Bugatti: This summer’s must-have accessory

The Bugatti Grand Sport tips the horsepower scale at more than 1,000. (Photo by Adam Elder)

Local millionaires: Your new must-have ride is in town. For only $1.8 million, the shiny new Bugatti Grand Sport can be yours. Heck, why not own the first one on your block?

In an effort to get the word out about this new supercar now sold in La Jolla (one of just 11 cities nationwide), Bugatti and Symbolic Motors invited local journalists to take it for a test drive. My escort? Butch Leitzinger, an American Le Mans Series race car driver.

This was going to be good, and I hadn’t yet taken it off the lot.

See related: Teen driver tearing up the track

Even in La Jolla, the Bugatti — topless, with its ultra-streamline contours, horseshoe grille, and visible rear-mounted engine — stopped traffic. Which is fine on Prospect Street, where cars crawl along anyway. But Highway 52 was a different story. Indeed, the most dangerous aspect of the Grand Sport isn’t the 1,000 horsepower — it’s all the rubberneckers sticking cameras and cell phones out the window of their own cars, trying to get a photo. Or even that rare breed who insists on trying to race such a machine.

But before I could take the reins, Leitzinger was charged with driving the French-Italian monster off the lot and out of La Jolla. Even when you’re surrounded by elegant leather, the stiff carbon fiber seat and stiffer suspension make for a (necessarily) rough ride. Every time Leitzinger accelerated briskly enough for the turbo to kick in, the twin air intakes behind our heads opened with a loud “whoosh,” as if the G-forces alone don’t do enough for our visceral experience.

Since first gear tops out quite high (the car is capable of 0-60 in 2.7 seconds), Leitzinger waited for an onramp to the 52 to clear, then floored it. In the passenger seat, I felt like I was sitting in a roller coaster — one accelerating uphill. Pinned to the back of my seat, I instinctively stepped on the floorboard to stop, although the car stopped soon enough once Leitzinger mashed on the silicon carbide brakes. The car stopped abruptly, but not before I asked Leitzinger for assurance that Bugatti manufacturing’s quality control is top-notch.

My time in the driver’s seat was short but unforgettable. For a car possessing 1,000 horsepower, the steering and handling is so fine-tuned you feel in complete control at full acceleration. This is no runaway horse. And no need to worry about getting lost: The GPS display is built into the rear view mirror. Even if you do get lost, the $30,000 sound system will no doubt calm you.

After negotiating the rolling paparazzi on the highway and returning to La Jolla, Leitzinger had the brilliant idea of returning the car by way of Prospect Street. We felt like a million bucks (literally, in this case) for five minutes. Women shouting to their husbands to look; nods of approval from BMW drivers; bug-eyed valets at La Valencia; cameras clicking and carte blanche on the street; We turned the heads of females, for a change. I suggested we take it by the ocean to get some photos, and while I snapped away, Leitzinger — who gets plenty of time with the Bugatti escorting journalists all around the country — couldn’t help but take a photo as well.

“I feel a little like Santa Claus,” he says of his moonlighting gig. “The best part of this job is that no one really ever leaves unhappy.”

Indeed.

The only discontent I felt was saying goodbye to the machine upon returning to Symbolic (where more people had wandered over to take a look). It could be all mine — only the pricetag is standing in the way.

Adam Elder is the Web editor for San Diego Magazine, where this story was first published.

Tags: Adam Elder, Bugatti, Butch Leitzinger, Grand Sport, La Jolla, SDNN, Symbolic Motors, Veyron

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Business, Lifestyle, Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.