Bugatti just published the fourth episode of their docuseries on the official YouTube channel, called A NEW ERA: foundation of a new Chapter, and it talks about the Tourbillon platform being the foundation for things to come from Molsheim, before we delve into the Bugatti Tourbillon platform, let’s take a look at the 7-minute video:
Upon first glance you might mistake the brand new Bugatti Tourbillon for just a Chiron with a slightly different styling, but you couldn’t be further from the truth, the Tourbillon is a completely new platform, and it will be the basis for an entirely new era of hyper sports cars, crafted as a pursuit of engineering excellence, the Tourbillon chassis comes with some seriously cutting-edge design that will redefine the future of Bugatti, with the Bugatti Veyron and Bugatti Chiron setting the stage for two decades, the next decade will be carved in stone with the Tourbillon and her evolutions, like a Grand Sport or a Super Sport for instance.
“We have always thought about how we could do it even better, how could we create a design that is even more beautiful than the Chiron. We thought about how we could improve its proportions, refine the aerodynamics, and further enhance the driving experience for the customer.” Emilio ScervoCTO of Bugatti Rimac
For the development of the new Bugatti Tourbillon, the designers started from scratch, a perfect way to look at things from a fresh, new perspective, and let’s not underestimate the massive shoes the new Tourbillon has to fill as a successor to the Chiron, so it is safe to say it wasn’t an easy task, but nonetheless, the Tourbillon came out on top, a truly unique hyper sports car that is immediately recognizable as a Bugatti, and a worthy heir to her predecessor, the Chiron.
“What I’m most proud of is how the overall design of the car feels like the work of a single hand. Although many talented contributors were involved, the Tourbillon feels like a complete and holistic product. Just by looking at it, you can sense that it’s not just a collection of parts thrown together; starting from scratch has allowed us to create something cohesive and thoroughly considered, as if crafted by one vision – a truly incomparable Bugatti.” Emilio Scervo CTO of Bugatti Rimac
The development team at Bugatti had one major challenge on their design brief … this new Bugatti had to combine the illustrious, naturally aspirated W16 engine with a trio of electric motors to become the first hybrid Bugatti production car, and we all know the problem when it comes to high-speed hypercars and electrification … the added weight of the motors and batteries, this has to be countered by weight loss in general in other areas of the car, and preferably by adding a lot more power to the overall performance figures.
Once again the Bugatti Tourbillon comes with a plethora of radiators to keep everything cooled down at top speed, there are eight units in total scattered around this new car, five of those are positioned at the front of the car, two of them actually draw air straight into the engine compartment, the center one, housed inside the iconic Bugatti shoehorn, is used for the interior and electrical parts, but get this, behind the luggage compartment a pair of 250 kW electric motors power the front wheels, thus creating a full four-wheel drive setup, and as a bonus offers torque vectoring by putting more power to one of the front wheels as needed.
Underneath the Bugatti Tourbillon cockpit, you’ll find the powerful T-shaped battery which sits right in the middle of the chassis to create that perfectly balanced center of gravity, this 24kWh battery delivers a massive 800 hp of electric power, and more importantly, the battery is in fact part of the structural monocoque of the Tourbillon and allows 60 km of autonomy purely on electric power without the use of the massive W16 engine, inside the Bugatti Tourbillon the seats are fixed in their position, taller drivers can have the pedal box and steering wheel repositioned, but the seats remain fixed in place.
For car enthusiasts who love the roar of a naturally aspirated engine, the new Bugatti Tourbillon is still fitted with that magnificent W16 engine we’ve come to know and love from the Chiron, but for the Tourbillon things have been changed considerably because of the overall length of this specific engine design. For starters, the engine is moved closer to the driver, but the designers also moved the fuel tanks to the sides to keep the overall wheelbase of the Tourbillon within a reasonable number, they even incorporated the rear crash zone into the large rear diffuser, an amazingly intricated solution to keep the new car as short as possible.
It is clear to see that the Bugatti Tourbillon completely redesigned platform shows us a glimpse of the future for Bugatti, this configuration will be used for multiple Bugatti models in the pipeline, it has become fundamental to everything we will be seeing from Molsheim soon, probably for about a decade to come …
