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Bugatti enters the car-branded hookah market

Ever look at the price of a new Veyron and wonder what they're smoking over in Molsheim? Heck, that latest special edition Vitesse costs nearly $3 million, and that's before taxes and delivery. Well, we've got the answer right here. It's a shisha pipe - the kind smoked in bedouin tents and cafés frequented by Middle Eastern gentlemen the world over - and it's branded by Bugatti.
The pipe is hand-crafted from titanium and carbon fiber (instead of the usual glass and steel) and stands about two and a half feet tall. It's made by a company called Desvall, which contrary to what you might think, is located not on the eastern or southern shores of the Mediterranean or along the Persian Gulf, but in Stockholm, Sweden.
And the price? A suitably Bugatti-like $100,000. That's a heck of a lot more than the already-outrageous $1,950 that Porsche Design gets for its shisha, which, let's face it, is basically a beautifully-crafted but overpriced water bong, to say nothing of what an average shisha would cost you in the bazaar. But we're sure there are some customers somewhere in the world who'd gladly pony up that amount to smoke a Bugatti pipe next to their Veyron in their lavishly appointed garage at the end of a sand-swept driveway. And Desvall only needs 150 of them, because that's all they're making.

Bugatti moving ahead with Veyron successor

With production of the Veyron coming to an end, all eyes are fixed squarely on Bugatti and what it
will do next. Because by next year, it will have sold the last examples of the Grand Sport and Vitesse roadsters, and after that there will be no more. And since the Veyron line is the only one Bugatti makes - or has made, for that matter, since Volkswagen took it over - it will need something else in place or it will effectively go dormant. The only question is what that next project will be - or more likely, given the timeframe, already is.
One thing which Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber - who is now president of Bugatti and was its technical director during the Veyron's development - ruled out in speaking with Top Gear is that there won't be any further development of the existing Veyron. Schreiber put to rest the longstanding rumors that an even more extreme evolution of the Veyron than the record-breaking Super Sport would be made, and that the vehicle would die after the remaining 43 examples have been built. Nor will Bugatti proceed with development of a four-door model. It's an idea that Bugatti entertained prior to the release of the Veyron with the EB218 concept at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show and again after it with the Galibier concept in 2009, but it's ultimately been put to rest. According to Schreiber, a four-door Bugatti "would confuse our customers."

Wolfgang D?rheimer retakes the reins at Bentley and Bugatti

Wolfgang Dürheimer is still in play, with Bentley Motors announcing that he will return to the Chairman and CEO slot of the English company and French division Bugatti on June 1, 2014. He'll probably remember those chairs from the last time he filled them, since he was promoted to both positions in 2010 and remained there until September 2012, when he was installed as the head of R&D at Audi. That job only lasted until June of 2013, his nine-month tenure reported to be full of corporate drama that lead to his dismissal from the position.
But as if on gardening leave, he's been in the low-profile position of General Representative of the Volkswagen Group responsible for motorsport. Once back at Bentley, he will take over as the company works on getting its SUV to market and expanding its range. Both of those briefs Dürheimer will know well, having proved his ability at Porsche in the first decade of the new millennium. And even though no longer at Audi, his hybrid days don't appear to be over, as Bentley recently announced that it will hybridize of 90 percent of its lineup.
Dürheimer will also take on a third position, joining a VW Group committee focused on the US and Chinese markets. His successor at Bentley and Bugatti, Wolfgang Schreiber, has been promoted to "a leading position within the Volkswagen Group." There's a brief press release below with the official words.