THE BUGATTI TOURBILLON: AN AUTOMOTIVE ICON ‘POUR L’ÉTERNITÉ’

In 2004, the reborn Bugatti brand transformed the world of automotive performance and luxury with a 1,001 hp hypersports car: the Veyron.

The first road car with more than 1,000 hp was succeeded in 2016 by another engineering feat so ambitious it reset all expectations of performance, the world’s first 1,500 hp car: the Chiron. At the heart of these cars was the world’s most advanced automotive engine: an 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16. Now, 20 years after Bugatti invented the hypersports car, it redefines the concept completely with an entirely new powertrain and platform. This is the Bugatti Tourbillon.

As the first Bugatti in more than 20 years not powered by the iconic W16 engine, the tradition of naming core models after legendary Bugatti racing drivers of the past is no longer applied. Instead, the name Tourbillon was chosen as the perfect encapsulation of this car’s character. A French word, and a subtle reference to Bugatti’s French heritage and home in Molsheim, the tourbillon is a watchmaking invention of a Swiss-born genius living in France in 1801. A completely original creation without compare, it is both complex and beautiful, helping to counteract the effects of gravity on a watch to ensure more consistent time-keeping. And over 200 years later it is still revered as the pinnacle of watchmaking.

This sense of mechanical timelessness was a core part of the Bugatti Tourbillon journey.

For a car that will be displayed on the concours lawns of this and the next centuries, technology can easily date – especially large digital screens – so it’s important that it uses as many timeless components as possible. The Tourbillon therefore utilizes a number of design and engineering techniques that will never age, including a completely analogue instrument cluster crafted by Swiss watchmakers and finished with the same care and attention you find in the world’s greatest timepieces. Just as these become heirlooms over generations, the Tourbillon is designed as a car for eternity.

DESIGN & AERODYNAMICS

As with every Bugatti of the modern era, the Tourbillon is ‘shaped by speed’. The ability to travel at more than 400km/h requires every single surface, inlet, and ridge to be finely honed to ensure it is not only aerodynamic but also beneficial to the car’s thermodynamics. This is the guiding principle of the Tourbillon, which is then evolved around four Bugatti design elements inspired by history: the horseshoe grille, the Bugatti Line, the central ridge, and the dual color split.

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 over 400km/h as well as the thermodynamic requirements of a V16 engine, electric motors, and battery at full performance.

At the heart of the Tourbillon’s design ethos is the iconic horseshoe, from which all lines of the car originate, shaping the central fuselage volume. Docked onto the left and right are the flying fenders that allow to stream air underneath the headlights to boost air mass flow into the side intakes. This intricate interplay of airflow is further exemplified by the frontal design, which, while maintaining the dimensions of a sculpted overhang, ingeniously 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.

A set of advanced, electrically actuated dihedral doors not only allow for easy entry into the vehicle but provide a dramatic sense of arrival, able to be opened and closed from the key fob, the door opening button found just underneath the Bugatti Line and on the center console.