B Engineering Edonis: Born from the Ashes of Bugatti
The story of the B Engineering Edonis is one of the most fascinating tales of automotive reincarnation in the history of the hypercar. To understand the Edonis, you must first understand the spectacular rise and fall of Romano Artioli’s Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. in the 1990s—because without that story, the Edonis would not exist.
The Bugatti EB110 Context
In 1991, Bugatti unveiled the EB110 from a spectacular new factory in Campogalliano, near Modena, Italy. It was one of the most technically sophisticated supercars ever built: a carbon-fiber chassis (the first production car to feature this construction), a 3.5-liter quad-turbocharged V12, all-wheel drive, and 610 horsepower. The EB110 Super Sport, launched shortly after, pushed output to 603 PS. It was faster, lighter, and more expensive than a McLaren F1.
The chief engineer responsible for this masterpiece was Nicola Materazzi—the man who had previously designed the Ferrari F40 and who was one of the most respected supercar engineers in the world. Materazzi’s contribution to the EB110 was immense: the engine architecture, the chassis philosophy, the performance targets were all substantially his work.
When Bugatti went bankrupt in 1995, Materazzi found himself with unfinished business. The EB110 had been brilliant. The project had been cut short by financial collapse, not by any engineering failure. The remaining carbon-fiber chassis, the unfinished engines, and the intellectual property of the project were being sold off in a bankruptcy liquidation.
The Genesis: Former Bugatti Engineers Refuse to Quit
Materazzi, along with former Bugatti colleague Federico Trombi and a small group of engineers who had worked on the EB110, formed a new company called B Engineering. The “B” stood for Bugatti—an implicit acknowledgment of the intellectual lineage while avoiding direct trademark infringement.
Their plan was audacious: purchase the remaining EB110 carbon-fiber tubs from the bankruptcy administrators, significantly re-engineer both the chassis and the powertrain, and create the ultimate expression of what the EB110 could have become had Bugatti survived long enough to fully develop it.
This was not a commercial enterprise in the conventional sense. It was a group of passionate engineers who believed the EB110 platform deserved a proper sequel—a machine that honored what they had built by pushing it further than the original car’s financial constraints had permitted.
The Name: Pleasure in the New Millennium
The Edonis was unveiled on January 1, 2001—a deliberate choice. “Edonis” derives from the Greek word for pleasure (“hedone,” from which English derives “hedonism”). The name was intended to convey “the ultimate pleasure of driving in the new millennium.”
The timing was symbolic: a new car for a new century, built from the legacy of one of the 1990s’ most important engineering projects.
The Design: Form Dictated by Speed
The exterior design was penned by Marc Deschamps. The brief was simple: create a shape capable of exceeding 360 km/h (224 mph) while maintaining absolute high-speed stability. There was no secondary brief for aesthetics—speed came first, and beauty was whatever resulted from that aerodynamic necessity.
The Edonis is aggressively styled, defined by massive, gaping air intakes at the front and along the flanks. The headlights are tiny, projector-style units mounted low on the nose. The entire body was constructed from hand-beaten aluminum—rather than the carbon fiber or Kevlar of its contemporaries—to save development costs and allow for easier modifications.
This aluminum construction choice was pragmatic rather than philosophical. The existing supply of EB110 carbon-fiber chassis represented the limit of the composite budget; building the body from aluminum kept costs manageable while Materazzi and his team focused their resources on the powertrain engineering.
The aerodynamic profile was incredibly efficient, prioritizing low drag and high-speed downforce, culminating in a prominent, integrated rear spoiler and a massive rear diffuser.
The Heart: Re-engineering the Bugatti V12
While the Edonis used the carbon-fiber central tub of the Bugatti EB110 Super Sport, the powertrain was fundamentally altered to shed weight and increase power.
The original Bugatti engine was a 3.5-liter V12 featuring four small turbochargers. Materazzi and his team felt this setup was too complex and heavy, and that the small IHI turbos were limiting peak power output.
