The first day of my Bugatti tour a Bugatti van driven by a Bugatti PR person picked me up from the hotel. It took about 15 minutes to get to the Bugatti factory. The factory is a pretty secure area, set on gorgeous, green acres. The place is a mix of classic and modern architecture. The main factory is set in a 'space age' structure that looks like something out of NASA. The reception, service, and office areas are located in the stable and library of a restored Chateau.




Upon arrival, I was greeted by the Marketing Director, and some other staff, and led to the reception area. There, right in front of me, was an all-black Bugatti, and inside the open reception room, another black Bugatti, along with the very unique (and incredibly gorgeous) Sang Noir Bugatti. Deeper indoors, was the Hermes edition Bugatti (Prototype), also very unique and gorgeous. I was offered refreshments, and some time to relax in their seating area before we started the tour.




First, I got the tour of the grounds, and comprehensive history of Bugatti. Inside the Chateau they had a mini Bugatti museum. The Bugatti offices were located upstairs. They had gutted out the original Chateau, and redone it with the interior resembling the Bugatti trademark insignia oval. I got some education in the Chateau's history, discovering that this belonged to the original Bugatti founder Ettore Bugatti. Also located here were a few items that they pitched for sale including a Bugatti Vault for 60,000E/$94,500, a Bugatti Watch for 150,000E/$236,250, and Bugatti Pens and Perfumes, also in astronomical prices.




We then took a tour of what used to be stables, but is now the service & repair area. Though regular service can be done here, it is mostly for 'level 3' service which are major repairs & fixes that dealers cannot provide. Three cars were in there, but I was not allowed to take pictures of 'owned' vehicles. Two more were outside waiting to be serviced. So far I had seen 6 different Bugattis in half an hour!







The last part of the tour was a visit to the main factory, where photography & video was unfortunately not allowed. Inside I saw approximately 8 Veyrons in various stages of completion. I discovered that the cars are assembled here, no manufactured, as parts come in from several different places. I got to see the bare engine up close, the gearbox, frame/substructure, the cooling systems and electronics, down to the raw unpainted bodywork. There was even the highly prized Pur Sang Veyron in its final stages of assembly. Every Veyron has 4 work teams, each with their own workstation. The meticulous attention to detail and quality control is beyond anything found in a production car factory.






Once back at the reception area, I got to finalize the details of my car. Four sample seats were located, each representing the 'comfort' or 'sport' seats in medium or large. I chose to get 'sport medium' for my seats. I then got to pick out the interior which ended up being Azurro (black/blue). I had originally chose 'silk', which is a light cream color, but from what I was told it gets dirty quickly. The exterior color was then confirmed, where I picked the two tone setup of Sterling Silver and Anthracite Grey. A few other options were offered such a 'stone chip guard' for about 7000E/$11,025, which I decided against because you can see the clear bra lines. I decided to get the 2 year extended warranty for 50,000E/$78,750 (the base warranty is only 2 years). I really liked the Sang Noir/Pur Sang wheels (they look more "space age") over the standard Bugatti wheels, so I selected that as an option as well (another 50,000E!)






Once again, I was picked up in the morning by the Bugatti van. At the reception area I received details on my special drive and met up with the Chief Test Driver Pierre (whom I had met twice before). Take note that this is an 'option', costing about 7200E/$11,340, but it was very well worth it. Pierre devised this 'feel the road' program, because the Bugatti Boss wanted something like it to be created for the customers. I found out that I am the first client to experience it!
It starts with a 30 minute technical presentation, detailing all aspects of the car, along with a lunch.





I did full acceleration tests, launch control, breaking, evasive maneuvers, all on different simulated road surfaces. One point was reinforced -- because the special tires have very shallow threads, on a very wet surface -- do not drive over 30mph or expect to lose control of the car. Then some driving around the smaller track -- moving to the main track and doing several rounds. It was further reinforced that though the car is capable of keeping up with any of those cars on the track, and beating them because of the speed on the straightaway, it is not a track car. After two rounds on the track, it requires cooling down of the breaks and such, so it cannot maintain the constant driving someone would want on a track day.





All this newfound experience was then put to use, on some mountain roads near Molsheim. Beautiful twists and turns, different grades, it allowed me to apply the experience gained from the track to real life driving. By this point, I was very comfortable with pushing the car to its limits on the road. Overall, I did over 200 miles of driving! A lot for a single day. We finish with a dinner at a beautiful restaurant in a historic part of Molsheim, having good conversation with Pierre, the Chief Driver.