FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW: Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo

We've been teased and tantalised and now, finally, the latest show car from Bugatti has been revealed.

Dubbed the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo, the car was ostensibly developed for inclusion in the Playstation Gran Turismo videogame. But as motoring.com.au discovered at the launch in Frankfurt overnight, this concept car is essentially a preview of the Veyron's successor.

Bugatti president Wolfgang Du¨rheimer told motoring.com.au at the vehicle's dramatic unveiling the night before the 2015 Frankfurt motor show that the design of the French car maker's next production vehicle will be "remarkably" influenced by this concept.

"It's a preview," Du¨rheimer said of the bold blue concept, which draws inspiration from Le Mans race cars.

"We see some elements that will come on the next [production] car, like the very significant centre line, the eight-eye face and the rear lights – the longest LED beam that has been in the automotive world so far," revealed the Bugatti (and Bentley) boss, giving potential customers an idea of what to expect.

Capable of speeds of more than 400km/h, the concept car "is for the fans" said Du¨rheimer and while only 450 Veyrons have been sold in the super sports car's lifetime, up to 70 million gamers can now drive the concept car in the Gran Turismo game.

As admirers get behind the virtual wheel of the striking new Bugatti concept, the real thing will be something else indeed, the new production car confirmed as significantly faster and more expensive.

"It started with a one million Euro [price] and ended up in average, the last 20 cars, for 2.3 million Euros. [The new car] will be higher, above 2.3 million," said the Bugatti boss. The €2.3 million tag converts to roughly AUD $3.65 million.

"I'm not giving you the price today, it's too early," said Du¨rheimer but observed "It's worthwhile to save the money, either for the computer game or the real car."

Despite the expected stratospheric price of admission he argued that the car will be more popular.

"We think [we will find] more buyers. It will be a fairly limited production anyhow, we are used to doing about 50 cars per year, this is about what we try to do in the future as well," he said, but dismissed the idea of building 1000 vehicles, saying it was too high.

The Bugatti Veyron never turned a profit for the company but the new one will be different. It will pay for itself, claims the Bugatti supremo who says it will be faster but easier to drive this time too.

"We wanted to be remarkably better in every dimension so a customer can experience it in a half hour test drive."

Although the car is expected to retain its quad turbo 16-cylinder engine, the increased performance has to come from somewhere. Lower weight, new technology, perhaps electrification?

"Experiments are going different ways," stated Du¨rheimer "but in order to have the highest top speed, it's our challenge to be fast. At present we don't need the electric power."

However he did concede that during the lifetime of the next model "we will have an electrically-powered component in the drive-train. No diesel though."

"It's very important. What is yesterday is history, the future is ahead of us and we have to do better," he said.

It's still not clear when the Bugatti Veyron's successor will break cover; the Bugatti president was coy on the subject, chiding "not so far away at a motor show".

But when it does arrive, it's going to be very, very fast, with more visual drama than ever; especially considering it will adopt several design cues seen in this concept car.

Full coverage from motoring.com.au at Frankfurt motor show here