Monaco has always been an unofficial concours of celebrity garages, especially Formula 1’s elite. Drivers who spend their weekends wrestling 220 mph race cars seem to relax by driving something almost as extreme to go to the supermarket. Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc have all been spotted in various high-dollar supercars but Fernando Alonso’s new purchase manages to quietly outclass everyone.
Two world titles, 32 grand prix wins and three decades in the sport haven’t dulled his appetite for machinery. If anything, the Aston Martin driver has turned into one of the paddock’s most serious collectors, someone who buys cars the way most people buy watches, and actually drives them rather than putting them in climate-controlled garages. The latest addition to his collection is a Bugatti EB110 GT, finished in a deep, wine-colored maroon, cruising through Monaco’s streets. There’s something satisfying about seeing Alonso, a manual gearbox, and a V12 doing its best opera impression at low speed.
The EB110 deserves the reverence. Launched in 1991 to mark what would have been Ettore Bugatti’s 110th birthday, it was Bugatti’s audacious comeback under Romano Artioli, built in a futuristic factory in Campogalliano rather than the brand’s traditional French home. Under the skin sat a 3.5-liter quad turbo V12 producing 553 hp, sent through a six speed manual to all four wheels. Bugatti quoted 0-60 mph in around 3.3 seconds and a top speed past 210 mph, numbers that would still embarrass plenty of modern metal.
Only 139 examples were built before the company collapsed in 1995, which explains why values have climbed steadily into seven figures, with pristine cars now regularly crossing $2 million and rare prototypes commanding even more. The car has a proper F1 pedigree too. Michael Schumacher bought a yellow EB110 Super Sport back in 1994 and famously blamed its brakes after crashing it, while Mika Hakkinen and Derek Hill, son of champion Phil Hill, both have their own ties to the Bugatti EB110.
Alonso’s stable, reportedly worth well over $30 million, includes a one-off Pagani Zonda Roadster Diamante Verde, a Ferrari LaFerrari, an Aston Martin Valkyrie, a Mercedes CLK GTR and even a humble Toyota Yaris. Somehow the EB110, decades older, less valuable than some of his others, and comparatively modest on paper, still manages to steal the spotlight.
