Remember back in the olden days when you’d order something off the so-called Interweb and it would take so long to arrive that you would forget you’d ever bought it? Well, that’s probably what’s happening to eight very rich people in different corners of the globe right now…

That’s because back in 2019, they put down a deposit (or more likely paid the circa £4m asking price in full) for a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, and eight of the planned 30 cars are now ready for delivery. Result.

It’s been two years of testing and development for the longtail Chiron, with its 8.0-litre, quad-turbo W16 engine kicking out 1,578bhp to break the 300mph barrier. Bugatti says that a new thermal management system was needed for the engine and gearbox of the 300+, as well as new software for the powertrain and the turbochargers in particular.

Got an order in for one of the remaining 22 examples? Drop us a line if you’ll let TG have a go in it…

The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 'Golden Era' is perhaps the most challenging bespoke project that Bugatti has ever undertaken. It is the result of two years of innovative and bespoke craftsmanship, featuring entirely new techniques that elevate it from the world of automotive and into pure artistry. It is the very embodiment of the Bugatti Sur Mesure offering, in which customers' ambitious visions for their vehicles - which stretch beyond the already near-infinite levels of Bugatti customization - are brought to life in a collaborative process with the design team.

In this case, that vision came from a Bugatti collector with a deep appreciation for Bugatti history and for the intricate engineering of the W16 engine. Not only did he choose a Chiron Super Sport to celebrate the combustion engine design, but he wanted to appropriately pay homage to the history that had led to the creation of this engine. With this vision presented to Bugatti, the design team developed a proposal that captured the essence of what makes Bugatti special, told through its most memorable and extraordinary creations. And the result is: 'Golden Era'.

Achim Anscheidt, former Bugatti Design Director in charge of this creation, explains the ideation's starting point: "Our customers can be incredibly creative and we take great pride in helping them realize what they dream of, but extensive special commissions such as this are exceedingly rare - we usually see no more than one or two creations on this scale each year. Given the vision and exacting nature for this project - and the fantastical ideation we wanted to realize - 'Golden Era' is probably the most demanding piece of tailored personalization work that my team and I have ever worked on.

"A very important customer came to us and during our conversations, he expressed that he believed the Chiron Super Sport and its W16 engine represented a landmark moment in the world of the automobile. He wanted to do something truly unique in celebration. We looked back through Bugatti history to find a number of these landmark moments, including the times of Ettore Bugatti, Jean Bugatti and Roland Bugatti, which really marked the first golden era for the brand. And then, of course, the modern-day incarnation of Bugatti from 1987, picking out the icons from these times that came to define the Bugatti brand. Our team proposed a concept featuring 45 sketches of the brand's icons that would be hand-drawn directly onto the car itself, and the owner immediately fell in love with the idea. The implementation may sound quite straightforward, but achieving a perfect finish, and one that would last the test of time, took more patience and craftsmanship than you could ever imagine."

The customer himself has a great appreciation of Bugatti, and the designers' collaborative process with the owner - in which he made countless visits to the team to see the vision come to life - was sparked by his unbridled passion. Initiating the relationship between the customer and the Bugatti team in Molsheim - and overseeing the project through to its final stage - was Bugatti's trusted dealer partner located in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Bugatti Managing Director, Hendrik Malinowski, says: "Sur Mesure literally translates as tailored and it is this complete ultra-luxury customer-centric approach to car design that really sets it apart. Our teams will work hand-in-hand with our customers to craft exactly what they want, and then work closely with them over the course of months or even years to transform it into a reality. Each step, every decision and - in the case of the Golden Era - every stroke of the pencil, was completed with the close oversight and input of the owner to exceed his expectations in a way that no other brand is able to do."

The overall project for the car would capture the incomparable legacy of Bugatti, a story told through a composition of beautifully intricate sketches depicting milestones from the legendary brand. On the passenger side, 26 hand-drawn sketches reveal icons like the Type 41 Royale - lauded as the most luxurious car when revealed in 1926 - and the Type 57 SC Atlantic, widely regarded as the most beautiful car ever designed. It is a showcase of the moments when Bugatti changed the course of automotive history with its new innovations. On the driver's side, 19 sketches portray the rebirth and enduring success of Bugatti since 1987, tracing from the EB110, through the Veyron and Chiron. A beautifully simple representation of the 3,712 individual components that come together to create the legendary W16 engine - the most advanced automotive engine ever built - rightfully takes its place as a part of the masterpiece.

