Inside the small glass building where some of the fastest cars in the world are made, there is never a sense of haste. There is also little noise. In a tunnel lined with blazing white lights, workers can look for tiny imperfections in the finished product. Elsewhere, they slide a 16-cylinder engine into its home just behind the driver's seat. Occasionally, they gather at a central table for a meeting.

There is no assembly line here. It would make no sense to set one up. Only a few cars are being built here at any one time. This is the home of Bugatti in France's Alsace region. I'm standing inside a factory but Bugatti would never use that word. The company's executives always refer to it as "the atelier," the workplace of an artist or an artisan. A little pretentious, maybe, but the word fits.