Mate Rimac Gives Us A Tour of The NEW Hybrid V-16 1775 HP Bugatti Tourbillon

All right, I am very excited because we are in front of a car that I never thought that I would see in my entire life. Not only do I get to see it, I get to talk about it. But unfortunately, I'm so excited, I just, I can't. I don't even know what to say about it. It's okay because I have Matej Rimac here and he knows everything about it. Well, it's a pretty important car because after the era of the W16, the Veyron, the Chiron, we have the successor. And pretty exciting for me also to say it on camera for the first time actually, it's called the Bugatti Tourbillon. Tourbillon is a mechanism in watchmaking that increases precision of mechanical watches. And you will see this car is a lot about precision, but also about beautiful mechanisms because we wanted to go very analog with this car. There's elements of watchmaking, so we thought it's a very fitting name. It's good because it's a little bit too big to wear on your wrist, but there's also a lot of very modern technology in this car. What's powering it? Yeah, it's actually an interesting blend of like super high-tech and some traditional stuff. So for me, emotional engine is a naturally aspirated one. So we were pretty sure from the beginning of this project that we still want that engine. And when already an engine, then an emotional one. But an emotional engine without turbines, right, has the disadvantage of somewhat lower power because the Chiron was 1600 horsepower with the four turbines and with the naturally aspirated engine, you cannot get 1600 horsepower. So the electric powertrain is here to make up for some of the downsides of such an engine so that the combination has everything. So we have 800 electric horsepower with two electric motors in the front and one in the rear and the V16 naturally aspirated engine in the rear for a total of 1800 horsepower plus all the torque and responsiveness of the electric powertrain with a 25 kilowatt-hour battery, which is pretty sizable for such a small car. How far can you go on all electric? About 40 miles on electric with all-wheel drive and 800 horsepower just with the electric powertrain. So I can run my errands in all electric and put my groceries wet there? Yeah, actually, believe it or not. So one of the things when we started with this, for me, at the beginning of the project, I wanted the V16 naturally aspirated. And the W16 is quite short, but wide. And so with the V16, of course, it's a lot longer because the cylinders are not offset like the W16, but behind each other. So it was pretty clear for me, like, okay, the car needs to be longer. So I asked the designers, what does it mean if it's longer? Like, is it good for design? Is it bad? And they said, no way. Like the car should not get any longer. Making it longer is bad for design, which I learned. So we had to find a way to put in three electric motors, a big battery, a long engine without making the car longer. And actually, we made it. And even with that, we have a bigger boot than in the Chiron. It's not a huge one, but it is bigger than in the previous car, despite all of the additional stuff that's in there. It's just a perfect daily driver. Yeah. Well, for a hypercar, yes, because Bugatti needs to be usable. It needs to be reliable. It needs to be comfortable. It's not a race car. It's a luxury car that happens to be extremely fast and capable. Tell me a little bit about the inspirations for the design of this car. Well, it's amazing that we have so many design elements where you see when you remove the badge, you can see that it's a Bugatti from very far away. So when we start at the front, the horseshoe, that is the air intake, but it's basically the design element that's on all Bugattis for a long time. Then we have the central line that you can see running all across the car. That comes from the Bugatti Atlantique that was basically made out of alloy that you couldn't weld at that time. So they were riveting it together at the central spine. And that then became a design element that's still on Bugattis today. Then you have the C-line, which is also represented in the interior, and it's also the split line between the two colors. It has many design elements that distinguish it as a Bugatti, even without the badge. And one thing that's very important to me as well, which we worked very hard on, was to see the engine. So it's really exposed. It's not like a lot of hypercars where it's hidden under a panel that you can't even take off, or even under glass. It's right there, I could touch it. Exactly, and it's the real engine. So this is the plenum of the engine. This is not some kind of fake panel. It's actually a piece of the engine. And it's exposed like that, and people then ask, so what when it rains? Well, it just rains on the engine, so it can handle it. The Chiron used to have the gearbox in front of the engine, which meant that the passengers had the gearbox between them. And the gearbox was very wide, so the passengers were far apart. So that means the seats are far apart. And that means the cabin is