Bugatti Tourbillon, hyper sports car with an entirely new powertrain and platform
London, June 21 2024 , (Oilandgaspress) –––– Bugatti brand transformed the world of automotive performance and luxury with a 1,001 hp hyper sports 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 hyper sports car, it redefines the concept completely with an entirely new powertrain and platform. This is the Bugatti Tourbillon.
The Bugatti W16 engine was unlike any other automotive engine in the world when it was revealed. With its four turbos and prodigious power figures, it set a new benchmark for the limits of combustion engine technology, and two decades after its creation it’s still unmatched or replicated. Following in its footsteps is another incomparable masterpiece of internal combustion engineering, paired with the immediate torque and flexibility of electric motors.
This next-generation Bugatti hyper sports car is powered by an all-new 8.3-liter naturally aspirated V16 engine – engineered with the help of Cosworth – paired with a front e-Axle with two electric motors and one electric motor mounted at the rear axle. In total, the Tourbillon produces 1,800 hp with 1,000 from the combustion engine itself and 800 hp from the electric motors. It’s an extraordinary achievement – delivered thanks to a host of cutting-edge materials and technology – given the Veyron achieved 1,001 hp from its 8.0-liter capacity engine with four turbochargers, and the new V16 is completely naturally aspirated. Constructed from lightweight materials, the engine weighs just 252 kg.
The electric motors are powered by a 25 kWh oil-cooled 800V battery housed in the central tunnel and behind the passengers. With four-wheel-drive and full torque-vectoring, it offers ultimate traction and agility. The front e-axle houses two electric motors, with a further motor on the rear axle, for a total of 800 hp from the electric powertrain system. The electric powertrain, with the electric motors spinning up to 24,000 RPM and a fully integrated dual silicon-carbide inverter, is amongst the most power-dense in the world. The e-axles are delivering over 6 kW per kg of e-axle mass, including inverters, motors and gearboxes. While power, throttle response and torque-fill are priorities for the electric powertrain, the relatively large energy content of 25 kWh allows for a very usable all-electric range of more than 60 km / 37 miles.
Using over 20 years of expertise from the Veyron and Chiron, the Tourbillon features a number of patented technologies.
As a result, the rear wing even remains submerged during top speed runs, with a perfect equilibrium of forces generated by these new innovations. The wing is utilized to establish higher downforce at slower speeds and as an airbrake for improved stability under deceleration.
Much of this aerodynamic equilibrium is thanks to the new diffuser concept, which starts to climb from just behind the passenger cabin, rising at an ideal angle to keep the Tourbillon in perfect balance. The diffuser is built around a completely new crash concept, which is fully integrated within the structure of the diffuser itself, keeping it both enormously effective but also hidden from sight, enabling the open rear-end design.
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 that 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.
The Tourbillon is designed around entirely new chassis and body structure. The structure is made from a next-generation T800 carbon composite, which incorporates a number of weight-saving innovations, such as integrating the battery as a structural part of the monocoque and an unprecedented crash composite rear diffuser, inspired by top level motorsport. The front composite airducts that flow through the front of the car are also integral to the structure, ensuring that each and every part of the rigid, lightweight structure is optimized. For example, the front and rear frames exhibit low pressure thin wall aluminum casting and 3D printed structural braces, contributing to a structure that is significantly lighter and stiffer than its predecessor!
The completely new chassis integrates multi-link suspension front and rear, forged from aluminum, moving on from the double wishbone steel construction found in the Chiron. By opting for a new organic-designed suspension arm and upright, 3D-printed in aluminum, engineers have saved 45% in suspension weight compared with the Chiron. The rear also features an AI-developed 3D-printed hollow airfoil arm to enhance vehicle dynamics and aerodynamic performance.
The brakes are equally advanced, featuring the ultimate carboceramic technology. A bespoke brake-by-wire system is introduced, fully integrated with the moveable pedal box, and blended seamlessly through an integrated vehicle non-linear controller developed by Bugatti to the hybrid powertrain. Michelin Pilot Cup Sport 2 tires – 285/35 R20 at the front and 345/30 R21 at the rear – are a bespoke development for the Tourbillon.
INTERIOR
Ever since car manufacturers began to embrace digital screens and touchscreens in cars, the rate of progress has been so rapid that within less than a decade, the technology appears outdated. Imagining the Tourbillon on concours d’elegance lawns not just in 10 years but perhaps in 100 years, the design philosophy of the interior focused on timelessness. Inspired by the world of horologie, in which wristwatches over 100 years old can still be worn and used today, integrated into modern fashion and lifestyles seamlessly, the design and engineering teams pioneered an authentic analogue experience in the cabin.
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