The 2006 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 that cruised around Ketchum and Sun Valley over the weekend costs $1.54 million dollars. It is the fastest, most expensive production car on planet Earth.
Tom O'Gara—who raced in this weekend's Janss Cup on the winning Team France along with Michel Rudigoz, Ed O'Gara, Scott Wheeler and pro Maggie Acker—owns an exotic car dealership in Beverly Hills, Calif., and arranged for the car's cameo in Idaho. The car gave added incentive to event donors; $10,000 bids earned them the chance to take the car for a spin on Sunday or at a future time in California.
There are currently just two Veyrons in the United States. This particular Veyron 16.4 (named for the winner of 1939 Le Monde, Pierre Veyron, and the car's 16 cylinders and four turbo engines) has accrued roughly 16,000 miles as the company tours it around the country in search of buyers. So far, 70 orders for the luxury super-car have been placed worldwide.
After five years in planning and production, the car is an engineering dream. Its 8-liter, 1001-horsepower engine give it 50 percent more power than the Ferrari Enzo, the Italian car company's highest-powered model. The Bugatti's 21-inch wide tires are the widest on any production car in the world. It's insanely fast: zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds, and zero to 180 mph in 16.7 seconds. The car has seven gears, but first gear can safely take the speed up to 62 miles per hour without redlining the odometer.
"It is a rocket," said Pierre Henri Raphanel, the former Formual 1 driver who accompanies the car around the country. In Ketchum, he was joined by Steven Giese and Georg Lamp, a team of German mechanical engineers who also traveled here with the car.
With or without the car's incentive, the Janss Cup, which benefits the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, was a huge fund-raising success.
"This money enables us to give extended financial aid for travel expenses, which can be three times as great as tuition alone, for families with athletes on A-teams," said Kate Berman, Janss Cup event organizer. "We are overjoyed with our ability to extend the financial aid to these families."
Richard McClure and Tammy Riggen of Hailey look on as Steven Giese, a Bugatti technician, reads the computer diagnostics on the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, the fastest, most expensive production car in the world. Photo by David N. Seelig
