Bugatti’s modern ‘Baby’: a $50,000 childrens toy that’s already sold out

By: Alex Affat, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 23.09.2019

It’s actually the second official Bugatti kid’s car, built almost 100 years later

The Bugatti Type 35 is one of the world’s most famous race cars, and cemented Ettor Bugatti’s prowess as an automaker back in the 1920s.

Over its sporting career, it won around 2000 professional and amateur races, with Bugatti claiming at its peak – was more than 14 events per week.

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In 1926 Ettore and his son Jean decided to build a half-scale electric Bugatti Type 35 for the fourth birthday of Ettore’s youngest son, Roland.

While it was intended to be a one-off gift – customers visiting Molshelm were so enamoured with the ‘Baby’ Bugatti that the firm built and sold 500 of them between 1927 and 1936. Today, original Baby Bugs are a must-have for the most dedicated Bugatti Collectors; and to celebrate the firm’s 110^th anniversary – nearly 100 years later, they’ve brought it back!

The Bugatti "Baby II" was revealed last year in concept form, with the announcement that Bugatti would build just 500 examples (all of which sold out immediately).

While the original Baby Bugatti was built at 50% scale, the 2019 version has been scaled up to 75%, allowing for single adult occupants.

The standard Baby II will bear a composite body painted in French Racing Blue, while the ‘Pur Sang’ and ‘Vitesse’ will be produced with handcrafted aluminium bodies, or carbon fibre respectibely. The latter two models also gain the famous Bugatti "speed key" which derestricts top speed and allows for increased power.

The Baby II is powered by removable lithium-ion battery packs (either a 1.4 or 2.8 kWh unit); sending power to the rear wheels via a limited slip differential. It even has regenerative braking.

There is a "child mode" which limits power output to 1kW, and top speed to 20km/h. Adult mode yields 4kWs of power and a limited top speed of 45km/h. However, for the bravest of speed demons – you can engage the aforementioned "Speed Key" (just like the record-setting Veyron and Chiron) which disengages the speed limiter and allows up to 10kW of power.

Each of the 500 examples produced will be numbered with a plaque mounted on the signature turned aluminium dashboard. The interior also gains a single leather seat and a scale recreation of the Type 35’s steering wheel and custom instruments.

 The Baby Bugs begin at a steep USD$33,000, which equates to a hard-to-stomach AU$49,000 pricetag. Still interested? Bad luck, as unfortunately they’ve already been sold out.

However, you can still lodge your interest at the Bugatti Baby website – or wait for one to pop up at auction.

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