The team honed and refined their artwork for the project until they achieved precisely the right scale, proportion and form for each of the individual sketches, bringing them together to form one beautiful artwork. But this art would need an appropriate canvas. A bespoke color, a timeless and celebratory shade of gold named 'Doré', was created and applied to the car with a gradiented color split into a special metallic variant of 'Nocturne Black', creating the perfect base for the designers to begin the daunting process of sketching directly onto the car.

Achim Anscheidt continues: "It was very clear to us from the beginning that we can only achieve an authentic finish for these sketches - and at Bugatti authenticity is paramount - if we actually used the pencils that we use for sketching on paper - anything else would result in something looking fake or low in quality. So that's why we had to find a process that would allow us to use pencils and do all of the sketches by hand, directly onto the paintwork."

Of course, even for the most experienced and skilled designer, the task of sketching, purely by hand, onto a specially commissioned hyper sports car, was extremely intimidating. From the very first stroke of the pencil, this painstaking, manual process saw Bugatti's uniquely talented team of designers elevating their craft further still in pursuit of perfection. Inevitably, this took a great deal of time, and involved some setbacks along the way. But with extremes of passion, a degree of trial and learnings, the last one of the sketches was eventually completed, having developed a brand new technique to achieve the desired finish for the exterior artwork. In all, this stage of the process took more than 400 hours - testament to the complexity of the artwork.

To create a fully immersive celebration, the design team ensured their proposal would be reflected in the interior. On each of the door panels, three Bugatti icons were hand-applied with a bespoke paint and fine paint brush that would allow one of the design team to draw directly onto the leather. The EB110, Veyron and Chiron, legends of the present day, are facing the icons of the past that had inspired them: the Type 35 - the world's greatest racing car - Type 57 SC Atlantic - the most beautiful car in the world - and Type 41 Royale - renowned as the most luxurious car ever created - applied to the opposite side of the interior. When Bugatti's innovative past meets with its revolutionary future in a car that symbolizes the epitome of Bugatti's savoir-faire. New methods and processes were crafted to ensure that these details would stand the test of time. They sit proudly within the interior as a focal point of beautiful bespoke touches, including subtle 'Golden Era' stitching and hand-written 'One-of-One' motifs.

A timeless and incomparable homage to the era-defining moments in Bugatti history, the Chiron Super Sport 'Golden Era' is beyond comparison in the scale of its bespoke ambition; a project that could only have sprung from the minds of true Bugatti enthusiasts, and one that could only have been finished to such a perfect level of detail by the craftsmen in Molsheim.

The Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic, a timeless Jean Bugatti masterpiece now nearly 90 years old, has long captured the imagination of aesthetes and automotive enthusiasts and is still regarded as the most valuable and exclusive automobile in the world. Many of its design features including the bolted fin that runs the length of its body inspired Bugatti's modern design DNA. But this car is not just a reference for Bugatti's design team: one customer wanted to take things a step further, creating her very own tribute to the iconic Atlantic for her first Bugatti car, a Chiron Super Sport. This is how the '57 One of One' became reality.

Twenty years ago, the customer - a lifelong car lover - first saw a Type 57 SC Atlantic. "I remember the day like it was yesterday. I visited the Mullin Automotive Museum at Oxnard, and there it was, one of only three cars that still remain, on a pedestal all by itself. I fell in love with it from the very second I saw it," she said.

A wish for her very own Bugatti came true two decades later, when her husband - a Bugatti owner who shares the same passion and dedication to cars - surprised her for her 70th birthday with a personal invitation from Bugatti to come to Molsheim in France to configure her own Chiron Super Sport. With memories of that trip to Oxnard and a great deal of passion and excitement, she discovered the home of Bugatti for the first time. Jascha Straub, Lead Designer Sur Mesure at Bugatti, was on-hand to introduce her to the extraordinary history of the Château Saint Jean and the brand - the first part of a co-creation journey that would stretch over year.

