The wraps – and the roof – have come off the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport here in Monterey, finally answering a question few have asked and even fewer will sample.

As you'd expect, Bugatti hasn't just hacked the roof off the Veyron and gone to the pub. The windshield is slightly higher, the daytime running lights have been tweaked and then there's the showpiece: a removable, transparent polycarbonate roof, which blends the A-pillars into two painted carbon fiber strips that lead into the massive air intakes feeding the 1001 hp, quad-turbocharged, W16.

If you stow the roof at home for the world's fastest open-air, four-wheeled experience and the heavens decide to open, a folding roof stored in the luggage compartment can be – according to Bugatti – "opened like an umbrella." With the soft-top in place, speeds are limited to an incredibly low 130 km/h (81 mph), otherwise, the Grand Sport can hit 252 mph with the polycarbonate roof and 224 mph with the top removed.

Bugatti made several structural enhancements to ensure the Grand Sport shares the same chassis rigidity and safety standards as its fixed roof counterpart. The monocoque has been reinforced around the side skirts and transmission tunnel, the doors feature new longitudinal beams, and the air intakes have been redesigned to include ten-centimeter-wide carbon fiber elements to protect occupants in the event of rollover.

Only 150 examples will be made available, with the first 50 going to registered Bugatti customers. The first model will be auctioned off at the Gooding & Company auction tomorrow night, with all the profits over the 1.4 million euro ($2.05 million) sticker going to charity.

Hit the jump for the press release.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/16/m...4-grand-sport/

 

I like it, when in motion. Cool that you get a "hardtop" & a rag top from the looks of it. However, I'd def. have to change the wheels to the ones found on the standard Veyron.

 

I really like the new headlight treatment! The removable hard top looks pretty slick too.

 

Wow those photos from Bugatti are freaking incredible!!!! I just about lost it when I saw the white on white Veyron, but then for it to have a solid dark brown leather interior... WOW ummmm WOW. That has got to be one of the most prestigious and classy looking super exotics that I have ever seen. I would put the overall look up there with a Zonda.

 

wow... That is beautiful.. I am speechless.

 

While the headlight treatment is just gorgeous, i'm really not a fan of the new wheels.

Fantastic looking vehicle all around though.

 

That thing really is a work of art.

 

Gawd! Those headlights make it look sooo evil.

I wanna wrap it!

 

I'm lovin' that chocolate interior! Thanks for sharing!

 

Very nice pics.

 

Pristine - absolutely pristine. Not many other words describe a car that has a $25,000 turn signal lever and is sold at a $4M loss - per car.
JL

 

I wonder what the car would look like with 2 different shades of white. Maybe a mix of pearl white and platinum white, or just pearl white and the white in the pic.

 

Hmmm.... hadn't ever thought about that. It would be really interesting to see because it would seem like the effect would be so subtle that you would wonder if it was all in your imagination.

 

Dream car

 

Thats an eye catching car.