French

Over the years there have been scores of automobiles born from two companies. The raison d'etre for such motoring mutts varies on a case-by-case basis; some are the product of a desire to save development and/or manufacturing costs, while others are created to capitalize on synergies (be they real or imagined) between the two marques. And a few just exist to cash in on the glittering reputation of one of the partners.

So into which category does the Citroen SM fall? Well it was partly about sprinkling some of Maserati’s prestige on Citroen, but the fact that Citroen owned Maserati at the time also factored into it. So what would you get if you bought this Franco-Italian lady in red up for grabs on eBay? Read on.

Production of the Bugatti Veyron is starting to wind down (The last coupe has already rolled out of the factory.), but that doesn’t mean the VW-owned brand is putting an end to special edition versions of the record-book-rewriting supercar. In fact, it has just pulled the sheet off what is possibly the most outrageous one yet.

It’s called the L’Or Blanc, which is French for “white gold.” As you can plainly see, there’s no gold to be found. There’s not a whole lot of white, either. What is in abundance, though, is a material that’s more commonly found in bathrooms than in 16-cylinder, 4-turbo exotic cars. That’s right, this Veyron Grand Sport is trimmed in porcelain.

Turn that bbq back on, pop that bottle of chamgpagne you've been saving, and strike up a tune because it's time to celebrate; the king has returned. It's official, the Bugatti Veyron is once again the fastest car in the world. We should clarify, a Bugatti Veyron is the fastest car in the world. This isn't your kid brother's Veyron, it's the all new 2011 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, and never has a car more completely lived up to that name.

At Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessian, the same track where James May forever erased his nickname "Captain Slow", chief Bugatti Test Driver Pierre Henri Raphanel climbed into the fastest office on four wheels and headed out onto the 12 mile oval. Guinness World Record officials were present as the Super Sport headed out onto the course. To set an official record you have to do a run in each direction, and they take the average. You have one hour to complete it, and no one can touch the car. On the first pass the Veyron SS passed at 265.91MPH (427.933km/H). On the second pass that speed increased to 269.81 MPH(434.211km/H), for an official average of 267.86MPH (431.072km/H).

We can tell you from personal experience that collecting 1:18 scale (or 18 times smaller than the real thing) model cars is a fun hobby. They’re just big enough for lots of detail, yet small enough to not take up a massive amount of shelf space. Plus, they’re fairly affordable (handbuilt wonders from the likes of CMC and Exoto excluded). In fact, we can’t think of a single model that’s worth anywhere near the kind of coin its fullsize counterpart is...

Apparently, that factoid annoyed Munich, Germany’s Robert Gulpen and Liverpool, England’s Stuart Hughes enough that they decided to craft a trio of 1:18 scale Bugatti Veyrons…out of solid gold. Almost everything visible is made out of 24 karat gold or platinum, and some of the bits that aren’t visible are hiding behind the 7.2 karats worth of diamonds found in the front grille and elsewhere.