Bugatti EB 118


The Bugatti EB 118 is the first concept car developed by Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.. The 2-door coupé was presented at the 1998 Paris Motor Show. Bugatti commissioned the design of the EB 118 to Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign. The EB 118 is powered by a W18 engine and has permanent four wheel drive.

Design

The design of the car is intended to echo the 1931 Type 50 and the 57SC Atlantic. The EB 118 has a longitudinal rib that echoes the Atlantic's longitudinal body seam.

Debut

Bugatti debuted the EB 118 at the 1998 Paris Auto Show. After its Paris debut, Bugatti again displayed the EB 118 along with its four-door counterpart the EB 218 at the Geneva Auto Show and the Tokyo Motor Show in 1999. The car itself was already production ready, but Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. decided that they wanted to focus on a sports car based on the 18/3 Chiron concept car introduced in 1999, meaning that the EB 118 stayed a concept car and never made it into production.

Powertrain

Power comes from a Volkswagen-designed W18 engine which produces and of torque. The EB 118 W18 engine is composed of three banks of six cylinders with a sixty degree offset between each cylinder bank. In contrast, the W16 engine in Bugatti's first production car, the 2005 Veyron EB 16.4, features four banks of 4 cylinders in Volkswagen double VR configuration. and 4 turbochargers, hence the "16.4" name of the engine. The EB 118 also features permanent four wheel drive taken from the Lamborghini Diablo VT.
This same powertrain would be used later in both the 1999 EB 218 and 1999 18/3 Chiron concepts.