Twenty years after inventing the hyper sports car, French marque Bugatti has redefined the concept completely with the seductive Bugatti Tourbillon.
Think back a few years if you will – OK, perhaps more than few – to your boyhood bedroom. Among the pictures of Elle McPherson and Claudia Schiffer were probably pin ups of the world’s most striking automobiles, from classic Mustangs to ground-breaking rides like the Countach. Well, you’d be forgiven for wanting to print out pics of Bugatti’s newest creation and stick them to the walls of your office, because that passion for power and precision is still within all of us.
In 2004, the reborn Bugatti brand transformed the world of automotive performance and luxury with the Veyron. The first road car with more than 1,000 hp was succeeded in 2016 by the world’s first 1,500 hp car, the Chiron. At the heart of both models was the world’s most advanced automotive engine, Bugatti’s 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16.
The Tourbillon, the next-generation Bugatti hyper sports car, is powered by an all-new 8.3-litre naturally aspirated V16 engine – engineered with the help of Cosworth – paired with a front e-Axle with two electric motors and another on the rear axle. In total, the Tourbillon produces 1,800 hp, with 1,000 from the combustion engine and 800 hp from the electric motors, which are powered by a 25 kWh oil-cooled 800V battery housed in the central tunnel behind the passengers.
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Building on 115 years of automotive experience, a heritage that delivered the likes of the Type 57SC Atlantic, renowned as the most beautiful car in the world, the Type 35, and the Type 41 Royale, one of the most ambitious luxury cars of its time, Bugatti has taken something of a side step with the Tourbillion. The first of its cars not to be powered by that iconic W16 engine (and subsequently the first not to be named for a famed Bugatti racing driver), the Tourbillon is a completely original creation, one with timelessness in mind.
That means a completely analogue instrument panel, crafted by Swiss watchmakers, at a time when many auto marques are adding display screens to their cockpits. Combine this with aerodynamics that allow the Tourbillon to scream down the highway at 400 km/ph and you have a poster-worthy ride indeed.
In fact, the new addition is centred around four central Bugatti concepts: the horseshoe grille, which has defined the whole shape of the car; the Bugatti Line, the central ridge and the dual colour split. Taking cues from the Atlantic, the Tourbillon is lower than its predecessors, creating a sense of muscular tension, while the colour split, defined by the Bugatti line, is now more sharply curved, and leans forward slightly as it slips across the roof.
Although beautiful in its design and proportions, every surface, intake and vent is carefully honed to balance the enormous aerodynamic forces of a car travelling at half the speed of a commercial jet liner, as well as the thermodynamic requirements of that V16 engine and the Tourbillon’s electric motors and battery, at full performance.
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A new diffuser concept, which starts to climb from just behind the passenger cabin, keeps the Tourbillon in perfect balance while the horseshoe shapes the central fuselage volume. Docked onto that left and right, the flying fenders allow air to stream underneath the headlights to boost air mass flow into the side intakes, a process further exemplified by the frontal design, which houses an ultra-efficient cooling system that directs air through and out of the front bonnet, augmenting downforce while ingeniously packaging a sizable ‘frunk’ in between the two radiators.
Slip behind the wheel and you’ll find that watchmaker-designed skeletonized instrument cluster, which is made up of more than 600 parts and constructed from titanium as well as gemstones such as sapphires and rubies. The centre console is a blend of crystal glass and aluminium, milled from a single piece of metal, revealing the intricate workings of the switches and the engine start ‘pull’ lever at its heart.
This intricately engineered masterpiece remains a focal point of the driving experience, fixed in place as the rim of the steering wheel rotates around it, ensuring Tourbillon drivers have an unobstructed view of their instrumentation independent of the steering angle.
The only screen in the car – capable of displaying Apple CarPlay, as well as vehicle data – deploys from the top of the centre console.
Oh, and when you arrive you’ll also look the part thanks to a set of advanced, electrically actuated panty-dropping dihedral doors that can be opened and closed from the key fob.
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