Furiously complicated and astoundingly fast, the 250-mph, 1,800-hp, electrically enhanced, blood-curdling Tourbillon signals the start of Rimac’s influence on the century-old automaker.
The resurrection of Bugatti is one of the 21st century’s most notable automotive stories. Aristocratic, artistic, and more than a little arcane, Bugatti was a prewar marque that mastered luxury, design, and motorsport, the creator of Grand Prix winners, and arguably the most lavish motorcar ever made, in the shape of the early 1930s Type 41 Royale. Then it faded away.
It was the late Ferdinand Piëch, the monomaniacal kingpin of the Volkswagen Group, who bought the rights to the name and returned the brand to glory with 2005’s Veyron and its successor, the Chiron. The Super Sport version of the latter remains the world’s fastest production car, having achieved a top speed of 304.773 mph in the hands of racing driver Andy Wallace at a German test track in 2019.
How do you follow that—especially in a world in which 2,000-horsepower electric hypercars have comprehensively rearranged expectations?
As fate would have it, Bugatti is now controlled by Croatian EV powerhouse Rimac, as a result of a complex 2021 contra-deal with VW and Porsche. So you’d be right to wonder what kind of encore wunderkind Mate Rimac would devise for the 114-year-old French legend.
The result is the Tourbillon, an imperious super-coupé hybrid that sees Bugatti looking a hundred years ahead as much as it’s invoking its storied past—but not in the ways you’d expect.
“Icons like the Type 57SC Atlantic, renowned as the most beautiful car in the world, the Type 35, the most successful racing car ever, and the Type 41 Royale, one of the most ambitious luxury cars of all time, provide our three pillars of inspiration,” Rimac says. “Beauty, performance, and luxury formed the blueprint for the Tourbillon; a car that was more elegant, more emotive, and more luxurious than anything before it. And just like those icons of the past, it wouldn’t be simply for the present, or even for the future, but pour l’éternité–for eternity.”
Yep, it's safe to say Bugatti is pretty excited about it's new creation and has an eye on the pristine lawns of the Pebble Beach or Villa d’Este concours events a century hence, positioning its new hypercar as both head-spinningly high-tech and as an artful riposte to built-in obsolescence.
Reskinning Rimac’s own brilliant and fully electric Nevera hypercar was surely one option, but Rimac is respectful enough of Bugatti’s history to know that would never fly. “So I came up with a proposal to make a completely new car,” he says. He’s come an awfully long way since being the sole employee of Rimac back in 2009.
Bugatti’s designers and engineers were seduced by the idea of mechanical timelessness when they were conceiving the new car, and thus the Tourbillon largely rejects large digital touchscreens in its interior in favor of machined components and a fully analogue skeletonized (another watch world reference) instrument cluster—though a small screen does slide into view if you want it, for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
The cluster consists of more than 600 parts, uses titanium, sapphire, and ruby in its construction, and remains fixed in place allowing the steering wheel to rotate around it. Two needles on the center dial display the engine’s revs and speed. On the left are analogue readouts for battery and oil temperature; on the right there’s a display showing the power drawn from the e-motors and engine.
The center console is a mix of crystal glass and aluminum, and an engine start “pull” lever connects the new car to the pioneering days of automotive. The seats are fixed to the chassis, to save weight, so there’s an adjustable pedal-box. Only those Da Vinci–referencing maestros at Pagani come close to this level of artistry, and it’s refreshing for the focus of an all-new hypercar in 2024 to be firmly on the interior’s finer details.
Three E-Motors
Although not for long, given what’s going on elsewhere on the Bugatti Tourbillon. Namely its powertrain, an all-new 8.3-liter, naturally aspirated V-16 codeveloped with British engineering legends Cosworth, that’s paired with three electric motors. Two are mounted on the front axle, with the third on the rear.
