Bugatti EB110 Endurance Racers: Time for Tea?
The almost forgotten story of how Bugatti built two EB110 endurance racers - fabulously retold for your pleasure
The Bugatti EB110 may not have been the marque’s most successful venture, but it’s certainly one of its coolest. Sure, an output of 560hp is no longer particularly noteworthy, particularly from a quad-turbo V12, but a top speed of 213mph is certainly nothing to be sniffed at.
It’s easy to see why, then, that despite the financial difficulty which would eventually scupper the EB110 project, and lead to the company’s sale to Volkswagen, Bugatti’s ambition for the car remained unabated. The decision was therefore taken to build two examples for endurance racing: the EB110 LM for Le Mans and the EB110 SC GTS-1 for the IMSA GT championship. Now a fantastic short film has been created, telling the story of those cars, and the men who created them.
On how the film came to be made its director, Davide Cironi, explains: “The owner of the two racing cars contacted me a year ago, inviting me to visit him to make this film, and we were picked up at the airport by what I assumed was a lowly assistant. But no, it was the owner himself driving the van, one of the world’s most passionate collectors.
Bugatti confirms Chiron 'Divo'
“Within a few hours, an astonishing series of guests began to arrive on various flights from across Italy: there was Loris Bicocchi, Romano Artioli and Giampaolo Benedini, plus Giampaolo Simonini, Fabio Baroni and Vittorio Filippini – the latter a technician so in love with his work that it was almost poetic.”
Their tales of the car’s conception, from the racing transmission’s design and eventual demise to the troubled development of its single wheel nuts are fascinating on their own. Compiled together as they are here though, and supplemented by plenty of period footage, they make for a highly compelling way to spend half an hour. Enjoy!
The winning car was a Group C car that wasn't really (really?) a Group C car, but we had a Pantera, a Callaway Vette, F-40, a pair of Lotus Esprit, a 300ZX, several Venturis, a trio of NSX and a couple of Vipers. As I recall, the weather was perfect that year also.
Quite possibly one of the most dismissive comments written and rather disrespectful.
So it doesn't do 60 in 1.5 seconds or reach 120 in 3? is that really an issue??
Most dismissive comments of what - all time? Very Trumpian! Why even bother posting, what possible value is provided- why am i even bothering to reply in fact....!
(although for the record - these days that output seems crazy low considering the hardware. How times change...)
the best performance figuers I found were on wiki
The French magazine sport auto measured 0–100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.3 s, 0–400 m in 11.0 s, 0–1000 m in 19.8 s and a top speed of 351 km/h (218 mph)
So the top speed is higher than an Aventador, 918, Enzo, and even a P1
So actually its still a very fast car just not as able as things 20 years on.
EB110 SS in yellow please.
Lottery win purchase #1.
Dont give a flying one about how it looks relative to modern performance cars, or how badly the interior has aged. The fact is its a tiny well proportioned gorgeous car in my view.
And even though an E63s will eat it alive off the lights, that misses the point entirely.
For its time, it was one of two/three cars that were romantically perfect (operationally flawed) nearly bankrupted their owners (and the manufacturers) and were lusted after / talked about by everyone who saw them on the road.
Jag XJ220
McLaren F1
being the others
(IMHO)
Great article to see out the working week !
Cheers
Trev
Still waiting for someone to stick modern rubber on them to see just how quick they still are.
EB110SS performance figures were and still are, insane. A 1/4 mile in 11 seconds and a standing km achieved in 19.8 seconds...the same as a Lamborghini Aventador
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