Bugatti Veyron Pur Sang ups the ante

FRANKFURT, Germany — Thank heaven for automotive manufacturers like Bugatti that specialize in wretched excess. How else could the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show provide the appropriate balance for all those size- and horsepower-challenged microcars like the Toyota iQ and the Volkswagen up!?

And thanks, too, to Bugatti for rendering its latest creation, a special back-to-nature edition of the Veyron 16.4 supercar, dubbed Pur Sang (French for "thoroughbred").

The Molsheim-based maker of subdued 16-cylinder machines has elected to offer a model sans exterior paint, enabling the underlying raw materials to show through. That means the monocoque is rendered simply in clear-coated carbon fiber, wrapped in body panels of polished aluminum.

The effect, needless to say, is stunning. The price? If you have to ask...

What this means to you: How else would you expect Bugatti to one-up its sister brand Lamborghini and the new 1 million-euro Reventon?