Peak holiday gifting is this carbon Bugatti for kids.
Sure, you love your kiddo, but how much do you love them, exactly?
Bugatti has presented an opportunity to answer that question, here in the form of an €80,000 ($85,111 at the time of writing) miniature (plus taxes and shipping, sire). It’s perhaps the ultimate holiday gift, but available only to the owners of the W-16-powered Bugatti Mistral, the actual full-size roadster that was built in only 99 units.
This Carbon Edition Baby Bugatti II (yes that’s the actual name, check out its awesome site here), separates itself from the standard Baby Bugatti II by virtue of its sleek aesthetics and carbon-fiber flourishes. And before your eyes roll back in your head at this one, consider how cool it is that something like this is being built in the first place. It’s an impossible plaything for the children of the ultra-wealthy, but what an impossibly beautiful plaything it is.
“The Baby II is a 75 percent scale, fully electric reincarnation of the iconic Bugatti Type 35, developed using a full 3D scan of an original 1924 French Grand Prix car. As an official Bugatti product, only components of the highest quality have been used, with each car being impeccably hand-built. The Baby II is adorned with a genuine, solid silver Bugatti Macaron, a symbol of exclusivity, luxury and craftsmanship that has stood for over 110 years,” the Baby Bugatti site explains.
Also noted on the site: Bugatti has a history of building scale models of its own cars, dating back nearly a century, to when the Ettore Bugatti built a half-scale replica of the Type 35 for his son. The replicas proved so popular among visitors to Molsheim that Bugatti produced and sold an official run of these miniatures from 1927 to 1936.
This Carbon Edition of the Baby Bugatti II amplifies the original formula with gorgeous carbon-fiber elements like the dashboard, plus black paint elements throughout, and even some lightweighting when compared to the “regular” Baby Bugatti II.
AND JUST LOOK AT HOW WELL IT’S ASSEMBLED. If you can’t dork out on a mini Type 35, well, you’re on the naughty list, Bubb. Personally, I like the vintage chic of the “regular” Baby Bugatti, but with a gauge cluster like this—the period-correct gauges swaddled in carbon fiber—it’s hard to argue with this limited edition.
As a fan of scaled-down racers like the holy Cyclekart, this seems like some sort of ultimate expression of the form. But rather than a snorty single-cylinder powering the thing, the Baby Bugatti II is electric, with 10 kW of power available, lending a top speed of just over 42 mph. If that sounds modest, you’ve never driven something this small on suspension borrowed from a horse carriage. It’s terror wrapped in sheer exhilaration and I need one under the tree, thank you very much.
Unfortunately for U.S. and Canadian buyers, this Baby Bugattis comes limited to 18 mph. Though, some may argue that’s a slightly more reasonable speed for a youth-friendly gift.
Sure you could buy something like a Porsche GT4 for the money, but try not to consider price. Or logic. Show your kid a little bit of love this holiday season, you cheapskate.
Kyle Kinard The only member of staff to flip a grain truck on its roof, Kyle Kinard is R&T’s senior editor and resident malcontent.
Keyword: Do You Love Your Child Enough to Buy Them a Bugatti?