Bugatti's tiny, ultramodern, clinically clean assembly plant in Molsheim, France, is the only car factory that makes you want to wipe your feet on the way in. In fact, Bugatti would rather you didn't refer to it as a factory at all; it's an atelier, or workshop, if you please. Ettore Bugatti established his car firm here 100 years ago, when the town was part of Germany. The original factory is on the other side of town; the new atelier is on the grounds of Château Saint Jean, which Ettore used as a guest house for his clients and which Volkswagen bought soon after acquiring the rights to Bugatti in 1998.

Working five to a car, twenty-five bilingual technicians take 400 hours to bolt each Veyron together from parts that arrive from around the world - the carbon chassis from Italy, the engine from Germany, the wheels from Italy or Germany, the gearbox from the U.K.
It could be done anywhere, but the billionaire owners who arrive by helicopter or private jet to see their cars being built are doubtless wooed a little by the association with the marque's storied history.
And they couldn't have guessed how handy their chosen location would turn out to be for the 253-mph hypercar; there are rumors of an "accommodation" with the local police, but the unrestricted German autobahns just on the other side of the border are one of the few places on earth where prospective customers might legally experience what a Veyron is capable of.