L'Ultime marks end of Bugatti Chiron production

There have been 499 Chirons before this one-off Super Sport - we won't see its like again

By Matt Bird / Thursday, 30 May 2024 / Loading comments

As has become 21st century Bugatti tradition, there have been quite a few limited edition and one-off Chirons since its introduction in 2016. Think Golden Era, Super Sport 300, Pur Sport, 57 One of One and so on. The Chiron Profilée sold for nearly 10m euros. But even by special standards, this Chiron - christened ‘L’Ultime’ - is notable. Because it’s the 500th car, the very last one to be built at Molsheim before the new hybrid era.

Bugatti has really gone to town on it, then, creating a ‘vibrant piece of bespoke art’. L’Ultime is based on a 1,600hp Super Sport, the 25cm extended body adorned with two-tone paint that blends together French Racing Blue and Atlantic Blue. The wheels are colour-coded to each end, the Bugatti macaron in the grille is unique, and the words on the side are ‘hand-written places and events that helped to build the legend of the Chiron’. Apparently the lucky customer was keen to pay home to everything that the car had achieved, a vision that Bugatti’s Sur Mesure department has lived up to. The number ‘500’ has been hand-written on the wheel caps and rear wing, and the French flag is on the mirrors. The Atlantic Blue grille is unique to this Chiron. The interior is described as a ‘carbon fibre symphony’ with a colour scheme that mirrors the outside. All the leather is hand-cut, stitched and applied.

‘In every gleaming detail of the Chiron Super Sport masterpiece, Bugatti reaffirms its place as the paragon of automotive excellence’, proclaims the press release proudly. Hard to quibble, either; even in an automotive era where time moves faster than ever, a hypercar launched eight years ago still stands as the class of the field. Nothing else has quite combined performance and luxury like the Chiron.

Bugatti President Christophe Piochon added: “The Bugatti brand is built not only on pure performance but on absolute craftsmanship, sophistication and elegance, forming the very pinnacle of the automotive sphere. This very special Super Sport - the final masterpiece in the era-defining Chiron family - embodies those values, sublimely connecting such incomparable core attributes with ease and purpose.’ You might call that a fond farewell. Not that Bugatti will be slowing down at all; without Chirons left to produce, focus can turn to the Mistral and Bolide - then it’ll be on to the all-new hypercar…