22 Facts You Didn’t Know About Bugatti
These details elevate the French supercar marque.
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We all know the elemental facts about hypercar maker Bugatti. It doesn’t sell anything for less than two commas. It’s built one of the only cars to ever officially break the 300 mph barrier—although it was a slightly modified, “near-production” Chiron that achieved that feat—along with one of the most expensive new vehicles of all time, the La Voiture Noire. Its Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupe is arguably the most beautiful car ever built and, with a mere three left in existence, demonstrably one of the most expensive at approx. $56 million a piece. With the brand on the verge of a new era after merging with Croatian EV maker Rimac this past summer, what better time to see just how much you really know about Bugatti.
Bugatti built trains during the 1930s, including one that was the world’s fastest.
The Bugatti name may be mainly associated with hypercars in 2022 but it has graced other products over the years, including aeroplane motors and, more recently, pool tables. The company also spent time during the 1930s working on trains, or, as it liked to call them, autorails. These vehicles may have never gone into wide use, but they were still impressive, setting multiple speed records between 1933 and 1936.
Bugatti’s first Autorail prototype in 1931 Bugatti
The Bugatti factory has narrowly avoided burning down—twice.
Founded by Ettore Bugatti in Molsheim, France, Bugatti has been pushing the boundaries of physics and engine capabilities in pursuit of speed since 1909. In 1939, one of its early engines started a sizable fire due to a testing explosion. Reportedly, the surrounding area was in peril of being engulfed as well. In 2001, when testing the first Veyron engine, that 1,200hp mill allegedly generated enough heat that the factory building was in danger of being scorched.
Bugatti has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice.
We all know that Bugatti likes to show off on the test track, but it also used to do the same on the race track. Although the brand hasn’t competed in any major competitions for quite some time, it used to. In fact, Bugatti was a force in racing during the ’20s to ’30s. A privately entered Bugatti won the very first Monaco Grand Prix in 1929, but the marque’s greatest triumphs came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where cars driven by Jean-Pierre Wimille were victorious in 1937 (along with co-driver Robert Benoise) and 1939 (Pierre Veyron—more on him in a bit).
Bugatti briefly produced a saloon called the EB 112 in the mid-’90s.
Since being brought back from the dead by Italian businessman Romano Artioli in the late ’80s, almost all of Bugatti’s effort and resources have gone toward the development of boundary-pushing hypercars. We say almost, though, because the brand actually briefly produced a saloon called the EB 112 before it was purchased by Volkswagen Auto Group in 1998. Why is the sedan all but forgotten at this point, you may ask? Because the brand only ever built three examples of the vehicle. On the rare occasion one of those hits the market, you can expect it to sell for in excess of $1.6 million.
Bugatti EB 112 prototype Schaltkulisse
The Veyron was a giant pipe dream that nearly didn’t come to fruition.
When Volkswagen’s Ferdinand Piech (grandson of famed Ferdinand Porsche) bought Bugatti back in the late 1990s, he had already been dreaming of a 1,000 hp super machine. His engineers had previously told him this would not be possible. Along came the Bugatti platform and his vision was realized several years later when the Veyron officially launched in 2005.
The Veyron requires 10 radiators to keep its quad-turbocharged W-16 engine functioning.
Three radiators handle the engine, while another trio tackles the air-to-liquid intercoolers, a separate unit for the air conditioning, another specifically modulates the engine oil, and yet another cools the transmission oil. One final radiator is dedicated to the differential oil. Each radiator takes 15 hours to construct, meaning the whole shebang takes nearly four weeks to complete the requisite 150 hours of labour.
A 400km/h (full speed) run in the Veyron would only last 15 minutes and would cost more than $59,000.
Technically, you’d only make it 12 minutes, because the 120-litre fuel tank would be empty at that point. However, even if you had enough road—the Veyron can do 407km/h, meaning it covers 6.7 kilometres a minute. You would need 81.4km of road to keep your foot buried for 12 minutes. But the Veyron’s tyres wouldn’t last. They’re only good enough for running at 400km/h for about 15 minutes. After that, Bugatti would need to swap them for a new set, which reportedly will set you back a whopping $59,000.
Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 Photo: Courtesy of Bugatti
Bugatti lost a heap of money making the Veyron, reportedly about $8.4 million per unit.
