GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: One-off Bugatti La Voiture Noire most expensive car ever

It's official: the Bugatti La Voiture Noire revealed at this week's Geneva motor show is the most expensive new car of all time.

Priced at an astonishing €11 million ($A18 million) before local taxes, the Bugatti La Voiture Noire has been created to pay tribute to the legendary Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic sportscar that was once heralded as the most advanced car of all time when it went on sale back in 1935.

Featuring more aggressive styling than the Bugatti Chiron it's based on, the new Bugatti La Voiture Noire gets a sharper front grille flanked by two huge air intakes and a pair of swept-back front headlamps that recede back along the front fenders.

Referencing the original Atlantic, Bugatti designers have added a sharp dorsal seam that runs from the bonnet, across the screen, along the roof and all the way through to the engine cover.

At the rear of the car, the Chiron has been redesigned to incorporate a flowing red LED light strip that stretches across the car.

Below it, the famous Bugatti name lettering is illuminated by white LEDs.

Finally, six separate exhaust pipes hint at the mighty quad-turbocharged 8.0-litre W16 that's thought to produce the same 1120kW and 1600Nm of torque as the stock Chiron.

Bugatti has not disclosed who commissioned the one-off La Voiture Noire but before Geneva it was widely reported that none other than former Volkswagen Group’s Supervisory Chairman Ferdinand Piech was the man writing the cheque.

It's thought the real reason motive was an invaluable publicity drive for Bugatti, which hopes more of its billionaire customer base will follow Piech's lead and commission their very own one-off creations, based on the Chiron or Divo models.