Bugatti Tourbillon uncovered as Chiron successor

Bugatti’s new era begins with the arrival of the long-awaited Tourbillon hyper-GT, which replaces the Chiron with a dramatic new look, a radical hybrid V16 engine and ambitions to become the world’s fastest road car. Named after the mechanism that helps maintain the precision of high-end watches, the Tourbillon arrives exactly 20 years after the launch of the Veyron, the most powerful road car of its time.
Only 250 cars will be produced, with a starting price of £3.2m (around R34m excluding tax), making it the most expensive new car in series production. Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac calls the Tourbillon “art on wheels, a painting in motion” and says he wanted to continue the company’s legacy of “bending physics.” While the Tourbillon is obviously a very limited and expensive offering, he acknowledged the huge profile of the Bugatti brand and the impact it could have beyond core customers: “We’re not going to change everyone’s life, but everyone can be inspired.” When Rimac acquired Bugatti in 2021, the French company developed an electric coupe SUV, but thought it was completely wrong for the brand. Fortunately, I won that argument,” he grinned. “We wanted it to be very emotional.

It has to be special because if it’s comparable, it’s no longer Bugatti,” he added, referring to company founder Ettore Bugatti’s slogan about a strange approach to electrification, leaving the Chiron and power the Veyron. with a massive quad-turbo W16 up to 1,800 hp plug-in hybrid unit centered around a screaming naturally aspirated V16.This engine – only the second to power the road. car in this form since the ultra-rare Cizeta-Moroder V16T of 1991: n – designed in collaboration with Cosworth after the W16 was not hybridized or developed as a purely electric Bugatti model.

CEO Mate Rimac recently said he sees no reason for Bugatti to go electric in the near future, given its small volume and the cars’ low mileage. “We’ve developed a new V16 engine and we want to use that engine for a while and maybe another engine,” he said, “and I don’t see any reason why that shouldn’t be possible.” The Tourbillon’s 8.3-litre engine is massive, about a meter from end to end, but weighs just 252kg thanks to liberal use of lightweight metals and composites. It produces 1,000 hp. on its own, making it one of the most powerful internal combustion engines ever installed on a road car. With an additional 800 hp, a trio of Rimac electric motors – two on the front axle and one on the rear – make the Tourbillon comfortably the most powerful internal combustion engine on the market.

Only the all-electric Rimac Nevera, Lotus Evija and Pininfarina Battista offer more power. The main purpose of the Tourbillon’s electric motors is to boost throttle response and provide torque when changing gears, but the 25kWh battery that powers them is said to provide a range of more than 60km on electric power. In the PHEV, the battery has exceptional 800V charging equipment, with a 0-80 percent charging time of just 12 minutes. Bosses believe the Tourbillon is faster than the Chiron, which could top 420km/h in standard form, and was the first car to break the 480km/h barrier in 2019 with special tires and bespoke air – kit The tourbillon has an initial top speed of 445 km/h, but Rimac said: “Let’s just say it’s not the maximum.” Bugatti is also targeting 0-100 km/h in 2.0 seconds and 0-200 km/h in less than 5.0 seconds, which would make the Tourbillon one of the fastest accelerating cars in the world. of.