Bugatti EB110

TIPPED BY: PIERRE NOVIKOFF

‘I had the chance to meet Romano Artioli,’ says Pierre. ‘Before that, I hadn’t really been impressed by the EB110, but after chatting to him and learning about the car I came to understand it. Then I drove one and it was so impressive – the noise, the technology, it’s amazing.’

Italian entrepreneur, Bugatti collector and Ferrari dealer Artioli acquired the rights to the Bugatti brand and brought in some of the biggest names in supercar design to create the EB110, packing in all kinds of cutting-edge technologies. The production cars, of which just 139 were produced between 1991 and 1995, used a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis, four-wheel drive with a rear-biased torque split and active aerodynamics. The engine was a 3.5-litre quad-turbo V12 with 60 valves, giving the EB110 performance that would still rival most supercars in 2021 – 212mph and 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds.

‘The shape is typical for its period and very pure,’ says Pierre. ‘It’s a little bit muscular; brutal but elegant. It’s not like anything else. I’d rather have one than a Porsche 959, for example.’

The comparison with other poster cars of the era is interesting. The 959 is trading around the $1m/£800k mark, while the F40 (another early adopter of carbonfibre) has made another leap, taking it closer to £2m – see p68. The EB110 was built in GT form with a few lighter, even faster SS models that now attract a premium that takes them into seven figures, but GTS are stuck at £450k£500k, for now. That’s not much more than a Countach LP400S.

‘As life gets harder for combustion engines, people will seek out the most exclusive, exciting cars,’ says Pierre. ‘The EB110 is one of the origins of the hypercar; it will always be special.’