1931 - Bugatti Royale on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Bugatti Chiron to pack 1,500 electrically turbocharged horses

For a car capable of unprecedented speeds, the Bugatti Veyron sure has stuck around a long time – but it's almost gone. And that means it's time for the Alsatian marque to move on to the next thing. Fortunately, according to Automobile magazine, Bugatti has been working on the Veyron's successor for about four years now. And though Bugatti has kept pretty quiet on the details of what its next hypercar will entail, the publication's well-informed European correspondent Georg Kacher has some tasty details on the followup to one of the most famous automobiles of the modern age. For starters, the Veyron successor is expected to carry the same 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 engine as its predecessor – only with much more power. Where the original coupe and Grand Sport roadster produced 1,000 horsepower and the Super Sport and Vitesse packed 1,200, the followup is tipped to ratchet up the horse-count to a whopping 1,500 hp. That headline figure is being enabled by the use of direct injection and higher-pressure turbochargers – at least two of which are expected to be electrically powered for immediate response. The result is an anticipated 0-62 time of under 2.5 seconds and a top speed of 288 miles per hour – 18 miles faster even than the record-setting Super Sport. Active aero will keep it stable and carbon-ceramic brakes, operating in tandem with the rear-wing air-brake, will keep it all in check. The cabin is tipped to be more spacious and ergonomic while offering easier ingress, egress and outward visibility than the Veyron. And this time around, it'll be lighter weight and with a greater emphasis on more nimble handling. We're told to still expect Bugatti to revive the Chiron name used earlier on the concept (pictured above) that previewed the Veyron back in 1999 and which originally belonged to Louis Chiron, one of the most decorated racing drivers from the marque's hey day. Unfortunately Automobile reports that the launch of the new Chiron has been pushed off from 2015 to 2016. But rather than leave the factory in Molsheim with nothing to do, word has it that Bugatti could extend the Veyron's life by creating a Speedster to be produced in strictly limited numbers and with an even higher price tag. Related Video:

What's up with this Bugatti Veyron spied at the N?rburgring?

It's been sixteen years since Volkswagen acquired the Bugatti name and started showing off successive concept cars to preview the Veyron that followed. It's been eleven years since the first Veyron prototype started testing, and nine years since it entered production. But soon - probably sometime next year - Bugatti will have sold the last of the Veyrons it will ever build. And considering that the Veyron is the only model it offers, it will need something else to take its place, lest the marque effectively go dormant once again.
Having ruled out the prospect of doing a less expensive sports car years ago and, more recently, the production prospects for the Galibier super-sedan, Bugatti is committed to further the concept of a super-sports car that will, in all likelihood, be lighter than the current Veyron - which may seem like a no-brainer, considering the car weighs over 4,000 pounds - but with an engine that is, by every metric but output, twice the size of the one you'd find in, say, a modern McLaren, trimming weight will be no mean feat.
That does appear, however, to be what Bugatti is seen testing at the Nürburgring in this video clip below. Going by the handle fastsportscardriver, the videographer/uploader doesn't seem to know what he has captured here, but the Grand Sport prototype he's spotted seems to be wearing some sort of metal frame over the exposed engine, suggesting something's at work here. Just what that is, we don't know. But when you're dealing with an engine that already produces upwards of a thousand horsepower, whatever they're working on, it's got to be good.

Bugatti Chiron roadster could be in the works

Regular reversals make it hard to tell what Bugatti will do next. In 2018, the Molsheim, France-based carmaker said it wouldn't go after the 300-mph mark, screaming from the mountaintop that would be "missing a big part of what the [Chiron] is all about." Not even a year later, a modestly reformed Chiron reached 304.773 mph at Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track, the feat spun into the $5.19M Chiron Super Sport 300+ and, more recently, the $580,000 Jacob Twin Turbo Furious 300+ wristwatch. In 2019, Bugatti said "There will be no SUV." Eight months later, Bugatti revealed it had already designed a crossover, and that "some potential customers have seen it, and they liked it." If The Supercar Blog is correct, we could have another take-back on our hands. In 2016, Bugatti pronounced the Chiron would get "no roadster or convertible" version. Since then, the closest accommodation the Chiron makes to open-air motoring is the fixed Sky View roof panels. But TSB sources told the outlet "Bugatti does intend to build" a Chiron roadster. It's not clear if this would be a one-off like the La Voiture Noire or a limited run like the Divo or Centodieci, but TSB states Bugatti is "reportedly gauging interest in a one-of-a-kind open-top variant." A one-off roofless screamer is one of Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann's go-to maneuvers, though. When Winkelmann ran Lamborghini, he commissioned designers to work up the Aventador J roadster for the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, later selling the car's birth as a customer commission. The following year, he presided over the creation of the single-seater, targa-top Egoista for the brand's 50th anniversary. Bugatti has a much deeper roadster tradition than Lamborghini, offering plenty of material to pull from that designers have so far barely mined. With a rumored price of ˆ9 million ($10.1M U.S.), Bugatti's roofless hypercar wouldn't be a 'mere' targa-ficiation of the Chiron mimicking the Veyron Grand Sport. The asking price is a nice condominium beyond the ˆ8 million ($8.9M U.S.) sought for the Centodieci, the EB110 homage limited to ten units, and a good deal less than the $18.7M sum needed for the La Voiture Noire.   If there's any truth to this, guesswork says Bugatti's either doing up a roofless roadster in the vein of the Bentley Bacalar or a speedster in the Ferrari SP1 mold. More detail than that will need to wait until another source pipes up, or Bugatti decides to drop hints.