Culture Car News New Car Sells for Over $3 Million
Posted by admin on Friday Sep 5, 2008 Under Culture Car News
Culture Car News
What with the economy in the doldrums and gas prices near record highs, most of us can’t afford to spend much on our next car. The poor sap who bought the first Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport at auction earlier this week, for instance, could afford to drop only $3.19 million on his ride.
Left Lane News explains, "Over the weekend, Bugatti unveiled an open-top version of its 250-mile-per-hour Veyron supercar. Dubbed the Veyron Grand Sport, the car debuted at the Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance and retains the coupe’s 16-cylinder engine and 1001 horsepower output." The conventionally-topped Veyron is the fastest production car ever built. Bugatti gives no details on the targa version’s top speed, but we assume that the reinforcements needed to make it road-safe with no roof have added enough weight to drop it a little below that of its 250 mph sibling. Bugatti plans to build only 80 open-top Veyrons. The first one sold at an auction Monday, according to Autoblog. "With the Grand Sport prototype up on the auction block, bidding started at $1.7 million and finally rested with a final offer of $2.9 million. The auction premium of 10 percent then brought the total to $3.19 million." For those willing to settle for owning the second or third Veyron targa, Jalopnik notes, "pricing for the ultra-exclusive convertible is set at €1.4 million, or about $2 million." Monday’s bidder paid "a paltry $900,000 for the privilege of owning the first one." Left Lane News adds, "In addition to just owning the first Grand Sport on the block – which would likely be the case no matter which number chassis ended up in the buyer’s garage – the winning bidder will work with Bugatti during every stage of the production process to ensure the car is tailored to their exact specifications" Still, we wonder if the buyer would have been happier with 31 Corvette ZR1s. Or 275 Smart Fortwos — seating for 550 people in little cars. Or 311 Chevy Aveos — for a total of 30,478 horsepower (bet that V16 looks pretty paltry now…) Research the best Exotic Sports Cars with U.S. News’ car rankings and reviews.
