2008 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Base Coupe 2-door 8.0l on 2040-cars

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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?

2013 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este dominated by Ralph Lauren's Bugatti [w/video]

On this past long weekend while Americans were celebrating Memorial Day, the very American Ralph Lauren was cleaning up tidily at this year's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in northern Italy on the western shore of Lake Como. It rained the first day on and off and this lowered a little the spirits of the event, but Sunday was a knockout Day Two and, at any rate, nothing put the kibosh on Lauren's 1938 Bugatti winning nearly everything there was to win.
Nothing put the kibosh on Lauren's 1938 Bugatti winning nearly everything there was to win.
Here's the hardware the clothing magnate's $40-million-value Bugatti 57SC Atlantic hauled in: Trofeo BMW Group (this is a BMW Group-sponsored event since 1999) for best in show according to the Jury; Coppa d'Oro Villa d'Este for best in show according to the invited public and press; Trofeo BMW Group Italia for best in show according to the open public on Day Two; Trofeo BMW Group Ragazzi for best in show according to the younguns; best-in-class winner of Class B a.k.a. "Purosangue"; Trofeo Auto & Design special prize for most exciting design according to the Jury.

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport in Fuji Speedway time attack

From the same guys who brought us video of a street-legal Porsche 962C driving through the streets of Japan comes this latest video showing Le Mans-winning pro driver, Seiji Ara, lapping Fuji Speedway in a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport. Most of the video centers around Ara's impressions, but there is plenty of great video showing the supercar carving up the track's numerous turns and blasting along its lengthy front straightaway.
Ara says this is the most powerful car he's ever driven, so we imagine it was as much for fun for him to drive as it is for us to watch. During the drive, the camera provides a sense of what it's like to pilot the Veyron on such a challenging track, and you can hear its turbos and wastegates getting a workout. Scroll down to watch this well-shot, well-edited video of Ara and the Veyron lapping Fuji Speedway. Oh, and be sure to stick around for the end, as there's a bonus three-way drag race you won't want to miss.