Bugatti to replace Veyron

Volkswagen Group boss Martin Winterkorn has ordered Bugatti to kill off its four-door Galibier project to concentrate on a replacement for the Veyron.

The as-yet unnamed replacement for the Veyron, which was introduced almost 10 years ago, will have more power, less weight and sharper handling, say insiders.

Speaking at the launch of the Golf R in Sweden, Winterkorn insisted the Galbier -- a pet project of former Bugatti boss Wolfgang Durheimer -- was off the table.

“The Galibier is officially dead,” he insisted.

“We won’t be doing it. In its place will be a second generation Veyron with more power.”

Replacing the much-lauded Veyron has taken top priority at Bugatti, which has built only a series of limited-edition Veryons in the last few years.

While no date for the new car was given, sources believe the car will not be a rebodied version of the current Veyron, but will receive an all-new chassis to take advantage of new carbon-fibre techniques pioneered by Audi and Lamborghini.

Famous for its minimum of 1001hp (740kW-plus), the Veyron was also criticised by enthusiast buyers for the way its mass -- near 2000kg two tone, largely a product of the demands of cooling its mighty W16, quad-turbo engine -- dulled its handling edge.

Mr Winterkorn gave no hint at what powertrain the replacement for Bugatti’s 407km/h hypercar might have, though the Veyron’s technology plaudits have recently passed to hybrid supercars, like the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren’s P1 and Porsche’s 918.

As part of the Volkswagen Group, Bugatti would have access to Porsche’s hybrid engineering technology, along with everything it could convert to production viability from the Le Mans programs of both Audi and Porsche.

Winterkorn also ruled out a much-hyped, 1500hp (1120kW) Super Veyron to give the hypercar a flashy farewell.

Veyron aside, it’s the axing of the Galibier that has attracted raised eyebrows.

Planned to become a long-term brand anchor, a concept of the four-door sedan was revealed in 2009. It was pushed hard by Durheimer, who also headed Bentley and was promoted to head up Audi’s engineering and development before being suddenly dumped in June last year.

Very few of Mr Durheimer’s projects are currently being pursued in the Volkswagen Group, despite the former Porsche engineer being held in high regard by the Group’s engineering staff.

With a million dollar-plus target price, the Galibier was set to have around 600kW and all-wheel drive, but was sent back to the drawing board by Durheimer in 2012 for not being an “argument stopper”.

“There should not even be a question about the best car in the world when you sit down to discuss it with your billionaire buddies,” Durheimer told motoring.com.au at the time.

“I don’t want to build it until it’s the car that finishes the argument… Not the car that starts it…

“Right now, it’s definitely not enough [power] and it needs more space and comfort, especially in the rear.

“It’s 800hp [596kW] now, but there are tuners today who can give you that and we don’t want our car to be involved in any discussion that involves tuners. We have to move the benchmarks,” he said.

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