The total cost to produce the Veyron’s 450 examples amounted to about $2.28 billion, the bulk of which was research and development. Even selling some special versions of the Veyron for as much as $4.2 million per car couldn’t help recoup those ginormous losses.
“Veyron” was a real, pedigreed race driver.
It’s not just a cool-sounding name drummed up by marketers around a whiteboard. Pierre Veyron was a champion race driver between 1933 and 1953, notching plenty of victories, including several for Bugatti (most notably the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans where he piloted the Type 57S with Jean-Pierre Wimille). Veyron became a test driver for Bugatti in 1932.
The 500-unit Chiron production run sold out in just five years.
The hypercar, by definition, is exclusive. This is especially true of Bugattis, though. In fact, the brand has only built two series production models, the Veyron and Chiron, since it was acquired by Volkswagen AG in 1998, both of which were produced in very limited numbers. Only 450 Veyrons were built during the 10 years it was in production. Amazingly, the Chiron sold through its entire production run, which will include 50 more examples than its predecessor, in half that time.
Bugatti’s “near-production” Chiron that broke 480km/h Bugatti
Michelin had to make special tyres for the Chiron’s 489.2km/h speed run.
The most restricting—and dangerous—element of a top speed trial is the tire the car is running. For the Chiron’s 489km/h sprint, Michelin took its Sport Cup 2 shoes and wove stronger metallic threads into the rubber. Exhaustive testing at speeds of up to 510km/h was conducted long before the shoes were fitted to the Chiron, and each tyre was x-rayed after to find any imperfections.
The Chiron could’ve gone faster if it was tested at a higher elevation.
The modded Chiron’s 489km/h speed isn’t the car’s ceiling. It was actually still gaining speed when test pilot Andy Wallace had to back off the throttle to enter an upcoming turn safely. The run was purposefully completed at Volkswagen Group’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany because it’s relatively near sea level. Had the Chiron run in Nevada, where Koenigsegg chose to set a 447km/h record in its Agera RS, the lower air pressure and density due to the higher elevation mean the Chiron would’ve been 24km/h faster—at least according to reps for Bugatti.
There are 3,460,250 kilometres miles of carbon fibre inside one Chiron.
Bugatti claims that if all the carbon-fibre elements of a single Chiron were disassembled down to individual strands and connected end-to-end, it would total 3,460,250 km. For reference, that’s about nine times the distance from the Earth to the moon (384,472 km) or enough to wrap around the Earth 86 times.
Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport Photo: Courtesy of Bugatti.
The surface area of the Chiron’s catalytic converters totals about 25 New York City blocks.
Catalytic converters are required on all vehicles to snag dangerous particulates from the exhaust system. Your daily driver likely employs one, so naturally, the Chiron uses six. If you add up all the surface area of the honeycomb catalyst material in the half-dozen units, you’d have about 230,265 sqm.
The Chiron’s high-tech air conditioning system can cool an entire apartment.
Bugattis are designed to go fast. Really fast. Because of this, the engineers at Molsheim have had to rethink how you build a car. Just look at the cooling system in the Chiron. It doesn’t just have to stop the vehicle’s massive W16 engine from overheating, it also needs to ensure the driver is comfortable as they hurtle towards 480km/h. To do this, the company had to come up with a system that reaches the desired cabin temperature quickly, maintains it and operates as quietly as possible. It takes a powerful A/C to do this, specifically one powerful enough to cool a space measuring 80sqm, or about the size of a Sydney one-bedroom.
The Chiron uses 3-D-printed brakes.
How do you stop a 1100kW, 2000kg Chiron when it’s cooking along at 420km an hour? Phenomenal brakes. Those eight-piston titanium monobloc brake callipers are the first callipers to be produced on a 3-D printer. Not only are they lighter by 40 per cent than traditional aluminium brakes, but they’re also the largest and most powerful brake calliper fitted to a production car.
Bugatti La Voiture Noire Photo by Keno Zache, courtesy of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.
Jean Bugatti’s influence extends all the way to the one-of-a-kind La Voiture Noire.
