Bugatti EB110 Super Sport Top Speed
In 1992 this was the fastest production car in the world. Four turbochargers, a carbon fibre chassis and all-wheel drive were all extremely unusual then, and the Super Sport weighed 150 kg less than the standard EB110 because much of its bodywork was carbon fibre. Most rivals were still using steel.
Full specifications
About the EB110 Super Sport
This is the Bugatti most people have never heard of, and it is the one that makes the modern cars make sense.
In the late 1980s an Italian businessman named Romano Artioli bought the Bugatti name and built a brand new glass factory at Campogalliano, near Modena. The car he produced there was extraordinary for 1991. A 3.5 litre V12 with four turbochargers and sixty valves, a carbon fibre tub, and drive going to all four wheels at a time when most supercars were rear drive and fairly crude.
The Super Sport arrived in 1992 with more boost, less weight and a stripped interior. 612 PS and 1,418 kg made it the fastest production car in the world, and Michael Schumacher famously owned one.
The company went bankrupt in 1995 after roughly 139 GTs and a small number of Super Sports. The factory sat empty for years. But Volkswagen bought the Bugatti name a few years later, and the Veyron followed. The Centodieci exists specifically to say thank you to this car.
Specifications from manufacturer figures. Photography © Bugatti Newsroom.