Repainting a New Bugatti at the Factory Takes Seven Months, Tennessee Owner Finds

The story is pretty straightforward: a married couple of Bugatti owners (there can’t be too many of them around) decided they had enough of feeding their passion for the German-French hypercars with used examples, so they bought a matching pair of brand-new automobiles.

Not just any Bugattis, but the Chiron Super Sport – and it took a while for the factory to deliver the cars. His was completed first, and he took possession of it and enjoyed it for a time. Then, while observing the personalization process that his wife dictated for her example, he realized something: he wanted an upgrade, too, and called for a change.

No, he didn’t change the wife, if that’s what you were thinking, but he returned to Bugatti and required that his example be modified to match hers. Faster said than done (not necessarily easier, since money already has the extraordinary ability to make everything silky smooth) because changing a bespoke Chiron Super Sport isn’t a weekend job.

What the husband wanted was a new livery that would resemble the one on his spouse’s car. But, since every single Bugatti is unique, changing the original design requires patience, extreme accuracy, and much time. The Molsheim-based company has a dedicated team for designing and crafting every single detail the customer asks for - the Bugatti ‘Sur Mesure’ (‘To Measure’ would be the closest translation from French).

The original idea came from a Veyron theme from 2011, the L’Or Blanc (White Gold), the world’s first car covered with fine porcelain (see it in the gallery). The hypnotic livery (Vagues de Lumiere – Waves of Light) takes weeks to complete, starting with the two-dimensional sketching of the contours, lines, profiles, and shapes that will adorn the finished product. That’s the easy part – transporting those drawings onto the three-dimensional body of the Bugatti is a whole different affair.

Every little detail has to fall right into place with sub-millimeter accuracy, so the body panels are taped, and each layer of paint is applied by hand. If lines are out of place, the process is repeated until the result is flawless. With the coloring stage cleared, the clear-coating is next until the resultant paintwork imbues the car with an aura of brightness and energetic, vibrant colors. Hence the name of the red-orange Chiron, L’Aura (‘The aura’ in English).

Once this intensely colored Bugatti was completed, and the woman received it, her man started having second thoughts about his own Super Sport. Finally, he decided to take it back to Bugatti for a double customization in the style of his wife’s unit.

From Tennessee, the hypercar crossed the Atlantic back to Molsheim for a long rejuvenation. Note that the super-luxurious grand tourer was as close to brand new as they come, and even the Bugatti officials were not accustomed to such a request.

Nonetheless, the company set to work – a seven-month-long project that involved replacing several of the original body panels with new, visible-carbon-fiber ones. The ‘old’ hood, roof, engine lid, and rear wing were thrown away, and new ones were fitted.

To install the Sky View roof, the entire structure of the cockpit cover was detached from the monocoque. Before any of the above were initiated, the interior had to be stripped to bare bones to prevent dust contamination. The final result of this transformation is not a mere refreshment but a completely new car bearing the exact specifications of a fresh-out-of-the-oven example.

The panels were realigned with razor-sharp precision – otherwise, the exposed carbon fibers would not fall perfectly in place as a continuous flow. Finally, after the bodywork, the car was sent to the painter. That’s singular, as in ‘one person’ – a dedicated master painter who worked exclusively on this car for four weeks to give it its fluid livery.

Subtly christened ‘Coup de Foudre’ (the French phrase has the literal meaning of ‘Stroke of Lightning,’ but its widespread translation is ‘Love at First Sight’), the blue Chiron Super Sport has handcrafted door panels and two-tone wheels in French Racing blue.

This couple of Chirons draws their inspiration from the one-of-a-kind Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, the world’s first car to wear porcelain on its body and inside the cockpit. Created in partnership with a famous German manufacturer (Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin - KPM), the Veyron was first unveiled at the Quail in 2011. At its launch, the price for the one-off was €1.65 million ($2.35 million). You can find out more about that unique creation from the attached document.