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Who was Elisabeth Junek, and why is Bugatti giving her a special Veyron?

Bugatti is in the habit of recalling names from its storied history on the nameplates of its new models. The Veyron, after all, was named after Pierre, one of its most accomplished racing and test drivers. So, too, was the concept that preceded it named after Louis Chiron, another Bugatti racing driver of yore. And lately, the Alsatian marque has been reviving other names from its history with a series of special editions.
The "Légendes de Bugatti" series kicked off with the Jean-Pierre Wimille edition last year, which was followed by the Jean Bugatti edition and the Meo Costatini edition (pictured above) just a few months ago. We would have expected that the next one would honor Jean's brother Rembrandt Bugatti - the artist behind the rearing elephant hood ornament that adorned the legendary Bugatti Royale - but the word on the street is that the next special-edition Vitesse will pay tribute to one Elisabeth Junek.
Also known as Eliška Junková, she was one of the earliest and most renowned of female racing drivers at the dawn of motorsport. She would often accompany her banker/gentleman-racer husband Cenek Junek on his motoring exploits in their Bugatti Type 35B and would sometimes take the wheel herself. Her most famous race was the 1928 Targa Florio, which she led until the final lap before mechanical troubles dropped her down to fifth place - but still ahead of Tazio Nuvolari.

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Filmmaker explains how to shoot a Bugatti Chiron accelerating to 248 mph

Bugatti set a world record in 2017 when a Chiron traveled from zero to 248 mph (400 kph) to zero in 42 seconds. It caught the record on film, but it has never revealed how it captured footage of a 1,500-horsepower car traveling at nearly four times the speed limit of an American interstate. Filmmaker Al Clark revealed his secrets in a video. It was clear from the beginning of the project that simply placing a GoPro on the dashboard and hitting "record" wouldn't have cut it. Bugatti wanted a feature-quality film that showed the car from many different angles, so Clark worked with some of the most talented names in the automotive film industry to make it happen. The scenes showing the Chiron from above were filmed using an Aerospatiale 355N Ecureuil helicopter because a drone would be too slow to keep up with the car, and it wouldn't be able to stay in the air long enough.  German studio Format67 provided a Caterham Seven transformed into a film car to capture some of the car-to-car footage. The crew also borrowed its hood to use as a shield against reflections during one of the photo shoots. It's quick and agile, so it's well suited to performing camera car duty, but it can't keep up with a Chiron. "I love real speed in shots. I think it's so important that the cars are doing something approaching their real speed, because when you start to speed up stuff everything looks wrong," Clark explained. Putting footage on fast forward wasn't an option, neither was attaching the camera to a cable and pelting it down the track. The answer was surprisingly simple: The crew used another Chiron as the camera car and launched them at the same time. The record was set on Volkswagen's test track in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, which is also where a 304-mph Chiron became the fastest car in the world in 2019. The main straight is long and smooth, so the footage captured was perfectly steady in spite of the head-spinning speed; Clark even chose to dial in a little bit of camera shake during the editing process. It wasn't perfectly in focus, though, because the camera filmed through the exhaust gases, and the system gets extremely hot when the quad-turbocharged, 8.0-liter 16-cylinder engine is giving its all. Juan Pablo Montoya, the courageous Indy 500-winning pilot who set the 2017 record, said "it was all quite easy." Clark's firsthand account confirms the same can't be said about capturing the feat on video. Related Video:       Bugatti Technology Gadgets Luxury Performance