Ford provided flights from Albany to San Francisco and accommodation so Ars could attend Monterey Car Week. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.
Monterey Car Week is an annual celebration of automotive culture at the extremes: extreme performance, extreme rarity, and extreme value. Cars offering more than 1,000 hp (746 kW) are de rigueur, "unique" models are everywhere you look, and machines costing well into seven figures are entry-level.
A few years ago, many of the new cars debuting during Car Week focused on outright speed and performance above all else, relying on electric powertrains to deliver physics-defying acceleration and ballistic speed. Lately, there's been a shift back toward the fundamentals of driver engagement, emotional design, and purity of feel.
Internal combustion is again at the fore. One of the main reasons is a renewed interest in what was old—so long as that old thing is actually new.
They're called restomods, classic cars brought up to date with modern drivability but keeping the original feel. LA-based Singer Vehicle Design is the Porsche-based poster child for this movement, but San Marino-based Eccentrica earned plenty of attention in Monterey for its reimagining of one of the ultimate icons of the '90s, the Lamborghini Diablo.
Tim Stevens This is Eccentrica's restomod of the Lamborghini Diablo. This is Eccentrica's restomod of the Lamborghini Diablo. Tim Stevens Tim Stevens Eccentrica's engine. Eccentrica's engine. Tim Stevens Tim Stevens The interior has some digital upgrades, and there's even electric power steering. The interior has some digital upgrades, and there's even electric power steering. Tim Stevens Eccentrica's engine. Tim Stevens The interior has some digital upgrades, and there's even electric power steering. Tim Stevens
The company's latest creation, Titano, promises "Raw '90s soul meet[ing] purposeful modern craft."
Maurizio Reggiani, former Lamborghini CTO and now advisor to Eccentrica, told me that feel is far more important than outright performance in this segment. "We want the people sitting in Eccentrica to really perceive the street, perceive the acceleration, perceive the braking, perceive the steering," he said.
Commoditization
"The power to have 1,000 hp is easy. I don't want to say it is a commodity, but more or less," Reggiani continued.
Eccentrica's Titano makes 550 hp (410 kW). The machine Bugatti unveiled, the new Brouillard, nearly tripled that number, offering 1,578 hp (1,177 kW) from an 8.3-liter W16 engine paired with a hybrid system. It's a one-off, a completely bespoke design created at the request of one very lucky, very well-heeled buyer, part of the company's new Programme Solitaire.
That's an impressive figure, but Frank Heyl, Bugatti's director of design, told me the real focus is on creating something timeless. Bugatti has been making cars for 101 years, and today's astonishing power figures won't matter in 2126. Instead, Heyl said to focus on the interior. "If you look at the Tourbillon instrument cluster, it's a titanium housing with real sapphire glass. The bearings are made from ruby stones with aluminum needles," he said. "People will have a fascination with that in 100 years' time. I'm sure about that."