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May 27, 2023

Bugatti EB112

Hopefully, one day there will be a documentary on the pre-VW days of Bugatti. Because here was a company, under the guidance of Romano Artioli, that brought to market a supercar with a quad-turbo V12

Hopefully, one day there will be a documentary on the pre-VW days of Bugatti. Because here was a company, under the guidance of Romano Artioli, that brought to market a supercar with a quad-turbo V12 and a manual gearbox. Even in the 1990s, it was crackers. And also brilliant - Michael Schumacher famously bought an EB110 SS. Even before the Bugatti name was attached to the fastest car in the world - and many decades after the original icons - was a truly fascinating (if ill-fated) period in its history.

The EB112 is arguably an even more ideal representation of those bizarre years. Back when the executive saloon was the car of choice for the world’s wealthiest, Giorgetto Giugiaro was commissioned to preview how a four-door Bugatti might look. It followed soon after the incredible EB110 (the years of each name relating to the time since Ettore Bugatti’s birth) and would be powered, of course, by a V12. Not the EB110’s 3.5-litre, however, but a new 6.0-litre unit mounted behind the front wheels for better weight distribution. Even without a single turbo this time around - the spoilsports - the new engine produced 460hp at 6,300rpm, which made it capable of 186mph. Some achievement for a four-door car in 1993 (just think of the furore around the Lotus Carlton’s 177mph potential at the same time). With 30 years having now passed, and today in fact marking the great designer’s 85th birthday, Bugatti has seen fit to remind the world of what might have been.

It remains a low-slung, distinctive-looking thing. There's more than a hint of the modern-day EV fastback about it. There are familiar Bugatti cues on a very unfamiliar silhouette, too, including the horseshoe grille, EB110-style wheels and the rib that runs from the bonnet all the way through the car, splitting the rear window in two. Now it’s recognisable from the Chiron; back then it was a nod to the Type 57 SC Atlantic.

Furthermore, while it might not seem it now when a modern Bugatti looks something like a Bollide, it’s possible to track the evolution of the design language from this 30-year-old concept. The EB112 is interesting enough as a carbon-tubbed, aluminium-bodied fastback with a 3.5-litre, 60-valve V12, but there is more to it than that. Giugiaro was brought back in when VW assumed stewardship of Bugatti from 1998; seemingly impressed with what he’d produced earlier, GG created concepts clearly influenced by the ‘112 when asked. Both EB118 two-door and EB218 four-door from 1998 and 1999 respectively were undoubtedly inspired by the 1993 car, but brought the design language closer to what would eventually become known as the 21st-century Bugatti look, See the way here the side profile sweeps up into the glasshouse - it’s very Bugatti. Just bigger. And a tad bulkier…

VW didn’t abandon the idea of a four-door car, either, with the 16C Galibier shown at the 2009 Frankfurt show. Like the EB112, it boasted a crazy engine - now the Veryon’s W16, with two superchargers - and rear-biased four-wheel drive. It too brought some familiar Bugatti cues to a more family-friendly shape, but the project was cancelled three years after that first concept showing. And another fastback in the mould of either seems unlikely now, despite the Rimac guardianship and the EV world’s fondness for such a thing. Doing the same as everybody else isn’t really Bugatti’s style, is it?

Instead, these latest pictures offer us a chance to wish many happy returns to Mr Giugiaro - thank you again for the De Tomaso Mangusta, maestro - and remember the Bugatti that time largely forgot. Out of just three produced, only one was fully homologated. Its makers are certainly still proud: “The Bugatti EB112 was a true pioneer, an avant-gardist to how the saloon segment of the automotive world would radically change following its unveiling. Here was a car, in 1993, that created a completely new segment for Berline Coupé cars; before it, there really was no high-performance sedan that took on the attributes the EB112 delivered, forming visionary design with outstanding power and luxury in abundance. It has come to represent an important milestone in this Bugatti’s deeply rich automotive heritage,” said Luigi Galli, Bugatti’s Specialist Heritage and Certification. He’s not entirely wrong, either, as saloons were very stoically designed at this stage - and tend to be more curvaceous now - though it’s notable how the V12 manual wasn’t taken on as a powertrain choice for luxury saloons going forward. That would have been madder than the EB110 - even pre-VW Bugatti wasn’t quite that audacious. Had it been, that documentary would already have been made…