Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse Legend Elisabeth Junek Edition
Reportedly, Bugatti will debut a new Grand Sport Vitesse Legend Edition, at the upcoming 84 Geneva Int'l Motor Show, to be named named after Elisabeth Junek.
Eliška Junková (16 November 1900 – 5 January 1994), born as Alžběta Pospíšilová and also known as Elizabeth Junek, was a Czech automobile racer. She is regarded as one of the greatest female drivers in Grand Prix motor racing history.
The sixth of eight children born to a blacksmith in Olomouc, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian empire, she was nicknamed "smíšek" (cheerful) at an early age for her ever-present smile. Following the end of World War I, when her native Bohemia became part of the new republic of Czechoslovakia, she found work in the Olomouc branch of the Pražská úvěrová banka (Prague Credit Bank) thanks to her multilingual skills, honed through her desire to travel the world. It was here that she met Vincenc "Čeněk" Junek, an ambitious young banker who shared her fascination with speed, and who would eventually become her husband.
Back at Nürburgring in July 1928, she shared the driving with her husband at the German Grand Prix. Having just changed places with him, he went off course and was killed instantly. Junek was devastated — she gave up racing and sold her vehicles, and returned to her first passion of travelling. Ettore Bugatti himself gave her a new touring car for her journey to Ceylon, and hired her to seek out new business opportunities in Asia.
Elisabeth Junek eventually found love again and remarried shortly after the Second World War. But from 1948 to 1964, the Communist authorities, disapproving of the high-flying, bourgeois lifestyle that she had lived, refused to allow her to travel abroad. Like Hellé Nice, her great female counterpart from France, she was largely forgotten by the motor racing world. But she lived well into her nineties, long enough for the iron curtain to fall and for the "queen of the steering wheel" to regain her position in automotive racing history. In 1989, at the age of 89 and against the advice of her doctor, she attended a Bugatti reunion in the United States as the guest of honor.
She died peacefully in Prague, Czech Republic in 1994, aged 93.
As a reminder, the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse is powered by a 8.0-liter W-16 engine that produces 1200 bhp and 1106 lb.-ft. of torque, and this drivetrain propels the Super Sport to 431 km/h (268 mph, and allows an acceleration 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.4 seconds. However, the production car's top speed is limited to "just" 415 km/h (258 mph) for tire reasons.
Eliška Junková (16 November 1900 – 5 January 1994), born as Alžběta Pospíšilová and also known as Elizabeth Junek, was a Czech automobile racer. She is regarded as one of the greatest female drivers in Grand Prix motor racing history.
The sixth of eight children born to a blacksmith in Olomouc, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian empire, she was nicknamed "smíšek" (cheerful) at an early age for her ever-present smile. Following the end of World War I, when her native Bohemia became part of the new republic of Czechoslovakia, she found work in the Olomouc branch of the Pražská úvěrová banka (Prague Credit Bank) thanks to her multilingual skills, honed through her desire to travel the world. It was here that she met Vincenc "Čeněk" Junek, an ambitious young banker who shared her fascination with speed, and who would eventually become her husband.
Back at Nürburgring in July 1928, she shared the driving with her husband at the German Grand Prix. Having just changed places with him, he went off course and was killed instantly. Junek was devastated — she gave up racing and sold her vehicles, and returned to her first passion of travelling. Ettore Bugatti himself gave her a new touring car for her journey to Ceylon, and hired her to seek out new business opportunities in Asia.
Elisabeth Junek eventually found love again and remarried shortly after the Second World War. But from 1948 to 1964, the Communist authorities, disapproving of the high-flying, bourgeois lifestyle that she had lived, refused to allow her to travel abroad. Like Hellé Nice, her great female counterpart from France, she was largely forgotten by the motor racing world. But she lived well into her nineties, long enough for the iron curtain to fall and for the "queen of the steering wheel" to regain her position in automotive racing history. In 1989, at the age of 89 and against the advice of her doctor, she attended a Bugatti reunion in the United States as the guest of honor.
She died peacefully in Prague, Czech Republic in 1994, aged 93.
As a reminder, the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse is powered by a 8.0-liter W-16 engine that produces 1200 bhp and 1106 lb.-ft. of torque, and this drivetrain propels the Super Sport to 431 km/h (268 mph, and allows an acceleration 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.4 seconds. However, the production car's top speed is limited to "just" 415 km/h (258 mph) for tire reasons.
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