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1-of-1 Bugatti La Voiture Noire Returns to Market With Its Original Owner Finally Revealed

1-of-1 Bugatti La Voiture Noire Returns to Market With Its Original Owner Finally Revealed

Commissioned in secrecy, delivered in 2021, now reemerging through a tightly controlled private sale process at $28.8 million

For years, the single-unit Bugatti La Voiture Noire stood out as the ultimate automotive mystery.  Unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show by then Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann, the one-off hypercar was already sold for approximately €16.7 million, about $18.7 million including taxes, even before it was revealed to the public. 

The La Voiture Noire featured on the cover of our May 2019 issue was recognized as the world’s most expensive new car. Bugatti described it as a one-of-a-kind “haute couture” creation. Only the Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail, priced between $30 million and $32 million, and the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, at around $28 million, have since surpassed them when looking at the most expensive cars in the world.

The secrecy around its ownership fueled intense speculation. Names ranged from elite athletes to high-net-worth collectors. It turns out the hypercar was purchased by former Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piëch. The deal actually took place back in 2019, but it was never officially confirmed, fueling endless speculation.

Piëch’s influence on Bugatti runs deep, and the French marque recently paid tribute to him in January this year with the F.K.P. Homage, which was a Solitaire one-off. He pushed the development of the legendary 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged W16 engine that powered the Veyron to its record-setting 253 mph top speed back in the mid-2000s. He famously sketched the W16 concept by hand while traveling at 199 mph on a Japanese bullet train. 

That same architecture sits at the core of La Voiture Noire. Designed by Etienne Salomé, the car itself draws directly from the lost Type 57 SC Atlantic, one of four built in the 1930s. One chassis, known as “La Voiture Noire,” vanished before World War II and remains missing. Bugatti’s modern interpretation carries six exhaust outlets, a sculpted black carbon-fiber body with a prominent dorsal fin that runs along the length of the vehicle, and proportions that echo the original Atlantic’s long hood and fastback profile.

Piëch sadly passed away in 2019, the same year the car debuted. Delivery followed in 2021, transferring ownership to his son, Anton Piëch. This one-off hypercar is currently being offered through a discreet broker. According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, which says it has access to exclusive sales documents, La Voiture Noire is offered through a discreet process of submission of offers for 23 million Swiss francs, or about $28.8 million. 

The move ties directly to funding needs for Piëch Automotive, the electric vehicle startup co-founded in 2017 by Anton Pïech. The company continues to face delays and has yet to bring a production model to market. This sale closes a rare loop in automotive history.

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Images: Bugatti

Khris Bharath