The Bugatti Tourbillon Is A V16 Hybrid Chiron Successor With 1,775 HP

The Chiron is dead. Long live the Bugatti Tourbillon. The French hypercar brand that’s all about extravagance in terms of brute force and luxury has unveiled the successor to the Chiron. The Tourbillon is equal parts brutal and equal parts extravagant, and with the 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 engine gone, Bugatti is making way for a V16 engine that’s been designed to be appropriate in an era of electrification.

Welcome To The Electrified Era

Yes, that’s right, the Bugatti Tourbillon is a hybrid–a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) to be exact. That 8.3-liter V16 engine may produce “just” 986 horsepower, but this engine was engineered together with Cosworth. Oh, and did we mention that this is naturally aspirated and spins to 9,000 rpm? Therefore, this V16 sounds a lot more epic than the turbocharged W16 it replaces, thanks to the lack of turbochargers neutering the sound somewhat.

Together with the electric motors of this hypercar’s PHEV system, the Bugatti Tourbillon has a total system output of 1,775 horsepower, quite a leap over the 1,479 horses of the standard Chiron or 1,578 horsepower for the Chiron Sport. Torque, however, is unspecified at the moment, but what’s specified are its performance stats and its pure electric range of 60 kilometers.

Speed Is King

The Tourbillon goes from 0-100 kph in just two seconds flat, 0.4 seconds faster than the original Chiron, and the lead just gets even longer the faster the two cars go. The Tourbillon will take less than five seconds to reach 200 kph versus 6.1 seconds for the Chiron, and then at 300 kph, the Tourbillon would have reached that speed at less than 10 seconds versus 13.1 for the Chiron.

Finally, the Tourbillon is going to leave the Chiron in the dust at 400 kph when the Tourbillon hits that speed in less than 25 seconds. For perspective, 32.6 seconds have already passed when the Chiron finally touches 400 kph. But if drag racing to 400 kph is still not enough for you, then the Tourbillon has a 445 kph top speed, 25 kph more than the Chiron.

	Tourbillon	Chiron
0-100 kph	2.0 seconds	2.4 seconds
0-200 kph	<5.0 seconds	6.1 seconds
0-300 kph	<10 seconds	13.1 seconds
0-400 kph	<25 seconds	32.6 seconds

With the addition of the PHEV system, you might think that the Tourbillon is heavier than the Chiron, but that’s where you’re wrong. Despite the electrification assistance and the 25 kWh battery, the Tourbillon weighs the same as the Chiron at 1,995 kg. At the same time, that carbon monocoque chassis is all-new. As a way to make its ground effect aerodynamics work extremely well at high speeds since the spoiler retracts when you’re trying to achieve a record speed, the rear diffuser is now part of the crash structure.

Evolutionary But Dramatic Exterior

Now as for its design, the Bugatti Tourbillon went for an evolutionary approach as opposed to completely reinventing its looks. Therefore, it looks very similar to the Chiron it replaces, but with a few unique touches. The doors are perhaps the biggest change because these are now dihedral doors that open up and wide like in a Koenigsegg. The windows now feature an upward kink, and the LED headlights now have a slimmer appearance. The Bugatti horseshoe grille is also wider than before, and the vehicle’s spine is now more pronounced, as this also aligns with the windshield wiper that’s positioned right at the center of the windshield.

An Interior That’s A True Work Of Art

But perhaps the biggest change of the Bugatti Tourbillon happens inside the vehicle. Amid automakers putting screens galore to their vehicles, including Porsche as they remove the analog tachometer from the gauges of the 911, the new Tourbillon’s interior perfectly explains why it’s been given that name. A tourbillon is a device that was invented in 1801 that increases a clock’s accuracy, and what better way to show that clock reference than by giving the Tourbillon a gauge cluster that’s perhaps one of the best we’ve ever seen?

The five-dial gauge cluster is a work of art–one that a watchmaker would be happy to engineer. Those gauges are mounted directly at the two-spoke steering wheel, which has spokes located in the six and twelve o’clock positions. Oh, and any semblance of a screen in the interior is either subtle like the multi-information display in the gauge cluster or the climate control knobs, or is stored away in the dash in the case of the main infotainment system. That screen, by the way, deploys in two seconds when you hit reverse to display the camera feed, or whenever you want to access some of the vehicle’s functions. Of course, this subtle infotaiment system comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well.

If you’re interested in purchasing one, which I doubt because Bugatti would’ve probably notified you before its launch and therefore won’t be reading this article, only 250 units of the Tourbillon will be made. That’s twice as rare as the Chiron, whose final asking price was around $3.8 million. For the Tourbillon, however, that’s a whopping $4.1 million (PHP241,412,100). That’s the price you pay for a vehicle that’s all about superlatives.