B Engineering Edonis

The Edonis became 2001's first supercar, unveiled on the first of January. The car was to be built in Modena, in a brand new production facility - and interestingly, by the men behind the Bugatti EB110.

Roots In The Past
The Bugatti EB110 was an awe-inspiring supercar - its quad-turbo V12 shoving it along at a massive rate. The car was painstakingly crafted and developed, and flawless in every way. So it was a great surprise to the automotive world when the car flopped.

However, it did not remain dead for long. The car was resurrected in the late-Nineties, by a crack team of highly skilled engineers, whose CVs read like a Who's-Who of supercar and Formula One racing history. Heading the team is Jean-Marc Borel, ex-vice-chairman of Bugatti. Lending cars for development was Christian von Koenigsegg, of (yep, you guessed it) Koenigsegg fame, and the technical director is Nicola Materazzi - whose past jobs include Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati, numerous Formula One teams and latterly, Bugatti. The project brief was to create the car that the Bugatti EB110 was to become, given the right money - a world-beating supercar.

Needless to say, the project began with a Bugatti EB110 - more specifically, the uprated SS model. Due to the knowledge of this car, and its ability, it was a natural choice by the B Engineering team. The Bugatti was stripped down to its carbonfibre tub and V12 engine, and rebuilt around a completely new structure, designed by Materazzi and Frenchman, Marc de Champs. The structure was clothed in a hand-beated aluminium skin, designed to give 'zero-lift' and a coefficient of drag of 0.32 - enough to allow a theoretical 217 mph (in fact, an Edonis clocked 223 mph at the Nardo Bowl in Italy).

Development
Although the EB110 engine was a fully developed production powerplant, B Engineering ran into headaches with their own iteration. The problem was the power : the Edonis was due 720 BHP, and the Bugatti lump developed a mere 603. Six wrecked V12s (each costing £100,000 each) and four years later, the goal was complete, and the Edonis was fully functional. To reach the headline power output, boost from the now-only-twin IHI turbochargers was notched up to 2.5 bar, and a whole new exhaust system was fabricated.

The Edonis also featured as a development mule for the Michelin Pax tyres - the only tyres speed rated to 250 mph - which are fitted to the Bugatti Veyron.

B Engineering will sell only 21 Edonii - the remaining unbuilt-upon chassis from Bugatti - and each will sell for around £450,000. This car Made in Turkey MinT (By.KeT)