"During her visit, when we passed a scale model of the Type 57 SC - the very first Atlantic and the exact one she had seen all those years ago - there was an immediate spark of recognition between us that this is the direction we should take. For years I have been idly dreaming of reinterpreting this icon, so I already had my own ideas of what I would do to honor the most elegant car ever designed. That meant that right away we could sit down and begin evolving the design, to realize her vision together," said Straub.

The striking silver-tinted blue hue, gleaming under the lights of the Mullin Automotive Museum, was imprinted in the customer's mind. For this vibrant homage there was only one color her and Jascha could envision. Yet, achieving this was no mean feat. Because each Sur Mesure project is meticulous in its process, immersed in even the tiniest details, and because referencing one of the greatest pieces of automotive design ever conceived required precision and humility, Jascha Straub travelled to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao where the original car was the central art piece in a temporary exhibition called "Motion, Autos, Art, Architecture. "That original car had such a deep effect on our customer that we wanted to get the exact same color for her Chiron Super Sport. What we really wanted to achieve is that, every time she sees her car, she feels the same emotion that she felt on that day 20 years ago, when her admiration for the Type 57 SC Atlantic began. I flew to Bilbao, with a color swatch that we had created, to observe the paintwork under different light conditions. It needed to be completely authentic to the original."

On the Type 57 SC Atlantic, the large horseshoe Bugatti grille sits proudly upright, seemingly suspended between the shapely wheel arches. This design aspect was an important reference point. For the Chiron Super Sport '57 One of One', the Sur Mesure team worked hand-in-hand with engineers at Bugatti to create a faithful homage to the original that would also remain true to the Bugatti 'Form Follows Performance' design philosophy and the car's engineering requirements. Each inlet, line and vent of the Chiron Super Sport is carefully considered to meet the extreme cooling and aerodynamic needs of a 440km/h hyper sports car. The unique resulting design - a new grille with polished vertical lines and a thicker center spine - is a beautiful modern interpretation yet true to the iconic Type 57 SC Atlantic.

The design is paired with five-spoke Super Sport wheels - combining polished chrome and the same blue as the original - and vibrant chrome accents. The underside of the rear wing features a hand-drawn silhouette of the Atlantic, finished with '57' and 'One of One' lettering in a subtle nod to the craftsmanship and design that inspired this unique work of automotive art.

"The customer's enthusiasm and active engagement throughout the whole design process were a constant source of inspiration," continued Straub. "Her perspective, rooted in a profound respect for Bugatti's heritage, and driven by a desire to craft an authentic homage, guided us in creating a vehicle that stands at the intersection of history and innovative engineering."

Inside, the customer selected 'Gaucho' leather - deciding on a timeless color to further accentuate the exterior design. Notable highlights include the Atlantic's silhouette hand-stitched in 'Lightning Blue' on the door panels and a center console with a custom inlay that proclaims '57 One of One'. With an appreciation for the broader history and artistic vision of the Bugatti family the iconic 'Dancing Elephant' sculpture of Rembrandt Bugatti is delicately embroidered on the headrests, signifying her passion for animals. The signatures of Jean Bugatti, the genius who was the creative force behind the admired Type 57 SC Atlantic, and Rembrandt are applied to the door sills.

Hendrik Malinowski, Managing Director at Bugatti Automobiles, said: "When crafting a bespoke car for our customers, we will always look to pay tribute to our rich heritage. For a customer to embrace our lineage in such a way, and lead in the inclusion of such design elements, it is a proud moment. A creation like the '57 One Of One' is the perfect match for our Sur Mesure offer, bringing a passionate customer with bold ideas together with our endlessly creative and talented design and engineering teams. The result is a breath-taking new chapter in the legend of the Type 57 SC Atlantic; authentic, beautiful and formed in the spirit of Jean Bugatti's original. The Type 57 SC Atlantic will always be an icon and this latest homage can proudly sit alongside it on the concours lawns of the future."

Since 2016, the Bugatti Chiron has remained an incomparable icon of hyper sports car performance. Limited to just 500 units, the final Chiron has now been hand-assembled by the craftspeople in Molsheim; a vibrant piece of bespoke art known as 'L'Ultime'. This final farewell to Chiron marks the closing of an extraordinary era of performance that saw it become the first 1,500 PS roadgoing car as well as the first production car to surpass 300 mph. And just as it entered the world with spectacular elegance and power, so too does its production end, on the cusp of an all-new Bugatti era.