Their modifications were comprehensive:
- Increased Displacement: They bored out the cylinders, increasing the engine displacement from 3.5 liters to 3.7 liters (3,760 cc).
- Twin-Turbos: They removed the four small IHI turbochargers and replaced them with two massive IHI turbochargers.
This simplification reduced mechanical complexity, shed weight, and allowed for much higher boost pressures than four small turbos could generate collectively. The resulting output was staggering: 715 PS (705 hp) at 8,000 rpm and 889 Nm (656 lb-ft) of torque. At the time of its unveiling in 2001, this made the Edonis significantly more powerful than the McLaren F1 (627 PS) or the Lamborghini Murciélago (580 PS).
Rear-Wheel Drive Purity
The other major structural change the B Engineering team made to the EB110 platform involved the drivetrain. The Bugatti was famous for its advanced, heavy all-wheel-drive system—a feature that Materazzi himself had championed as a key differentiator for the EB110.
For the Edonis, however, the calculation was different. To save roughly 70 kg (154 lbs) of weight and deliver a purer, more terrifying driving experience, the B Engineering team stripped out the front driveshaft and front differential. The Edonis was strictly rear-wheel drive.
Power was sent to the massive rear Michelin PAX tires (the same run-flat technology later used on the Bugatti Veyron) via a 6-speed manual transaxle.
The combination of the carbon-fiber tub, aluminum body, and rear-wheel-drive layout resulted in a dry weight of just 1,300 kg (2,866 lbs). This was lighter than the AWD EB110 Super Sport, and the power-to-weight ratio was extraordinary.
The Nardò Top Speed Run
The performance figures of the Edonis were hypercar-grade. It could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.9 seconds—modest by modern standards, but explained by the car’s rear-wheel drive and lack of traction control. Launching 705 horsepower through two rear tires without electronics requires very careful throttle management, and the launch performance suffered accordingly.
However, its true strength was top-end speed. To prove its capabilities, B Engineering took the Edonis to the Nardò Ring in Italy—the legendary 12.5 km circular test track that had served as the venue for numerous top speed records.
The car officially clocked a top speed of 359.6 km/h (223.4 mph). The engineers claimed that on a perfectly straight runway (like Ehra-Lessien), the car was aerodynamically capable of 365 km/h (227 mph), with the circular track’s constant-corner geometry costing several km/h compared to straight-line testing.
At the time of testing, this made the Edonis one of the fastest cars in the world—rivaling the McLaren F1 and directly challenging the Bugatti Veyron that was simultaneously being developed.
The Rarity: Only Two Cars
B Engineering originally planned to build 21 examples of the Edonis, the number chosen to represent the 21st century. Each car would carry a different number from 1 to 21, making each one’s position in the production sequence part of its identity.
However, securing funding proved extremely difficult. The combination of a tiny unknown company, an unusual provenance story, and a mid-2000s hypercar market not yet primed for €1 million+ investments made investors cautious. It is widely believed that only two fully functional Edonis cars were ever completed.
One of the cars was driven extensively by the engineering team and used for development. The other was delivered to a customer. Both survive today.
Legacy and the Casil Motors Continuation
In recent years, the American firm Casil Motors purchased the rights to the Edonis and the remaining unused Bugatti EB110 chassis that had never been completed, announcing plans to finally build out the production run as the “SP-110 Edonis Fenice” (Phoenix—resurrection from the ashes, a fitting metaphor). Whether this project reaches completion remains unclear, though Casil’s purchase of the remaining chassis ensures the physical components of the story survive.
The B Engineering Edonis is a spectacular footnote in hypercar history. It is the ultimate “what if” machine—a testament to the brilliance of the EB110 chassis and the relentless pursuit of a better car by the engineers who refused to let their creation die in a bankruptcy filing. Materazzi’s connection to both the Ferrari F40 and the Bugatti EB110—two of the most significant supercars of the late 20th century—gives the Edonis a lineage unmatched by virtually any other small-volume manufacturer.