Ground-pounding 2008 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (base) on 2040-cars

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Mate Rimac dishes on Bugatti engines and a canceled Bugatti EV CUV

Bugatti Rimac CEO Mate Rimac gave Auto Express a look behind the scenes of his short time as head of the combined hypercar companies, as well as a peep into the CEO's crystal ball. The interview deserves a read because Rimac is the latest, closest thing we have to "garage car guy catapults himself into industry bigwig" — the hugely successful corporate antipode to Christian von Koenigsegg's hugely successful indie label. In 2007, at 19 years old, Rimac began converting his BMW 3 Series to an electric powertrain. Four years later, he showed the Rimac Concept One at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Ten years after that, he took the lead at Bugatti. He told Auto Express that as soon as he agreed with VW to lead the Molsheim luxury brand, which was two years before being installed as CEO, he and his team began working on a new internal combustion engine for a future Bugatti. Rimac said he'd already been working on a Bugatti project, ex-CEO Stephan Winkelmann having sought assistance on "an electric CUV similar to what the Ferrari Purosange turned out to be." We're told the idea was to rework the Rimac Nevera powertrain for the purpose. Once Rimac knew he was going to take over the joint venture company, the crossover was dead. Rimac said, "I knew exactly what I wanted the next car [after the Chiron] to be, and we started developing a combustion engine on our own." We will get a concept view of that powerplant next year, described as a "totally bonkers" hybrid in a car that doesn't share any parts with an existing Bugatti or Rimac. We'll probably be waiting until the last Chirons and Mistrals are produced before it hits the road, though.    As for the canceled Bugatti crossover, Rimac says that's not coming back. We've heard that from every supercar and hypercar maker that now has or will soon have an SUV, haven't we? Here's where we reach the gray area: Rimac isn't opposed to a four-seater car, he's opposed to an SUV. Regarding a car, he told AE, "I will never say we'll never do this sort of thing," but he hasn't found a "technical concept" that combines the proportions needed to make four people comfortable with what he expects from a hypercar. The SUV, on the other hand, received an unequivocal, "No. ... It was something we immediately stopped for Bugatti, and we will go in a slightly different direction. That is a direction we will never take." Keep an eye on that line in the sand.

Bugatti Chiron spotted on the streets of New York

It's one thing seeing a multi-million-dollar exotic supercar sitting static on the stand at a car show. It's quite another seeing it out on the street in real life. And that's just what we have here in the form of the Bugatti Chiron. The two-tone blue-on-blue livery appears identical to the one we saw unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show a few weeks ago, and given how slowly they make 'em in Molsheim, chances are this is the very same one. The product of nearly two decades of development packs a massive 8.0-liter W16 engine, complete with two conventional turbochargers, another two electric ones, and the better part of 1,500 horsepower. With that much muscle, a $2.6-million price tag, and a production run limited to 500 examples worldwide, you're not likely to see many out in the wild, especially not standing still for long. So if you're wondering what this one is doing just sitting there by the curb, with the hood popped and a cover folded up on the roof, well ... a few telltale signs indicate that the photo was snapped on West 51st Street (parked in front of a fire hydrant), just across from the new Manhattan Motorcars dealership that incorporates the latest Bugatti showroom. Related Video:

Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo shows post-Veyron future

The wonderful thing about the ever-growing series of Vision Gran Turismo concepts is that designers are free to imagine anything for the virtual world. For Bugatti's stab at the idea, the hypercar company is gunning for absolute speed by imagining a model as quick as an LMP1 racer around Le Mans. Bringing the look back to reality, the brand has a carbon-fiber one-off on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show. "Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo is the first stage on a new journey that Bugatti is embarking on following the successful completion of its Veyron chapter, and which will culminate in the unveiling of the next Bugatti super sports car in the not too distant future," said company president Wolfgang Durheimer, in the vehicle's announcement. Take a good look at the cues Bugatti's stylists play with on the Vision Gran Turismo because the vehicle previews the brand's future design language. While inspired by the automaker's success at Le Mans in the 1920s and '30s, the only retro touches are the blue paint of the era's French racecars and the number in the horseshoe grille. The real result is a ground-scraping racecar that evolves the look of the Veyron. The nose is similar but sports eight LED headlights, and massive NACA ducts in the roof feed cool air to the W16 engine. A high fin runs down the back and leads to a mammoth rear wing. The company's engineers think the result of this all-out approach to speed would result in a racer capable of hitting over 250 miles per hour in four sections at Le Mans. Anyone with a copy of Gran Turismo should get to test that challenge fairly soon.