Ettore Bugatti’s son Jean may have passed away more than 80 years ago, but his continued influence can be seen in the one-off La Voiture Noire. That’s because the $26.2 million hypercar is based on one of the most important Bugattis of all time, the fabled Type 57 SC Atlantic, which was designed and driven by Jean in the ‘30s. While the identity of La Voiture Noire’s owner remains one of the marque’s most intriguing mysteries, the oldest may be what happened to the car its based on: That Type 57 SC Atlantic, chassis No. 57453, vanished shortly after the start of World War II and hasn’t been seen since.
The new Centodieci is a modern interpretation of the iconic EB 110.
The EB 110 emerged in 1991 and set the automotive world ablaze. It’s the only series-production Bugatti built in Italy and set four world records, including the fastest acceleration, the fastest series-production sports car, the fastest sports car running on gas, and the fastest series-production car on ice. Bugatti decided to pay homage to that (brief) period when its factory was in Italy, and so the Centodieci (Italian for “110”) emerged in 2019. Unlike traditional modern Bugattis that feature a teardrop design, with an overall swooping line that starts higher in the front and tapers down in the rear, the 1193KW Centodieci—built on the Chiron platform—retains the original wedge shape of the EB 110: low in the front, higher in the rear.
Bugatti Centodieci Photo: Courtesy of Bugatti.
The Centodieci’s taillight took six months to design and build.
Engineers claim that the beautifully detailed and intricate taillight on the Centodieci was the single longest portion of the design and development process, requiring about a half a year. The challenge was creating a three-dimensional effect that was functional and striking.
Bugatti will put diamonds in the speedometer.
If your multi-million dollar Bugatti isn’t expensive nor rare enough, the factory will gladly allow you to check a box to insert one-carat diamonds in the speedometer. If you’re wondering why you’ve never seen a blinged-out Bugatti speedo, we are, too. It’s impossible to find a photo of one online and Bugatti remains mum as to how many customers have actually selected this option. All Chirons come standard with diamonds, though they’re somewhat hidden. Each of the four tweeters in the car’s Accuton sound system features a one-carat diamond membrane in order to offer optimum aural fidelity.
It took two years to complete the paint job on the Divo “Lady Bug.”
You can’t accuse Bugatti of cutting corners. The brand fully commits itself to every single part of the design, development and manufacturing process. Just look at the paint job on the Divo “Lady Bug.” The marque’s designers spent two years coming up with an intricate diamond pattern for the car’s exterior to ensure it looks just like its insect namesake. The process was so time consuming that at one point the team almost gave up. Fortunately, they kept at it, and the resulting car is nothing if not standout, even among the other 39 Divos.
Bugatti Divo “Lady Bug” Ted7/Bugatti
Design experts have deemed the Bolide the most beautiful hypercar in the world.
Bugatti doesn’t just make several of the fastest production vehicles of all time, it can also claim one of the best looking—officially. Last fall, a panel of leading automobile designers named the track-only Bolide the most beautiful hypercar in the world at the 36th Festival Automobile International in Paris. “The Bolide was an entirely different challenge for our design team, and a kind of mental experiment where we stripped the car back to its W16 quad-turbocharged heart and rebuild it with the bare minimum to create the most extreme Bugatti yet,” design director Achim Anscheidt said in statement following the event. “The key for us was to respect the technical requirements of Bolide, focusing first on the function and only then developing the form.
A production prototype of the Bugatti Bolide Photo by Drew Phillips, courtesy of Rolex.
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First Drive: Bentley’s Flying Spur Speed Is a Muscular Heavyweight That Sets a New Benchmark
The most cumbersome part of the marque’s most powerful sedan to date is perhaps the infotainment system.
By Jaclyn Trop
December 1, 2024
Porsche Design Tower Bangkok in Photos
The automotive icon has announced plans for a 21-story residential building in Thailand. Set for completion by 2028, the 21-story building will house 22 “Sky Villas” priced from $23 million to $60 million.
December 1, 2024
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First Drive: Bentley’s Flying Spur Speed Is a Muscular Heavyweight That Sets a New Benchmark
The most cumbersome part of the marque’s most powerful sedan to date is perhaps the infotainment system.
“Remember, it’s 25 years in jail for damaging a cactus,” warns Wayne Bruce, communications czar for Bentley Motors Limited, as he tosses us the keys to the marque’s newest and most powerful four-door ever, the fourth-generation Bentley Flying Spur Speed. Sufficiently admonished, we’re set loose from the veranda of the Four Seasons Scottsdale and into the foothills of the Sonoran Desert. We have no plans to damage local flora, but beneath the sophisticated lines and refined amenities of the vehicle lurks a beast begging to be unleashed on this cacti-flanked thoroughfare.
