The follies of the world of supercars, if you look closely, aren’t that crazy after all. In the sense that the fate of the most famous brands also depends on those of the so-called generalist manufacturers.
We have all seen what strategic importance Ferrari had in the FCA stock market listing at the time and a look at what is happening in the Volkswagen Group – it has the most famous brands in the world thanks to Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley – is worth more than a thousand speeches.
The Wolfburg giant has in fact decided to assign Bugatti a leading role on the image front. Whatever it takes. The Veyron (the old model), for example, produced in total in 450 units, resulted in a loss (according to analysts at Sanford C Bernstein) of 4.95 million euros for each car sold. But for Bugatti and the entire VW Group, the operation was considered “a great success”. Reason? He brought the group back to the top of the world. We don’t know today how much we’re losing on a new Chiron (we’ll only find out when it goes out of production) but the matter is the same.
This is also why there is already great anticipation for the debut of the new Bugatti which will debut next year. The car has already been shown to a select clientele and we know that the new engine positioned at the rear of the new carbon fiber chassis will abandon the Chiron’s W16 quad-turbo in favor of a naturally aspirated 90-degree V16, just like the latest V16 to arrive on the market, the 6.0-liter unit of the Cizeta V16T.
But here the Bugatti engine was developed with the help of Cosworth, has a displacement of 8.3 liters, reaches 9,000 rpm and produces 1,000 horsepower on its own. And that’s not all: instead of turbochargers in Molsheim they are aiming for an 800 horsepower hybrid module, so the final power would be 1800 horsepower. There are three electric motors: one positioned in the eight-speed dual clutch gearbox, while the other two are located at the front and push only on the front wheels. The battery, on the other hand, is in the central tunnel and in the space behind the cockpit, in a layout similar to that of the Nevera, guaranteeing a purely electric range of 60 kilometers in the European cycle.
All with a car that should be lighter than the old Chrion to burn 0-100 in two seconds, go from 0 to 200 kilometers per hour in less than five seconds, from 0 to 300 kilometers per hour in less than ten seconds and then reach 400 kilometers per hour in less than 25 seconds. It is assumed that the basic version will have a maximum speed limited to 445 kilometers per hour…
The presentation will take place next month, probably on June 20th at the headquarters in Molsheim, France. The dream of Ferdinand Piëch, former boss of the Volkswagen Group who wanted the Bugatti project, is still alive: he challenged the engineers to build a car that could drive at 400 km/h in the morning and accompany its owner to the opera in the evening.
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