Bugatti EB 110 Is the Ultimate One-Off 1990s Hypercar
Quad-turbo AWD EB 110 was the ultimate – and only – Bugatti until the W16-powered Veyron zoomed onto the world stage.
Popular YouTuber Doug DeMuro has driven a lot of obscure and rare vehicles, including the Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf sedan and the Spyker C8. Bugattis aren’t exactly common cars and he’s evaluated several of them, but in certain ways, the 1993 EB 110 he reviewed recently is the ultimate one-off from the hyper-exotic brand.
We mean that figuratively, of course. The EB 110 was far from being a 1-of-1 creation. According to Bugatti, the EB 110 was in production from 1991 until 1994. DeMuro points out that in that time, it only produced “less than 150 EB 110s for the entire world.”
It’s the surrounding circumstances that make the EB 110 such a rarity. If you go to Bugatti’s website and look at its timeline of historic vehicles, you’ll see that it jumps from the 1950s straight to the EB 110 in the 1990s. That (and the lighter, more focused EB 110 Super Sport) was the only model Bugatti made in that wide span of time.
Then there’s where the EB 110 was made. Bugatti, a renowned French automaker, was technically an Italian manufacturer in the ’90s. Romano Artioli, an Italian industrialist, bought Bugatti and had an entire factory built in his home country just for rolling out EB 110s. And that’s all that Bugatti made in that giant building. By the mid-90s, Bugatti went bust again. The EB 110 went on to become known as the Dauer EB 110 after the German company bought up the remaining EB 110 parts and engines. The EB 110 also served as the starting point for the B Engineering Adonis.
Even the EB 110 itself is a (somewhat) modern oddity, which becomes even more apparent as DeMuro points out its – you guessed it – quirks and features. The signature Bugatti horseshoe-shaped grille is front and center, but you have to look for it. It doesn’t really flow with the front fascia aesthetic, but Bugatti made sure to put it there in some shape or form.
The windshield wiper is probably the most unusual one we’ve ever seen. DeMuro says, “If you look really closely, you can see one, two, three individual wiper blades, all on the same wiper arm.” Each one faces a slightly different direction to maximize cleaning coverage.
Inside the EB 110, there’s an assortment of gauges and switchgear that also appeared in other Italian exotics of the time. A series of buttons allows the driver and passenger to pop their scissor doors up a little so they can manually raise them the rest of the way; one particular button serves a purpose that remains unclear. The gray leather buckets look the part, but feature Poltrona Frau’s logo prominently on the back cushion and push the Bugatti logo to one side of the headrests. Getting refreshing cool air on the driver’s side is as simple as using the front vent on the passenger’s side.
While the EB 110 does have four turbos and all-wheel drive like its successors, its mechanical heart is a 552-horsepower 3.5-liter V12, which is connected to a six-speed manual gearbox. Two fuel doors aid filling it up with gas. The catch is that the one on the driver’s side can only be opened by pulling on a ring under the engine cover.
Despite its age and the fact that it’s an Italian hypercar, the EB 110 is surprisingly civilized and refined when DeMuro drives it. “A lot of cars like this, from this era, had pretty difficult clutches, but not this one. This one just kind of goes in and it actually feels pretty smooth and sweet.” The same goes for the shifter.
In the end, we’re left questioning whether it would’ve been better if the 1990s incarnation of Bugatti had stayed in business or things had gone the way they did, which led to the Volkswagen Auto Group resurrecting Bugatti again and turning it into the stratospherically lavish, capable and expensive brand it is today. We can’t say we’re disappointed with the current reality, but the EB 110 makes us wonder, “What if…?”
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