Right after sending us a Christmas card teasing its hypercar, which is due for March in Geneva, Bugatti’s Veyron replacement was captured in a video that raises some interesting questions.
True, seeing a prototype running around is becoming increasingly common these days, but this time the Chiron was part of an unlikely cavalcade.
The Veyron Vitesse is nothing new; of course the new Bugatti would be benchmarked against its predecessor. The 918 Spyder holds the production car record at the Nürburgring – plus, it has beaten the LaFerrari and McLaren P1 fair and square. No surprise there, either.
Lamborghini’s Huracán could be dismissed as a “company car” (the two brands belong to the VW Group), or else it doesn’t make sense; in every way, it’s way below the Chiron in everything.
The odd one out in the pack is the i8. BMW’s hybrid sports car has nearly one-fifth of the Chiron’s rumored 1,500 PS power and you could buy two dozen for the price of one Bugatti. Unless a privateer happened to join the pack, it’s actually baffling why on Earth it’s there when it belongs with the new 911 Carrera S. It can’t even compete with a Tesla, for crying out loud.
What the i8 has in common with the Chiron is all-wheel drive and a turbocharged engine at the middle. We can’t help but wondering though, if its presence is in fact something of an Easter egg…
Could it be that the massive, 8.0-liter, quad-turbo W16 engine will be mated to some form of electrification? After all, every rival, bar Koenigsegg, is already there. Not just for instant torque and even more power, but to also keep the tree huggers environmentalists and law makers happy with an EV mode and (supposedly…) low emissions.
Unless a. it means absolutely nothing, or b. they are headed to a track where an i8 rival is already waiting, we have run out of ideas for the Bimmer’s presence. Any thoughts?
Hat tip to Erico!