![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/28/Bugatti-Pattern-Design-1.jpg?w=1920)
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/28/Bugatti-Pattern-Design-1.jpg?w=1920)
It feels a little silly to call out a tiny decorative element when talking about a monster hypercar like a modern Bugatti. But sometimes small flourishes are fun, and I have to say the stylized number 55s on the fenders and door cards of this bee-liveried Bugatti Sur Mesure are very cool.
Sur Mesure is what the French company calls its super-special, one-off build and customization department. Bugatti was proud enough of this particular one to grab a nice photo gallery before sending the car off to (probably) be parked indefinitely among some rich guy’s other trophies.
Bugatti has a whole hype reel and press release explaining the inspiration and tie-in of this 55 1 of 1 Chiron Super Sport black and yellow design. It is not, in fact, a Pittsburgh Steelers tribute. It’s a nod to a car driven by Jean Bugatti in the 1930s, and apparently, Ettore Bugatti himself was particularly fond of this pollinator color combo.
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mug5lGatKlA/hqdefault.jpg)
I just want to call out the creativity of one very specific detail: How designers worked the number 55 into the color scheme.
Graphics, in general, can do a lot to elevate a car’s looks, if they accentuate or complement the vehicle’s lines and vibe. That’s a tough thing to achieve while incorporating a numerical character—you’re aesthetically anchored to two factors (the car’s body and the number), plus you have to pick the right font.
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/28/03-BUGATTI_Bugatti-T55-Hommage-scaled.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/28/12-BUGATTI_Bugatti-T55-Hommage-1-scaled.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/28/13-BUGATTI_Bugatti-T55-Hommage-scaled.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
Bugatti designers made a halftone-style fade with the number 55 on the fenders here, beginning just fore of the vent holes near the windshield and kind of squiggling from a solid black space to a repeating 55 pattern. It’s almost like something you might see on a handbag. It looks simultaneously classy and racy, which fits a seven-figure land-bound cigarette boat like the Chiron perfectly. Plus, “55” also looks like “SS,” and this is, well, a Super Sport Bugatti.
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/28/06-BUGATTI_Bugatti-T55-Hommage-1-scaled.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
In addition to the front fenders, Bugatti’s interior designers repeated the solid-color-fading-to-55s in what looks like embroidery. That feels like a particularly brave choice. If you’d described this idea to me: “We’ll embroider a bunch of 55s but then fade it into a mesh-like solid space,” I would have thought it’d look like a child’s sewing project with a stain on it. But the execution here is amazing.
They managed to pull off a fade look using only three layers. Artistically speaking, that’s impressive. Inspired to take a closer peek at the Chiron in general after seeing this, I realized Bugatti’s done a stylized character fade in this style before.
Here’s a similar execution of a fade that spills over the fenders, using the Bugatti EB logo instead of a number. Doesn’t look quite as cool as the number I don’t think, because you lose the squiggle that the 55 character made room for. But this is still neat.
![](https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/28/Bugatti-Sur-Mesure2.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
Yes, it’s cool that these cars can go 300 miles per hour, but it’s especially fun to examine and analyze decorative details on a vehicle built to this level of artistry.
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