The
Bugatti EB110 is a
mid-engine sports car from
Bugatti Automobili SpA. It was unveiled on September 15, 1991, in both
Versailles and in front of the
Grande Arche at
La Défense in Paris, France, exactly 110 years after
Ettore Bugatti's birth.
The car has a
60-valve, quad-
turbo V12 powering all four wheels through a six-speed gearbox. The 3.5 L (3499 cc) engine has a bore of 81 mm (3.2 in) and a stroke of 56.6 mm (2.23 in) and is capable of 553 hp (412 kW; 561 PS) at 8000 rpm. Acceleration to 100 km/h (62 mph) takes 3.4 seconds, and the GT has a top speed of 213 mph (343 km/h).
[1]The car uses a
double wishbone suspension, with the chassis built by
Aérospatiale, an aircraft company, and made from
carbon fibre. Equipped with Gandini's famous lifting scissor doors, it has a glass engine cover that provides a view of the V12 engine along with a speed-sensitive electronic rear wing that can be raised at the flick of a switch. The shift-knob is placed closer to the driver so that less time is taken to shift. Five pre-production prototypes with aluminum chassis were built, followed by eight with composite chassis. Following these, it is believed that only 95 GT and 31 SS production models were constructed.
In 1992, a lighter and more powerful model with 603 hp (450 kW; 611 PS) at 8250 rpm, the
EB110 SS (SuperSport) was introduced. This car is capable of 216 mph (348 km/h) and 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds.
Early in 1994
Formula One driver
Michael Schumacher purchased a banana-yellow EB 110 Super Sport, giving the company a great deal of publicity.
[2] Derek Hill, son of American
Formula One Champion
Phil Hill, was one of the three drivers on a team that competed with an EB 110 in the United States at the 1996
24 Hours of Daytona.
Hard times hit the company in 1995 and, as result of chairman Artioli's over ambitious purchase of
Lotus in addition to the company's quest to develop the EB112 four door car, the company was bankrupt. Dauer Racing GmbH of
Nuremberg, Germany, bought the semi-finished EB 110 cars in the assembly plant plus the parts inventory through the bankruptcy trustee. The remaining chassis and a version of the engine were later developed by
B Engineering into their
Edonis sports car.
Despite later racing for Ferrari from 1996 onwards and a high profile collision with a truck the previous year (for which he blamed the braking system) Schumacher continued to retain the EB110SS. Schumacher sold the car in 2003 to Modena Motorsport, a Ferrari garage specialising in service, race preparation and sales of classic Ferraris in Germany.
Cars based on the EB110
B Engineering Edonis
The
B Engineering Edonis is based on the Bugatti EB110
Super Sport but has been extensively re-engineered, retaining little more than the
carbon-fiber chassis from the original Bugatti. Both the exterior and interior of the car have been completely redesigned. The 3.5 liter Bugatti engine has had its
displacement increased from 3500 cc to 3760 cc. The original four small IHI
turbochargers have been replaced by two larger units from the same manufacturer. Engine power has been boosted from 450 kW (603 hp) and 650 N·m (480 lb·ft) of
torque to 500 kW (671 hp) at 8000 rpm and 735 N·m (542 lb·ft).
In addition, the
4WD triple-differential drivetrain from the original Bugatti has been replaced with a much simpler and lighter
RWD transaxle, thus saving approximately 70 kg (154 lb) from total weight. These power figures give the 1,500 kg (3,307 lb) Edonis a
power-to-weight ratio of 480 bhp/ton. In addition, the engine's specific power output is an unprecedented 181 bhp/liter. The brand claims a maximum speed of 365 km/h (227 mph), while accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in only 2.9 seconds.
B Engineering plans to build only 21 vehicles from chassis originally built for Bugatti by
Aérospatiale (Most of the remaining chassis delivered to Bugatti prior to their bankruptcy were delivered to Jochen Dauer when he purchased the assets of the company). The Edonis is expected to sell for around €760,000.
As well as the
Edonis,
B Engineering also provide spare parts and service for the EB110.
Dauer Sportwagen in
Nuremberg, Germany, bought the remaining stock of EB110 parts from the
Bugatti factory.
[3] A complete spare parts
catalogue, with exploded
diagrams and part numbers is now available from Dauer Sportwagen. The company has used the few remaining incomplete chassis to produce the limited edition Dauer EB110.
The revised car weighs 507 pounds less than the 4,233 pounds of the original US-spec Bugatti. The European version weighed 4,145 pounds, but the Dauer car weighs only 3,726, despite adopting the longer US-style bumpers, which protect the car better. The crash beams behind the bumper skins are also made from carbon fiber.
The Bugatti engine is a 3.5-liter, quad-cam, five-valves-per-cylinder, 60-degree V12 with four IHI turbos. It originally came in two forms, with the EB110 GT rated at 560 bhp (420 kW) at 8,000 rpm and the "Super Sport" delivering 650 bhp (480 kW) at 8,250 rpm.
[4] The four-wheel-drive car can reach 60 mph (97 km/h) in just 3.3 seconds,
[4] achieve a standing kilometer in under 19 seconds and has an estimated maximum speed of 230 mph (370 km/h), some 7 mph (11 km/h) faster than the original. The company Dauer Sportwagen went bankrupt in 2008. All original Bugatti parts especially the high performance parts of the EB110SS and the equipment were bought in 2011 by the company Toscana-Motors GmbH (Kaiserslautern/Germany).
