Bugatti has shown off an all-new concept that’s said to signpost the future direction of its hypercars.
Called the Vision Gran Turismo concept, the new car is said to represent "the new form and design language developed by the brand to celebrate the next chapter in its history following the end of the Veyron era.”
Bugatti design boss Achim Anscheidt said: “The progressive design language will give an impressive demonstration of the path to be taken by Bugatti design over the next few years.”
Admitting that the Vision was “exaggerated and extremely performance-orientated” the new concept boasts an even more prominent grille than the Veyron but still remains true to that car’s general form, if you strip away the race-spec fixed-rear wing and front splitter.
Inside, the Vision’s cabin offers similar space to the Veyron but, instead of featuring leather and some of finest materials known to man, the concept has a stripped-out race car feel and gets a digital dash and race-car steering wheel.
As already reported, the Veyron-replacing Chiron -- which is due to arrive some time in 2017 -- will be substantially more expensive than the current car and be priced as much as $3.2 million.
For that money, the new Chiron is thought to get a heavily-revised 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 from the current car with the additional feature of hybrid assistance and, possibly, electric-driven turbochargers -- a technology the VW Group is heavily investing in.
VW Group boss, Martin Winterkorn, has already said that a hybrid Chiron would be offered alongside turbo-petrol models, and power is expected to be hiked from the outgoing Veyron’s from 883kW to more than 1100kW.
Based on a new carbon-fibre monocoque, the next Bugatti will once again be a luxurious two-seater vehicle despite the incredible performance on tap.
Sales are not expected until 2018, but a preview of the new model could happen as early as March at the 2016 Geneva motor show.
This time round Bugatti will make 500 hypercars -- 50 more than the 450-run Veyron.
The Chiron will once again almost certainly raise the bar for performance as it's expected to hit 100km/h from standstill in less than 2.3 seconds and reach an incredible 464km/h.