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The Bugatti EB112 concept was a supercar with a sedan body

Ultra high-end luxury cars are common today, with the likes of Lotus, Porsche, and even Ferrari offering four-door crossovers. But three decades ago, the most expensive and technologically advanced cars in the world were all sports cars — your F40s, 959s and Diablos. Then along came Bugatti with the EB112 concept, a four-door sedan with supercar bones.  Unveiled at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show, the EB112 caused quite a sensation. Partially it was due to the extremely polarizing styling. Styled by design legend Giorgetto Giugiaro, it translated the look of early 20th-century Bugatti classics like the Type 57 Galibier to early 1990s bar-of-soap aesthetics. References to classic Bugattis like the Type 57 SC Atlantic came in the form of a subtle spine along the dorsal line. "The EB112 in many respects was a dream car and a forerunner to what we today know as high-performance fastback models," Giugiaro said. Squint and you might see shades of Porsche Panamera or Tesla Model 3 in the profile. Some found it beautiful, others found it hideous.  What's less subjective is the cutting edge technology beneath its controversial skin. The underpinnings were heavily based on Bugatti's EB110 supercar introduced in 1991, such as aluminum panels draped over a carbon fiber monocoque.  Power came from a 6.0-liter V12 designed with Volkswagen's help, a bit of foreshadowing about the company's future. Each cylinder had five valves for a total of 60, and the engine was mounted in a front-midship design aft of the front axle. The unit generated 460 horsepower at at 6,300 rpm and 435 lb-ft of torque at 3,000 rpm, which was fed through a 6-speed manual transmission to an AWD system similar to the EB110's with a 38/62 front/rear torque split. Bugatti's own tests said the EB112 could reach 0-100km (0-62 mph) in 4.3 seconds. Its top speed is said to have broken the 300 kph (186 mph) barrier as well.  Unfortunately Bugatti, then owned by Italian businessman Romano Artioli, went bankrupt in 1995 and the EB112 never saw production. Venturi owner Gildo Pallanca Pastor purchased what was left and found three partially finished EB112s, two of which he completed with spare parts, though these hand-built units each had minor differences.  Volkswagen bought Bugatti in 1998 and continued to evolve the EB112. In 1999 they debuted the EB218 concept, equipped with a W18 engine and a Lamborghini Diablo VT's AWD system.

Bugatti plots PHEV Chiron successor with more athletic proportions

Bugatti is ready to close the W16 chapter of its history; the Mistral roadster it unveiled in August 2022 is the final street-legal car powered by the quad-turbocharged engine. What's next remains shrouded in secrecy, but the French firm gave Autoblog a few hints of what to expect. First, let's dispel a myth: The Chiron's successor will not be electric. Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti's design director, confirmed that the model — whose name hasn't been announced yet — will be powered by a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Rimac has previously described the drivetrain as "heavily electrified," but precise technical details such as horsepower and layout haven't been made public. All we know for sure at this stage is that the W16 won't return and that many key components under the body (including the monocoque and the subframes) will be new. In terms of design, it sounds like Anscheidt instructed his team to balance evolutionary and revolutionary approaches. "[The car] will certainly be tailored to one or the other aspect of a hybrid. We see the potential to improve the overall automotive gesture of the car," he said. Dialing in new proportions is something his team wasn't able to do when it designed the Chiron, because parts like the monocoque and the doors were carried over from the Veyron. Beyond the overall shape, Anscheidt noted he'd like to see Bugatti's design language get leaner and more athletic, but there's a limit to this stretch. Regardless of what the Chiron's successor looks like, it needs to stay true to the ambivalent character of "the automotive Beauty and Beast" and be instantly recognizable as a Bugatti "In comparison to other hyper-sports cars, Bugatti always created its own sovereign segment. It was always slightly different, never trying to be a race car for the road. It is the ultimate GT. That should not change from one day to the other. We don't want to become somebody else, but we're opening a new tech chapter which is a challenge as well as an opportunity," he clarified. The cabin will evolve as well, but it won't necessarily follow the industry's ongoing shift toward wall-to-wall screens. "When you look at today's cars, it becomes very apparent that there are screens everywhere. Where is this leading us? Yes, I think that customers deserve to have full entertainment in their daily driver. This is the [interior design trend] of the automotive industry, and we don't want to question that. However, I wonder: who still has an iPhone 3?

Bugatti might make a sedan, but definitely won't do an SUV

Hot off the reveal of the 1,500-horsepower Chiron, one would think Bugatti president Wolfgang Durheimer would be sleeping well. Apparently, he has something else on his mind. "I can't get the idea for a four-door limousine out of my head," the Bugatti chief told Bloomberg at the Geneva Motor Show. "It's one of the options we might look into again as a possible next project." "Limousine" translates to sedan in German, the native country of Durheimer, and Bugatti has floated the idea of a four door before. The 16C Galibier was shown in 2009, and rumors of its production approval (or delay) percolated for years. If Bugatti were to proceed with a sedan, it would likely draw on the resources of parent Volkswagen Group, perhaps sourcing the underpinnings and other hardware. Meanwhile, the chances of Bugatti doing a sport utility vehicle are zero, Bloomberg reported. When asked, Durheimer responded with a precise "no." He did suggest Bugatti might use electrification for future cars, though he didn't elaborate. For now, Bugatti is basking in the attention generated by the Chiron, the much-anticipated successor to the Veyron. The Chiron bowed this week at the Geneva Motor Show and will go on sale this fall with a base price of $2.6 million. Related Video: Related Gallery Bugatti Chiron: Geneva 2016 View 16 Photos Design/Style Geneva Motor Show Bugatti 2016 geneva motor show