2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 8.0l "bleu Nuit" Grand Sport 315 Miles, One Owner on 2040-cars

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Bugatti to replace outgoing Veyron with new Chiron

With around a dozen new units left up for grabs, the Bugatti Veyron is near the end of its production cycle. For its part, Bugatti is planning to replace it with another hypercar, and while it's surely already under development, lips in Molsheim remain tightly sealed until the last Veyron leaves the factory. In the meantime, though, we've got some clues to go by. And the latest comes courtesy of Car and Driver.
According to emerging intel, the Veyron's successor will wear the name Chiron. The name belongs not only a mythological Greek centaur but also to one of the most successful racing drivers of Bugatti's heyday - certainly one of the most prominent not to have been featured in the company's recent Legend series. His name did, however, adorn the Bugatti 18/3 Chiron (pictured above), one of the concepts from the late 90s that paved the way for the Veyron's arrival.
Aside from the name, there are precious few details to go by, but we can expect it to be powered by the company's 8.0-liter W16 engine, unnaturally aspirated and with a likely hybrid boost. Look for even more staggering performance than the Veyron's, with nimbler handling thanks to lighter-weight construction.

Discover the two coupes Bugatti wanted to sell alongside the Chiron

Bugatti has released two cars since it joined the Volkswagen Group in 1998: the Veyron and the Chiron. Both are high-horsepower, multi-million-dollar machines built in strictly limited numbers. That wasn't the original plan; executives envisioned a three-car range during the 2010s. Autoblog went right to the source to discover a pair of coupes — one below the Chiron and one well above — that were cancelled and have never been seen before. The French company first attempted to revive the practice of coachbuilding in the 2000s, but it shifted nearly every part of the process in-house because a majority of the companies it worked with during the 1920s and the 1930s were long gone. While this added significant costs and complexity, the success of Lamborghini's few-off models (like the Reventon) proved collectors were ravenous for exclusivity and more than willing to pay a lot for it. "We were not sleeping on the horse. Starting in 2004, I was constantly giving management ideas about what we could do next to the Veyron, on its base, or after it. Most never saw the light of day," Achim Anscheidt, the soft-spoken head of Bugatti's design department, told me as we walked through the company's styling center. Bugatti Veyron Barchetta View 5 Photos With coachbuilders like Henri Binder, Park Ward, Kellner, and Figoni & Falaschi out of the picture, the task of creating a new body fell into Anscheidt's lap. While he experimented with many projects, one he shed light on is a barchetta-like open-top two-seater (shown above) based on the Veyron Grand Sport. It featured the short, boat-like wraparound windshield that has historically characterized the body style, though "it could have been done as a roadster with a conventional windshield." Its proportions are recognizably Veyron-like, but the similarities end there. Its front end wears a vertical lights and bigger grille flanked by wide air intakes, styling cues later seen on the Divo. If built, the Veyron Barchetta would have arrived as a limited-edition model with a correspondingly high price tag, in part to offset the sky-high development costs. But as Lamborghini chalked up hit after hit, including the Sesto Elemento introduced at the 2010 Paris show, Bugatti's top executives were reluctant to adopt this business model. "They couldn't give themselves the push to make it happen," Anscheidt said with a tinge of regret.

Bugatti confirms new Chiron to debut in Geneva

Few followup acts have ever been as highly anticipated as the successor to the Bugatti Veyron, but the wait will be over in a few months. Bugatti confirmed Monday that the new supercar will be called the Chiron, and it will debut next year at the Geneva Motor Show. Bugatti did not announce specifications, though the Chiron is sure to be a technical tour-de-force and a world-beating supercar. It is widely expected to further evolve the package developed for the Veyron. That will center around the 8.0-liter W16 engine, this time expected to use electric turbochargers for a mild hybrid setup, little to no turbo lag, and an output anticipated to approach 1,500 horsepower. Combined with lower weight (thanks in part to the more widespread use of carbon fiber), all that muscle is tipped to rocket the Chiron to 62 in less than 2.5 seconds and on to a top speed of around 288 miles per hour. All the automaker will confirm at the moment, however, is that the "Bugatti Chiron will be the world's most powerful, fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive production super sports car." Expect the design to closely mirror that of the company's Vision Gran Turismo concept, albeit in a more elegant and less racy form. The lines are anticipated to be dominated by the semi-circular curve encompassing the main rear vent and the trailing edge of the greenhouse. The front end will be more angular with sharper headlights, but still dominated by the signature horseshoe-shaped front grille. As for the name, Bugatti has – as expected – drawn once again from its illustrious pre-war racing history to name the supercar after one of its most legendary gentleman drivers. Louis Chiron remains the only Monegasque driver ever to win the Monaco Grand Prix, counting it among his numerous career victories. Those included more grands prix before and after World War II, as well as the Spa 24 Hours and the Monte Carlo Rally. Bugatti previously applied his name to the 18/3 Chiron concept that previewed the Veyron with an even larger 18-cylinder engine at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1999. It only strikes us as fitting, then, that the name now be resurrected for the Veyron's successor. Read more about Louis Chiron's life and career – including an interview with his descendant and biographer Lydie Barre-Chiron – in the press release below, accompanied by the images in the gallery above.