things in the Chiron that do the trick. White stitching adds some nice contrast, with “Le Mans 1931″ embroidered in the headrests, and the door panels have hand-applied drawings of the Type 50S. Knee-protector panels on each side of the center console are finished in an engine-turned aluminum called “Perlée,” with one facet getting “1931″ written on it and the other having the track outline, and there’s a third Perlée piece applied to the storage cubby behind the shifter.
The coolest detail on the Hommage T50S is something Bugatti hasn’t done on any modern car. In a call-back to the ‘30s cars, the Perlée finish is applied to the 8.0-liter W16’s exposed engine covers, something Bugatti says Straub and the owner obsessed over. Each of the circular patterns had to be proportional and overlap in exactly the same way to stay consistent across each section, and it also had to be able to withstand decades of extreme heat and wear. Bugatti says that while this appears it could be simple to achieve, the Perlée engine accents are “the result of a long and complex process that ensures a perfect finish time after time.”
Black-on-black is far from what I’d want to do for my own Bugatti, but I think this Chiron is certainly classy, and it’s a really cool way to shed light on one of Bugatti’s more unknown historic models. “Having a customer so passionate in his desire to pay homage to this racing legend is a real privilege,” says Straub, “he and I spoke for hours, over many months, about the ways that we could create an authentic tribute, obsessing over every detail to ensure it was consistent with the Type 50S story.”
Bugatti’s managing director Hendrik Malinowski added that the Type 50S “may not have the reputation of the Atlantic, the Royale or the Type 35 but we managed to share our excitement for this car with the customer who recognized the importance of the Type 50S. It’s not just a modern-day design homage but a continuation of a story that began nearly a century ago.” As for the Chiron’s story, it’s nearly done. The final car in the 500-unit run has been completed, and the Chiron’s hybrid successor will be unveiled later this year.
Source: jalopnik.com