2012 Bugatti Veyron on 2040-cars

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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 finishes Divo development, prepares to start customer deliveries

Bugatti introduced the limited-edition Divo at the 2018 edition of the champagne-soaked Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, but bringing it to sunny California was only half the battle. The small French company spent two arduous years fine-tuning the model before it could begin production. The development process is finally done, and Bugatti announced the first examples will soon be delivered to customers around the world. It's no secret that the Divo (pictured) is based on the Chiron, but there are enough differences between the two models to warrant a two-year development cycle. It's notably 77 pounds lighter, and it generates 198 additional pounds of downforce. It was designed with handling in mind, so it's capable of holding 1.6 g around a corner. The tradeoff is that its top speed checks in at 236 mph, which less than what the Chiron achieves. Bugatti engineers relied on computer simulations to get a head-start on setting up the chassis; they had access to parameters like the amount of load on each axle before the first prototype turned a wheel under its own power. They then carefully adjusted the suspension and re-tuned the steering to make it sharper. Test mules covered over 3,100 miles on testing grounds, race tracks (including the Nurburgring), and public roads. From a design standpoint, the Divo borrows styling cues from some of the projects Bugatti previously worked on but canceled. It's not all about style, though; many of the changes are also functional. The redesigned front spoiler adds downforce, the air vents chiseled into the front end increase airflow, and the 72-inch-wide wing helps keep the rear end planted to the ground when going around a bend. Engineers even tweaked the roof panel. View 16 Photos "The Divo is entirely different to drive than the Chiron, even though both are fitted with the powerful W16 engine," Lars Fischer, Bugatti's head of chassis testing and application, said. He added it's faster and more predictable to drive through corners, yet it remains relatively comfortable to drive daily. Forty examples of the Divo will be assembled by hand at Bugatti headquarters in Molsheim, France. Pricing starts at ˆ5 million, a sum that represents $5.4 million. Enthusiasts who want to add one to their collection will need to shop used, because every example was spoken for before the model was unveiled to the public.  "Every Divo customer owns a Chiron, knows what the brand stands for and is a true Bugatti enthusiast.

Bugatti looks back at how how it developed the W16 engine

As the end of the Chiron's production run nears, Bugatti is taking a look back at the W16 engine that has powered its cars since it returned to the scene nearly 20 years ago. The engine is relatively compact, hugely powerful, and it has helped the firm set several world records. Former Volkswagen boss Ferdinand Karl Piech knew that successfully reviving Bugatti required building a car that stood out from everything else on the road at the time. He initially planned to power the then-upcoming Veyron with an 18-cylinder engine and sketched it out on an envelope while riding on a high-speed train from Tokyo to Osaka in Japan in 1997. His concept later became a 16-cylinder engine, but dropping a pair of cylinders didn't make the unit easier to develop. Bugatti engineers started from scratch in order to make the W16 a reality. "We had to engage in basic development for every component; every vehicle part had to be constructed anew and tested — even the engine test bench. The only thing we didn't change was the pencils we used for drawing," said former Bugatti head of technical development Gregor Gries. The initial goal was to launch the Veyron with over 1,000 horsepower, and even some insiders doubted that this could be achieved. Bugatti pulled it off: The Veyron entered production in 2005 with a quad-turbocharged, 8.0-liter W16 engine rated at 1,000 horsepower and 922 pound-feet of torque. Horsepower increased to 1,200 in the Veyron Super Sport, and the Chiron inaugurated a new version of the engine rated at 1,500 horsepower thanks in part to bigger turbos, though the Chiron Super Sport offers a 1,600-horsepower output. Engineers faced several significant challenges during the Veyron's development process. Getting the W16 to make 1,000 horsepower wasn't one; it broke the symbolic barrier the first time it was put on a test bench in 2001. Keeping its temperature in check required designing a massive cooling system that takes over 10 gallons of coolant and installing a titanium exhaust system. With the engine ready to go, Bugatti turned its attention to creating a car capable of coping with 1,000 horsepower, both in terms of comfort and in terms of aerodynamics. "Back then, there was no literature or empirical data for production engines with more than 12 cylinders or for production vehicles that could go faster than 217 mph," said Karl-Heinz Neumann, Volkswagen's former head of engine development.