Bentley’s Beyond 100+ strategy, geared toward greater sustainability, has a number of components underway as incoming CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser takes the helm. Primary among these is the brand’s first all-electric model, due in 2026. The Flying Spur Speed—a Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde of a car—is a bridge between the old Bentley and the new, a model variant that must compensate for the loss of its W12 engine.
The new all-wheel-drive Flying Spur Speed comes equipped with a plug-in-hybrid power train comprising a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V-8 and an electric motor. The pairing delivers a total of 574 kilowatts, an acceleration time of zero to 96 kph in 3.3 seconds, a top speed of 284 mph, and 75 kilometres of electric range. It’s also the first Flying Spur to get four-wheel steering.
My driving companion, Kristin, and I depart the hotel in Bentley mode, the automaker’s eponymous default setting, and—first things first—begin scrolling through the manifold touch screen controls to customise the individual climate and postural settings for our quilted, hand-stitched leather seats.
The car purports to “measure and maintain the perfect body temperature via zoned heating and ventilation.” It shouldn’t take long for the Flying Spur to learn about us. I tend toward freezing, whereas Kristin veers the other way, mentioning, “I’m a 53-year-old woman. I’m always hot.”
At least the functionality should eliminate any fighting over climate control. But we are equally intrigued by Bentley’s twist on seating comfort: a postural adjustment feature that the automaker claims “soothingly and seamlessly varies the pressure on the occupants’ muscles throughout their journey” to minimise fatigue. This sounds promising. As our route to Sedona and back is a circuitous mix of surface streets, highways, and twisty canyon roads, the prospect of traveling the 482 miles without a nap seems unlikely.
“Sitting consistently the whole time—that’s what gives you a numb bum,” says Bentley spokesman Mike Sayer, explaining more about the seating system. “It’s about blood flow. If that seat is very slowly changing shape underneath you, that [numbing] never happens.”
A look at the V-8 engine inside Bentley’s hybrid Flying Spur Speed.
The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V-8 pairs with an electric motor for a combined output of 574 kilowatts James Lipman, courtesy of Bentley Motors Limited
Leaving Scottsdale, Kristin and I get to work, so consumed with jabbing at the car’s cumbersome, 31 cm touchscreen that we hardly notice the car seems to be doing the driving for us. “Cruise control isn’t engaged?” I asked. “No,” Kristin replies. “I’m not even touching the pedals.” Yet there are no preternatural powers at play here, as this particular street features a long, imperceptible descent that requires no throttle input, a fact we learn only later.
James Lipman, courtesy of Bentley Motors Limited
That, though, is the point of the Flying Spur Speed. Like its two-door Bentley Continental GT Speed sibling, it benefits from the automaker’s most advanced chassis ever. On exhibition is Bentley’s suite of performance enhancements that includes the aforementioned four-wheel steering as well as active all-wheel drive, torque vectoring, an electronic limited-slip differential, and twin-chamber air springs.
“Then we have our little secret weapon,” says Bruce: a twin-valve damper sitting within the air springs. The independent control over compression and rebound damping means that Bentley can improve the Flying Spur’s Comfort mode without sacrificing performance.
James Lipman, courtesy of Bentley Motors Limited
As we near Sedona, we toggle between chassis settings, observing for differences in ride quality. We alternate between Comfort, which loosens the dampers to absorb bumps on the road, and Sport, which stiffens the suspension and uses active all-wheel drive to send more power to the rear axle. We also drop it into EV mode, which activates at speeds up to 140 kph. And best yet, plugging in is optional. The new Flying Spur comes with a charge mode that allows the engine to fully replenish the battery even while driving.
This new dual-character Bentley leaves us with no reason to bemoan the loss of its gas-guzzling W12 engine. True, the hybrid version is heavier, but it delivers a surprisingly nimble yet planted ride, and requires less time spent topping off the tank.
Kristin and I had no qualms about the performance—even though I did find the postural adjustment at times abrupt and bordering upon naughty—but considered the car’s main kink to be the infotainment system, which shut off the navigation just before important turns, obfuscated the menus we wanted, and continually stopped its job to nose its way into our private conversations. Didn’t we almost have it all?