The combustion engine is good for 1,000 hp, while the three e-motors add a further 800 hp. An eight-speed, dual-clutch gearbox is bolted onto the back of it. Despite its enormous size, the combustion engine weighs just 252 kg; indeed, the whole car comes in at less than two metric tons. Not exactly a featherweight, but pretty good by contemporary hybrid standards.
The electric motors are fed by a 25-kWh, oil-cooled 800-volt battery that sits within the car’s central tunnel. The front e-axle’s two motors and dual inverter are sufficiently compact not to disrupt the signature curve of the new car’s front end. In fact, the Tourbillon has more storage space than the Chiron and of course comes with bespoke luggage.
It’s all-wheel drive and has full torque vectoring capability (the transfer of torque between a given wheel or axle based on cornering to improve steering and handling), elements that Rimac has mastered with extraordinary results on the Nevera.
The Tourbillon also uses its electric components to sharpen throttle response, for torque-filling—though it’s hardly lacking in that department—and has a fully charged range of 40 miles (70 km) in electric mode.
An all-new electrical architecture uses an array of high-powered ECUs, solid-state power-distribution-control tech, and an integrated “nonlinear” control module to monitor the driving dynamics and provide “analogue” responses. In other words, although furiously complicated, the Tourbillon should feel as accessible as 1,800 hp is ever going to be.
The brakes use the latest generation carbo-ceramic technology, networked into the hybrid system, though Bugatti hasn’t confirmed how much regen the system will run. The tires, hugely important on a car with this vast high-speed potential, are bespoke Michelin Pilot Cup Sport 2s.
Immense Power
And the Tourbillon really does vault things forward in terms of performance. We need to list the claimed numbers for the sake of completeness: 0 to 62 mph takes two seconds; 124 mph is done in less than five; 186 mph in less than 10; 248 mph in around 25 seconds; and the top speed is limited to 277 mph.
Given that Bugatti’s world record is under assault from the likes of Hennessey and Koenigsegg, expect the new car to break the 500-km/h (311-mph) threshold at some point. WIRED has had a preview of the V-16 engine at full stretch on Bugatti’s dyno, and it’s far more full-blooded in character than the rather industrial-sounding Chiron. Blood-curdling, in fact.
That immense powertrain is cradled by a chassis of similarly potent specification. It’s all new and made of a carbon composite called T800, the grade that’s widely used in motorsport to deliver the maximum strength while also reducing weight. The battery housing is integrated into the structure for further light weighting, as are the front air ducts and the rear diffuser.
There’s an aluminum multi-link suspension front and rear, and some key components have been 3D printed by specialist company Divergent. Bugatti even had a member of the design team dedicated to the chassis, and all the hinges are anodized and machined aluminum. Says chief technical officer Emilio Scervo: “The result is a car which is beautiful inside and outside, which simultaneously elevates mechanical fascination and technical beauty to a whole new level.”
The Tourbillon’s exterior hones the design narrative begun by the Veyron and evolved across the Chiron, as well as the limited-run Centodieci and Mistral models and one-off Voiture Noire. Which is to say it looks sort of familiar, until you drill down into a bit.
Given that this a car capable of 250-mph-plus, every surface and inlet is doing something in terms of aero and/or thermodynamics (as well as looking pretty). There’s a pleasing amount of tire visible at the rear, and a wild new diffuser.
An innovative, new rear wing design stays hidden away even at very high speeds, where it would previously have been needed to generate downforce, although it rises into action as an air-brake when required. The Bugatti “horseshoe” C-line adds drama to the car’s fuselage, as do electrically operated dihedral doors, which can be opened from the key fob.
The Tourbillon is now entering its full testing phase, ahead of first customer deliveries in 2026. It’ll cost £3.2 million (plus local taxes)—that's north of $4 million—and whatever else the owner adds to the specification. But make no mistake, this is one that could stop the clocks.
By: JASON BARLOW
PUBLISHED JUNE 28 2024 ON WIRED
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