Frankfurt show: Bugatti unveils Vision Gran Turismo

BUGATTI continues to tease out its plans for its Veyron replacement, with the top-end brand planning to show off a wild concept car that’s been created for Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo gaming series at this month’s Frankfurt motor show.

Known as the Vision Gran Turismo, the wildly bewinged supercar will be rolled out to Sony video game players before the end of 2015.

Senior staff from Bugatti’s design and engineering teams contributed to the Vision Gran Turismo project, in order to produce what the company calls a “thoroughbred Bugatti for the virtual race track”.

“We wanted to create a project as realistic as possible for our fans, and put a real Bugatti in the virtual world of the PlayStation video game franchise,” explained Bugatti’s head of exterior design for production development, Frank Heyl.

“Every design characteristic is defined by its function. Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo is the perfect symbiosis of engineering and aesthetics.”

More importantly, the concept may point directly to Volkswagen Group’s most audacious project yet.

Bugatti is close to revealing the Veyron’s replacement, believed to be known as the Chiron, to the public, with prospective clients having reportedly already seen – and ordered – the car at the brand’s Molsheim facility in France.

An official launch is anticipated for next year’s Geneva motor show.

The Chiron’s mechanical package will represent a significant upgrade of the Veyron’s already impressive powertrain, but will likely be more fuel-efficient.

The quad–turbo 8.0-litre W16 engine configuration is expected to be retained, but it will be teamed with cylinder deactivation technology and electrically controlled turbochargers in an effort to achieve a fuel-efficiency figure of 16.5 litres per 100 kilometres.

Likewise, the Veyron’s all-wheel-drive layout and seven-speed DSG gearbox is likely to make its way into the Chiron, while hybrid assistance – possibly via a flywheel-mounted electric motor – is also expected to make an appearance.

Power figures are set to rise over those of the already-impressive Veyron, with outputs of 1100kw and 1500Nm expected. A target 0-100km/h time of 2.3 seconds is projected, along with a top speed of more than 460km/h.

This extreme technology will come at a price, of course, with several outlets reporting a projected base price of $3.5 million for the Chiron. This will make it by far the most expensive vehicle ever built by Volkswagen Group.

As with the Veyron, the Chiron is unlikely to be able to be registered in Australia.