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01/12/2024
Porsche Design Tower Bangkok in Photos
The automotive icon has announced plans for a 21-story residential building in Thailand. Set for completion by 2028, the 21-story building will house 22 “Sky Villas” priced from $23 million to $60 million.
For some time now, branded residences by household names like Armani and Fendi have attracted those with a lust for designer luxury. Car makers have entered the real estate market, too, with unique offerings by Bugatti and Bentley as well as Porsche Design, which has launched residential towers in Stuttgart, Germany, and Miami, Florida. The German lifestyle brand, founded by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, creator of the iconic Porsche 911, now has plans to take their real estate endeavours to Asia.
This month, the company unveiled its third real estate development, a collaboration with Ananda Development, a Thailand-based developer, to introduce the Porsche Design Tower Bangkok. Construction on the 21-story tower begins next year and is set to wrap by the end of 2028. The ultra-luxury condo will be located on Sukhumvit 38, one of the most prestigious addresses in Bangkok.
Photo: @Porsche Design
“The Porsche Design Tower Bangkok is the next big thing for Porsche in Southeast Asia,” says Lutz Meschke, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board at Porsche AG, in a statement. The region is becoming increasingly important for us, which is highlighted by major events taking place here these days. To name just one example: in January we celebrated the world premiere of the new all-electric Macan in Singapore.”
The tower’s striking design, as seen in renderings, is inspired by the kinetic movement of the 911 Targa roof mechanism, according to a press release. Its exposed pedestal structure, called “X-Frame,” takes cues from the design of the auto brand’s Mission R concept car and its exoskeleton structured to create a unique entry experience. A vibrant red light strip crowns the building, mirroring light displays on Porsche’s iconic sports cars.
The tower will house 22 exclusive duplex and quadplex “Sky Villas,” aimed at attracting “ultra-high net-worth individuals,” according to a press release. The abodes will range from 5,651 to 12,217 square feet, with a price range of $23 million to $60 million.
Owners can expect to find luxury furnishings and high-end appliances throughout the residences and the building that evoke the car company’s commitment to elegance, power and flawless craftsmanship.
The complex’s many amenities will include an 82-foot-long swimming pool, fitness center, spa, social lounge, and a luxury garage with “passion spaces,” similar to showrooms, that can be tailored to the individual liking of residents. Upscale restaurants and shopping malls are located nearby for a variety of entertainment options.
Visit pdtowerbangkok.com for more details
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How to Make a Gimlet, the Gin and Lime Cordial Cocktail That’s Perfect for Summer
It will also keep scurvy at bay, which is nice.
“Why on earth this stroke of genius stands unheralded and unsung in this fair and allegedly free land of ours shall, to us, always be a mystery…” –Charles Baker Jr., The Gentleman’s Companion: An Exotic Drinking Book
The above was published in 1939, when the author, an American food writer travelling through Asia, first discovered the Gimlet. This is honestly a fairly common reaction to a well-made Gimlet, and the only major thing that’s changed in the last 80 years is that while we didn’t know why it wasn’t more popular then, we know exactly why the Gimlet is not more popular now. The answer is a saccharine, highlighter-yellow liquid that can be found entombed in plastic on the bottom shelf of every liquor store in this country called Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice.
Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice, a.k.a. Rose’s Lime Cordial, wasn’t always this way. It started as medicine and was literally lifesaving technology when a Scot named Lauchlin Rose invented it in the mid 1800s. Before then—basically, from the beginning of human sea-travel until about 150 years ago—the biggest threat to a mariner wasn’t pirates or sharks or sea-madness but scurvy, which claimed some 2 million sailors between the 16th and 18th centuries. We now know scurvy is caused by about three months without any vitamin C, but it took millennia to figure that out. Once we did, there was still the problem of preservation, because some other forms of preservation (things like boiling it or storing it in copper) are, as it turns out, incredibly efficient ways to destroy the vitamin C. It was ultimately Rose who figured out a way to preserve lime juice with sugar in 1867, the same year the Merchant Shipping Act decreed that all British sailors must have an ounce of lime juice in their rations every day. Rose’s new “lime cordial” fortified the entire British Royal Navy against scurvy, all at the mere cost of suffering the nickname “limeys” for the rest of time.