This final Chiron masterpiece - a Super Sport - beautifully reinterprets the car that took center stage in Geneva, exquisitely reminiscent in style and visual identity. When it first wowed the world back in 2016, the color split of 'Atlantic Blue' with 'French Racing Blue', intersected by a sweeping C-line milled from hand-polished aluminum alloy, was unlike anything seen in the automotive world before. For this 500th and final Chiron, the Bugatti Sur Mesure team reimagined the original design with a mesmerizing interplay of fading colors and a tribute to all the places where the car has spread its magic since 2016.

Symbolizing the brand's prowess and the evolution of it's craft and savoir-faire in the past eight years, the two colors that adorn this special Super Sport - a distinctively created fading 'French Racing Blue' and an 'Atlantic Blue' - now seamlessly blend with each other, merging to create an arresting side-on visual that is accentuated by the colored wheels mirroring the front and rear shades. A tailored blue Bugatti macaron, exclusively designed and developed for this farewell edition, sits proudly within the grille. In a spectacular flourish, adorning its bodywork are hand-written places and events that helped to build the legend of the Chiron. Inspired by the philosophy of 'bullet speed' - a blurring of vision at high speeds - this unique Chiron Super Sport hints at its incomparable top speed, even at a standstill.

The aesthetic form of the Super Sport came to life when the Sur Mesure team at Bugatti and the customer decided to create an homage to this important moment in Bugatti's history, retracing the most incredible milestones of the Chiron as well as celebrating the most important moments in the brand's history, in-turn bringing to life the journey of the Chiron model, from its debut in 2016 to the present day.

Since its breathtaking global debut in Geneva eight years ago - revealed as the most powerful, fastest and luxurious car in the world - the Chiron has withstood the test of time, remaining at the pinnacle of automotive craftsmanship and performance. Channeling the DNA of Bugatti and encapsulating the brand's 'Form Follows Performance' ethos, the Chiron has pushed boundaries, set benchmarks that were previously unimaginable and re-written so-called automotive norms across a critically-acclaimed family line-up that includes the Chiron, Chiron Sport, Chiron Pur Sport and Chiron Super Sport in additon to special editions like the Chiron Super Sport 300+ and Les Légendes du Ciel.

This captivating legacy flows across the sides of the unique Super Sport in pure content composition: the launch in Geneva, appearances at Chantilly, testing phases at the Paul Ricard circuit and the 300 mph run at the Ehra-Lessien testing track. And, of course, the historic Bugatti home in Molsheim as well as the iconic Château Saint Jean and Cape Canaveral, where a number of customers have experienced the Chiron's top speed performance.

Celebrating the very last Chiron, the hand-written number '500' - gracing the exterior, the wheel caps and rear wing - is also engraved onto the engine cover housing the magnificent Bugatti W16 powertrain. Simultaneously, it marks another milestone in the Bugatti journey of more than 115 years; another 500 incomparable works of art, inspired by Ettore Bugatti's original vision, in the world to be enjoyed for generations to come.

Forming an unwavering bond to the wonderful artistry exhibited across the Super Sport is craftsmanship of the highest order, exquisite details that bring the Chiron's eight-year timeline to life. The French flag, representing the birthplace of the brand and the car, is fittingly applied to the mirror wings. The Super Sport's grille is finished in the brand's now iconic 'Atlantic Blue' and a special horseshoe mesh has been crafted with centered stripes.

The use of the '500' seamlessly transitions from the outside to within, adorning a Chiron cabin that matches the bespoke nature of the car's exterior. Here, a carbon fiber symphony unfolds for both the driver and passenger connecting the luxurious 'Deep Blue' leather and 'Blue Carbon Matt' high-tech finishes with hints of the iconic Bugatti 'French Racing Blue' shade. Intricate, hand-woven 'Deep Blue' leather that is hand-cut, hand-stitched and applied to each door panel offers this final Chiron the quintessence of excellence and timelessness, symbolizing peerless craftsmanship since the Chiron's unveiling in 2016.