Bugatti just announced what will follow up its legendary quad-turbo W16 engine…and it’s also a monster.
For the past two decades since the Veyron’s original launch, all Bugatti models have used an 8.0-liter W16 engine packing up to a whopping 1,600 horsepower. With the Chiron and offshoots like the Mistral now officially in the history books, it’s time for the next chapter. “But,” I hear you say. “Will it be a V12 or a V8?” Will downsizing finally take one of the most legendary hypercar marques of the last century down from its 16-cylinder excess?
Um…no, surprisingly. The automaker took to social media to reveal its next-generation powertrain: a V16 engine. While we don’t yet know the displacement or the output of this new powertrain just yet, even today’s short teaser assuaged any fears that Bugatti would build anything than an absolute unit of an engine for its hypercar.
In essence, this new engine turns the old approach of putting two narrow-angle 4.0-liter V8s together (hence “W”-16), and instead comes together more like two straight-eights. Again, we don’t know the exact displacement of this new powertrain, but as my colleagues astutely pointed out when I showed them the news: “That’s going to be a long engine”.
If a V16 sounds weird, that’s because it is an extremely rare development. It’s not unprecedented — Cadillac did launch an extremely expensive V16 in 1930 — but it never really caught on, even in the world of exotic cars.
That’s not to say modern electrification will pass Bugatti by, however. The joint-venture under which the marque now operates is headed up by Mate Rimac, and it plans to make good on its promises of a “heavily electrified” drivetrain here. So, the as-yet unannounced Bugatti hypercar will be a plug-in hybrid…just with a gigantic V16 engine backing up the electric side of the hybrid equation. True to form based on the teaser video below, the company also plans to make extensive use of carbon fiber, in part to offset the weight of a hybridized powertrain.
We don’t have too much longer to wait to see what this engine is going to power. Bugatti should announce more details on its next-generation model in June, so we’ll probably learn more about power output then. At any rate, I don’t imagine we’ll be taking a step backward here…I’m mentally preparing myself for something like a 2,000-horsepower destroyer of worlds. I wonder if even that guesstimate is conservative.
