Eric,
I'm not aware of this quote but he might. EB was a character and had very personal views on what automobiles should be and how they should be built. He did not want hammers in his shop, because well-made parts should fit by hand pressure, not by hitting them with a hammer. He did not use gaskets when assembling the engine, again because well-built parts should fit metal to metal. The joining surfaces were 'guillochetted' a process that creates a slight texture, and that was it. The Royale, his most luxurious car, had ivory control knobs...
This extreme approach is carried on today through the Veyron. Gone are the ivory knobs and gasket-less engine contruction, but the extreme design is still present. The Veyron uses 8 radiators to cool it's massive W-16 engine (16 cylinders in 4 rows of 4), each of them hand made. The engine generates massive amounts of heat, so much so that on the first test run the car caught on fire, and more radiators than originally planned had to be used in the final version. The car comes with 2 keys, the first one unleashes 500 hp, the second one another 500, for when the first 500 are not enough... At full speed, the car will empty the gas tank in 15 minutes or so. All that for a price equivalent to 8 well-appointed Porsches. Definitely a want and not a need!
