Artist Bernar Venet captures the winning formula with this one-off version of the Bugatti Veyron.
With its unique, spaceship like design and an engine capable of launching it to a top speed of 250 mph, the Bugatti Veyron has more than occasionally been described as a “work of art.”
That term now truly applies, the French-based supercar maker rolling into the Geneva Motor Show with a unique one-off model dubbed the Bugatti Grand Sport Venet. That’s a reference to the popular French painter and sculptor Bernar Venet who was asked to create what Bugatti has dubbed “art on wheels.”
During a preview of the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, the artist admits he was highly skeptical when first approached by the supercar maker, a division of Germany’s Volkswagen AG. “I told them it was impossible,” Venet explained, asserting that the Bugatti Veyron “was already a work of art. Would you paint on a Michaelangelo?”
But eventually, the automaker prevailed, Venet laughing that, “When they want something, they get it.”
He began working on the project at the recent Art Fair Basel in Miami, with the finished project on display at the Geneva Motor Show which opens this week.
The unusual design starts out with a two-tone yellow and brown version of the 2-seat supercar and, from a front view, appears to pick up on the “drip school” of art pioneered by Jackson Pollock. But a closer look reveals that Venet has integrated mathematical formulas into the overall design.
That’s something he has done in a number of his works – but in this case, he explained, he turned to Bugatti engineers to give him formulas “that helped the car go faster than 400 kmh (250 mph).”
Bugatti plans to place the work into a museum and has set no price tag for the one-off sheet-metal canvas, which is a fully functional Veyron. Somewhat wistfully, Venet admitted that while he might have liked getting one of the special models, “The artist…doesn’t have the money to buy this car.”