1998 Bugatti EB118, design and coachwork by Italdesign
| March 16, 2008
Before creating the 1,000 hp, $1.5m Bugatti Veyron, Volkswagen, the parent of Bugatti, spent nearly ten years developing prototypes worthy of the reintroduction of the great Bugatti name.
The 1998 Bugatti EB118 was one such example. This car, although wrapped in luxo-coupe clothing, was a beast unlike any other car the world had ever seen. Under the hood of the EB118 sat what was then the first 18-cylinder automotive engine in history. The engine was capable of unequalled power and a top speed exceeding 200 mph. Three banks of six cylinders were coupled into a W shape creating 550 BHP. The car had four valves per cylinder (72 total valves) and all wheel drive. The interior was luxuriously appointed.
Introduced at the Paris Motor Show in 1999, VW had at the time intended to produce the EB118 in limited numbers. Prior to any production, however, VW needed to complete a factory near the site of the original Bugatti factory on Alsace, France.
Now, nearly ten years later, with the new Bugatti factory complete and fully operational, the EB118 has all but been forgotten. It’s DNA, however, is still very prevalent in the 16-cylinder Veyron supercar. The Veyron, by the way, is the quickest accelerating and decelerating road-legal production car in the world - and it was the world's fastest car until it was beaten by the SSC Ultimate Aero TT in 2007.