The Gimlet fits into this like so: The sailors drank rum, but the officers drank gin. A shot of lime juice is some fairly unpleasant business, but alcohol seems to help the medicine go down, so one story is that it was Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette who first took his Rose’s Lime Cordial with a spot of gin. Another story is that the Gimlet was named for the metal tool used for opening the barrels to get the alcohol out. In either case, we meet the Gimlet officially in 1923, in Harry MacElhone’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails as equal parts Plymouth Gin and Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial. Fifteen years later Mr. Baker (above) calls it a “stroke of genius.”
So why aren’t Gimlets more popular now? Because Rose’s has become a zombified version of itself, embalmed with high-fructose corn syrup and sodium metabisulfate, and is now one of 125+ brands owned by the gargantuan Keurig Dr. Pepper group. This is a problem, because while you need a lime cordial to make a proper Gimlet, Rose’s is explicitly the type of mass market, highly processed bullshit that the whole “mixology” thing was resurrected to combat. It helped get us to where we are—Lord knows I made my share of Mojitos with Rose’s in those dark and early days—but fortunately for all of us, we now have a better way, because fresh cordials are quick, easy, and savagely delicious.
If a Gimlet with Rose’s is the speaker on your phone, a Gimlet with a fresh cordial is a concert hall. It’s like tasting in technicolor, what was a chemical note of lime now a chord of acidity, piquant and resonant. A good Gimlet is bright and full, sharp and piercing, with a clarity that sings no matter what gin you choose. To try a good one is to really get what Baker was talking about, or to see why Chandler and Hemingway wrote the Gimlet into their fiction, or to understand the type of joy that comes from knowing you won’t die from scurvy, after all.
Gimlet
- 60 ml. gin
- 40 ml. lime cordial
Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds. Strain off the ice either up into a cocktail glass or else onto fresh ice in a rocks glass, and garnish with a lime wheel or peel.
NOTES ON INGREDIENTS
Gin: As mentioned, use whatever gin you like. Some gin cocktails have ingredients which strongly prefer one brand over another—the raspberries in a Clover Club, for example, uniquely complement the rose petals in something like Hendrick’s—but here we’re just dealing with gin and lime, and all gins will go well with lime. My perennial favorite for shaken gin drinks is Beefeater, which indeed works great. You could also take a note from both the original recipe and from Naval history and make it with Plymouth Gin, which works fantastically well in both its standard (41.2 percent) bottling and its Navy Strength (57 percent).
Lime Cordial: There’s lots of ways to make a lime cordial, and as your faithful servants we’ve made / bought every single one we could find and tried them in side-by-side to determine the best. Our surprise and breakaway favorite was a cordial developed by Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, which has the perfect balance of full lime flavor and sharp zesty edge. It requires getting some citric acid, which sounds intimidating but is natural and abundant and about $10 next day on Amazon (recipe below). If you absolutely insist on not making your own cordial, a good option was to just make the Gimlet using fresh ingredients (2 oz. gin, 1 oz. lime juice, 30 ml. simple syrup) and throw a lime peel into the shaker to shake with the ice. It lacks the cordial’s intensity, but the extra zestiness helps.
What’s great about the cordial is that not only is this spectacular with gin, it’s delicious with literally any clear spirit: tequila, vodka, rum, you name it. The sweet and sour of it is already balanced, so you can just add soda for a quick and easy limeade, or use it as a starting point for your own creativity (i.e. a Raspberry Pisco Gimlet is what happens when you add three raspberries to the shaker tin and use pisco instead of gin). The cordial will last in the fridge for at least a month and in the video above, I show you my favorite way to make, but here’s the complete recipe below.
Lime Cordial Recipe
Recipe from jeffreymorgenthaler.com
- 220 grams. white sugar
- 240 ml of warm or hot water
- 40 ml. fresh lime juice
- Zest of 2 medium or 1 large lime
- 30 grams citric acid
Zest the lime and put the lime zest into a blender. Juice the zested lime(s) into the blender, then add the sugar, water, and citric acid. After blending on medium speed for 30 seconds, strain with a fine strainer. Bottle and refrigerate or mix a cocktail immediately, if you so choose.
