Bugatti honors the creator of a legendary engineering breakthrough.
Over 20 years ago, Bugatti introduced the Veyron, which permanently changed the course of the automotive industry, especially in the realm of high performance. Thanks to an incredible quad-turbocharged W16 engine with 8 liters of displacement, the Veyron mustered nearly 1,000 horsepower and boasted the ability to reach a record-breaking top speed above 250 mph. Of course, the Veyron made easy for the Chiron after it, which made that performance even greater, and after that came models like the Divo, Centodieci, Bolide and Mistral, which have all shown off the incredible ability of Bugatti’s unmatched W16 engine.
That engine was the brainchild of a true legend in German automotive engineering, Ferdinand Piëch, whose other feats include the Porsche 917, the five-cylinder Audi engine, TDI technology, quattro all-wheel drive and many more. Today would mark his 88th birthday, as he was born on April 17, 1937, and it was on a train from Tokyo to Nagoya, Japan in 1997, when the idea that would manifest in the Bugatti Veyron was first born. Messily sketched on the back of an envelope, Piëch originally envisioned an 18-cylinder engine, meant to power a car with 1,000 horsepower and a top speed of around 250 mph, both feats the Veyron achieved.
Trying to determine a brand that would serve as the face of this incredible innovation, Piëch considered names like Bentley and Rolls-Royce. However, it was his son, Gregor’s interest in buying a model of a Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic that made him realize that Bugatti would be the perfect name for the W16 car to wear. Volkswagen Group secured the Bugatti name, and the Bugatti EB 118 concept was shown only a few months later. After that, the EB 218 sedan concept was shown in Geneva, and the EB 18/3 Chiron supercar concept was shown shortly after, with looks that would somewhat echo the production Veyron.
Closer to the eventual production Veyron was the EB 18/4 Veyron concept, unveiled in 1999 at the Tokyo Motor Show, and the announcement that a production car of the Veyron’s proportions would be built came in 2001. In 2005, the vision came to life, and the Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 was born, combining groundbreaking performance with luxury, elegance, and distinguished style. Over 20 years later, the legacy of the Veyron still remains an incredibly important fixture on the trajectory of the automotive industry, and as Bugatti introduces the hybrid V16 Tourbillon, the Veyron is an important benchmark to measure its innovation and influence.
Image Source: Bugatti