very wide. So the glass, so the windows were pretty far. So now we have the gearbox behind the engine, and the battery between the passengers, which means the passengers could come closer, which means the cabin could shrink, but still comfortable. So the space for the occupants is the same, it's just a little bit closer. Yeah, and this whole cabin is kind of in compared to where it would be on the previous car. And everything seems lower. The roof, the sill plates, the whole car seems to be sort of sitting down lower. Yeah, it is actually lower. So both the roof and the whole front here is lower. And everything you see has a function. So these are air outlets. So from the horseshoe, when the air comes in to cool the batteries and the electric powertrains, it then exits here. And then the flying fenders, as we call them. So there is air coming underneath the light going through this channel here around the cabin and into the air intake for the engine. So it all has a function. And also, it's very clean. We didn't want to have big wings on the car. It does have an electric adjustable wing, which is used as an airbrake. And in handling mode, it generates downforce. But we have created a huge diffuser, which basically starts under the seat and goes all the way until the rear in exactly the right angle of 11 degrees. That's the maximum angle to not have air separation, to have downforce without having the wing up. Because when you have the wing up, it comes with a penalty of drag, which you want to avoid, of course. So we can do full speed without having the wing deployed. One of my favorite features, when you look at this angle, does it look like the rear track is wider than the front? Absolutely. Right? Yeah, it's way wider. Big hips. No matter how you look, it always looks like it's a lot wider, right? It does. But actually, it's not. What? That's an optical illusion. We call it the Coca-Cola bottle effect. I would have lost a bet. Yeah. Now, the exterior is an evolution. You can see it came from the Veyron, the Chiron, and it's a natural step. Very masculine and a big step. But the real revolution is in the interior. So for the first time in the Bugatti, we have dihedral doors. Because the cabin went lower, in order to make it easier to get in and out, now part of the roof also opens up. And you can see that the door is very wide. So when the door opens, the whole front tire is exposed so that it's easy to get your feet in and out for egress and ingress. Isn't there some history in Bugatti that you're supposed to be able to get in while wearing a skirt? Exactly. That was Ferdinand Piëch's request for the Chiron and the Veyron. And yeah, the Bugatti needs to be comfortable, above all. So this one does follow that principle as well. And a beautiful thing that you can see inside is the fixed hub steering wheel. So whenever you turn the steering, the center stays still. So you always have the instruments right in your view. It's never obstructed by spokes of the steering wheel. And you have beautiful analog instruments actually made by Swiss watchmaker. That's the connection with the Swiss watchmaking. And then in the center console, you have a sapphire glass that's machined from a solid block. And it's all analog. As you can see, we want it to be timeless, to be beautiful in 50, 70, 100 years. And there are screens that can go out if you want them. But the car works completely without screens. So it's your choice if you want them, but you don't need any screens. Yes, and it's fully customizable. So the customers can choose the material standardizations, the material finishes. So can they sort of match it to a watch that they like? Absolutely. There will be a Bugatti Tourbillon watch as well. And you can match your car to a watch and vice versa. Have you announced anything about performance numbers or price on this yet? The car will, of course, have a lot higher performance compared to the predecessor. So the Chiron had, for example, 2.4 seconds from 0 to 60. This has 2. And just as an example, from 0 to 250 miles per hour, the Chiron did it in 32 seconds. This will do it in 25. So it's a lot faster accelerating. It's faster top speed. But the real remarkable thing is achieving that while not increasing the weight of the car with the big battery, with three electric motors, with a big engine, we managed to keep the weight at the same level or trying to get slightly below, which is a big achievement. And we will make 250 units at the price starting with 4.6 million dollars. Can I have one? Of course. Well, it depends how many Bugattis you have in your collection so far. You guys heard him. He said, yes, I have some, but they're very small. Last question before we just sort of walk around and enjoy this car. Previous Bugattis have done some pretty astounding feats, you know, 300 miles an hour plus. Got any goals or plans for this car that you can talk about yet? Well, it has more power. It has a lower frontal area. It has a hybrid powertrain that can assist it. So you can draw some conclusions from that. For sure, you know, we will not rest on the laurels of the past.