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Gut Samaritans
Other top clinics around the globe are also offering microbiome-oriented remedies. Here are four to book.
ANANDA IN THE HIMALAYAS India
Using a more natural approach, Ananda in the Himalayas heals the gut, among other problem areas, through ayurvedic treatments and medicine with a holistic program overseen by a senior ayurvedic physician specialising in gastro health and metabolic disorders. The spa is ensconced in a former palace in the foothills near Rishikesh, making the location just as relaxing. From around $1,235 per night for seven- or 14-night programs
LANSERHOF SYLT Germany
On the weathered island known as the Hamptons of Hamburg, the year-old Lanserhof Sylt boasts a team of medical experts specialising in cardiology, neurology and dermatology, among other fields. Its gastrointestinal package includes a sonogram of the entire abdomen and comprehensive stool examinations. From around $6,940 for a one-week program, not including accommodations, which begin at around $1,145 per night
RAKXA Thailand
This integrative wellness retreat in Thailand has a seven-night gut-health program that blends medical technology with traditional regimens. Treatments include colon hydrotherapy and chi nei tsang (a form of abdominal massage); guests also undergo a food-intolerance test and leave with a month’s worth of supplements. From around $16,890 for a seven-night program
ARO HA New Zealand
The Revive & Thrive program here nurtures vibrancy with gut-focused, detoxifying plant-based meals. Guests enjoy nutrient-rich plates that support the gut-brain connection, enhancing overall wellbeing from the inside out. From around $6,950 for five nights.
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Upcycle Your Vacation
For merging serious riding with high-end hospitality, Le Blanq isn’t the only game in town. Here are a few others to consider.
When it comes to merging serious riding with high-end hospitality, LeBlanq isn’t the only game in town. if you are up for unapologetically indulgent weekends of eating, drinking and riding we have collected a few other travel operators to consider for your next cycling holiday abroad.
The Slow Cyclist
The reassuringly named company was founded by British author Oli Broom, who spent 412 days riding—via 23 countries—from London to Brisbane to watch a few games of cricket (and raise money for charity). The company is part of the “slow travel” movement, which aims to minimise your impact on local communities while maximising your engagement with them—and what better way to do so than arriving by bike. The Slow Cyclist will put you on two wheels in locations you might never have considered, from the mountains of Transylvania to the volcanoes, lakes and gorilla-filled wilds of Rwanda.
Cycling for Softies
As its name suggests, Cycling for Softies focuses unabashedly on the luxury hotels and Michelin-starred dining that punctuate its easy trips (e-bike optional)—“a gâteau in every château”, in the words of author and client Kathy Lette. The company operates in five European countries, with itineraries traversing the regions with the best comestibles, whether Provence or Portugal’s Douro Valley. Your bags are transported between hotels each day, and you ride at your own pace, following an app that even details the best cake stops en route.
Sportive Breaks
If you want to go harder than even LeBlanq can offer, Sportive Breaks will fast-track you into the most sought-after events of the year. From L’Étape du Tour, in which “civilians” take on a hard mountain stage of the Tour de France, to the roughly 314-km-long Mallorca 312 and other spectacular closed-road, mass-participation events (known as sportive rides), this specialist eases the logistical pain, if not the physical. Our pick? The slightly gentler annual Strade Bianche, whose 87 and 142 km routes over the white-gravel roads of Tuscany are bucket-list stuff for many.
Butterfield & Robinson
Established nearly 60 years ago, Butterfield & Robinson is the OG of the luxury cycling world. A coterie of loyal and well-heeled clients has followed the Canadian company into new fields, from safaris to superyacht charters, but bike trips remain its beating heart. Don’t bother packing energy gels or even your wheels: the aim here is seamless, stress-free travel, with itineraries curated by a firm with more experienced hands and likely a broader range of destinations— covering Europe, Asia, South America and Africa—than anyone else.
Trek Travel
The travel wing of the behemoth Wisconsin-based bike maker is your go-to for North American trips, with itineraries in 18 US states, Canada, Australia, Chile and Japan, and can organise custom private vacations for as few as one rider. As an official affiliate of the Tour de France and a team sponsor, Trek also offers excursions that follow the greatest race at a gentler pace: for around $17,000, you get six nights in top hotels in Nice and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, with VIP access to the final stage of this year’s event.
