1-of-1 Bugatti La Voiture Noire spotted testing

The Bugatti La Voiture Noire was one of the star debuts of the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show, but the car on display was a design buck, moved about using a low-powered electric motor. Fast forward to today and the car’s owner, whoever he or she may be, is still waiting on the final thing.

Bugatti on Tuesday released photos of a prototype being tested at a racetrack, and said the car needs to be developed on both the road and track at length before it can be delivered. Yes, even though the La Voiture Noire is a one-off, is still goes through the same development process as Bugatti’s higher volume models. We’re talking around 65,000 engineering hours.

The La Voiture Noire isn’t the only Bugatti testing at the moment. We recently spied a prototype for the Centodieci testing at the Nürburgring. And prototypes for the Chiron Super Sport 300+ have also been out and about since last summer.

Bugatti La Voiture Noire

The La Voiture Noire’s underpinnings are shared with the Chiron, and power will also come from the Chiron’s 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged W-16. The engine delivers 1,480 hp in the Chiron but Bugatti’s recent one-offs have been receiving a 1,577-hp version of the engine.

In case you’ve forgotten, the La Voiture Noire (translated from French to “the black car”) is meant to honor a particular example of the Type 57SC Atlantic, a treasured Bugatti built in a handful of numbers between 1936 and 1938. The La Voiture Noire honors Jean Bugatti’s Type 57SC Atlantic that went missing at the onset of World War II.

When all is said and done, it will be one of the most expensive new cars ever sold with a price of $12.4 million, unless some other company decides to one-up Bugatti in the meantime. The new Rolls-Royce Coachbuild division is a strong contender.