Secretly shuttled around the globe and tucked away in places like a powerplant-turned-underground-techno-club on the wrong side of what’s left of the Berlin Wall—or in a generic warehouse among shipping containers in industrial Los Angeles—sits a car that Bugatti-Rimac has built its future around. Named for an intricate wristwatch mechanism that also happens to be the French word for “whirlwind,” this new hypercar promises to bridge the gap between the gas-guzzling Bugatti Chirons of yesterday and the electron-eating Rimac Nevera-like electric supercars of tomorrow. With 1,775 hp coming courtesy of a plug-in hybrid system consisting of a new homebrew V-16 combustion engine and three-electric motors, a top speed surpassing 275 mph, and a multimillion-dollar price tag—about $4.3 million, to be more precise—befitting of the bleeding-edge technology stuffed inside, the new 2027 Bugatti Tourbillon aims to help the company leap toward its inevitable electric era.

Big Shoes to Fill

Following up 2016’s Chiron won’t be easy. While it never had the cultural impact of the 2005 Veyron, the Chiron was arguably better in every way than its mid-aughts predecessor. With 1,479 horsepower and 1,180 lb-ft of torque on tap in its base form, the Chiron was a sharper, better-handling, and more comfortable Veyron. It was still mega fast, too. By the end of its life, the Chiron’s Veyron-based 8.0-liter quad-turbo W-16 engine had been massaged to produce 1,578 hp, and a modified Chiron Super Sport managed to hit a claimed top speed of 304 mph on a unidirectional run.

The Veyron, on the other hand, was unquestionably the fastest car of its day. It was willed into production by late Volkswagen chief Ferdinand Piëch, who allegedly wanted a car with at least 1,000 hp, a 400-kph (248.5-mph) top speed, and the ability to drive directly from the racetrack to the opera. The Veyron singlehandedly relaunched what was an obscure Franco-German brand that had been dormant since a short-lived ’90s reboot. Before that, more than half a century had passed since the company produced anything of note, such as the storied Type 57SC, of which only a small handful were built before World War II.

What a return to glory the Veyron was. In our 2005 First Test, it zipped from 0 to 60 mph in a still-staggering 2.7 seconds and on through the quarter mile in 10.4 seconds at 139.9 mph. Later, at a German test track, we piloted one to its top speed of 253.2 mph. Yet somehow the Veyron’s cultural cachet (“Paris Hilton with all-wheel drive,” as we dubbed it) was even larger than its performance capabilities. It appeared in countless music videos, it could reliably be found stationed on Beverly Hill’s ritzy Rodeo Drive, and you couldn’t spot a red carpet in the ’00s that didn’t prominently feature at least one. The Chiron, for all its progress, just didn’t have the same impact.

Now part of Bugatti Rimac, a 55/45 joint venture between Rimac and Porsche, it’s with that history and the electrified future in mind that new company chair Mate Rimac launches the Tourbillon.

When discussions of the Chiron’s successor began four years ago, it would’ve been easy to just pull a page from the Pininfarina Battista and reskin a Nevera. In fact, according to Mate Rimac, that’s exactly what Porsche wanted to do. (Porsche did not respond to a request for comment.) But Rimac, despite being a self-described “electric car guy,” was insistent this was the wrong move for Bugatti. “Yes to progress, but not at the expense of emotion,” he recounted.

Rimac brought a catalog of five potential future Bugattis to early Chiron replacement meetings, including a four-seater, an electric SUV, and a trio of hypercars. But it was his five-motor, big-batteried, 16-cylinder plug-in hybrid monster that excited him most. The engine, he reasoned, would provide emotion, while the motors would give the car modern mind-bending performance.

After being talked down from five motors to three by chief technical officer Emilio Scervo (of McLaren 720S and Ferrari 458 Italia fame, who told us he’s never engineered a car that was heavier than its predecessor), what would become the Bugatti Tourbillon received the green light.

Its form soon began to take shape. Leaning heavily on Rimac’s EV expertise, Bugatti looked to its Croatian partner for the Tourbillon’s 800-volt architecture. Up front behind the Tourbillon’s frunk are two 335-hp, 177-lb-ft carbon-sleeved permanent-magnet motors capable of spinning at 24,000 rpm, packaged neatly with their respective silicon-carbide inverters. In the back behind the engine and transmission is another 335-hp motor and inverter matching the front units’ specs. Running down the car’s spine, where the driveshaft would be in the Chiron, is a T-shaped 24.8-kWh (25.0-kWh gross) battery pack that doubles as a structural member of the car. Bugatti says the three motors and oil-cooled lithium-ion NCA 21700-cell battery pack are lightweight at around 650 pounds combined. The CCS-capable battery can recharge from empty to 80 percent in about 12 minutes, peaking at just more than 80 kW.

With the motors and battery, from Rimac’s point of view, providing the modern performance the Tourbillon requires, that left the question as to what engine to pair it with. “Emotion” was the key driver of the decision, but weight and simplicity played a part, too.

While compact, the 8.0-liter quad-turbo W-16 that powered the Veyron and Chiron was judged to be too heavy, complicated, and slow-revving for use in the Tourbillon. Because Bugatti Rimac intended to develop a new engine anyway, it chose a V-16 with development partner Cosworth—in part for its cylinder count, comparative simplicity, and light(er) weight versus a W-16.

Bugatti engineered both flat-plane and cross-plane crank versions of the new 8.3-liter naturally aspirated 90-degree V-16, but the team landed on a cross-plane version of the engine—with a 3-plus-foot-long crankshaft—as it was judged to not just perform better but also sound better as it raced to its 9,000-rpm redline. Rounding out the package is a new eight-speed dual-clutch automatic (sans reverse gear; the rear motor covers that), wedged sandwich-style between the V-16 and the rear motor.

The result? A whole lotta power. The 2027 Bugatti Tourbillon’s three motors combine for 789 hp, while the engine accounts for another 986 ponies and 664 lb-ft. Total combined system output is 1,775 hp. Bugatti hasn’t confirmed total system torque output as of press time.

Bugatti does say it expects the Tourbillon to accelerate to 60 mph in less than 2.0 seconds, to 100 mph in less than 5.0, to 185 in less than 10.0, and to 250 mph in about 25 seconds. Top speed? The company claims to be more focused on feeling than flashy numbers, but Mate Rimac told us the Tourbillon can hit 276 mph—he also wasn’t exactly subtle in his hints that he wants more.

More Than Numbers

Power and speed are only two factors in the 2027 Bugatti Tourbillon’s performance. Like the Chiron before it, Bugatti says it made a concerted effort to make the Tourbillon a better handler without sacrificing its GT-like abilities. To that end the Tourbillon’s new carbon-fiber monocoque chassis is designed to be strong but lightweight. It’s supported by a Formula 1–inspired exposed carbon-ceramic rear diffuser (which is designed to be easily swapped out like an F1 nose cone if damaged) and a carbon-composite 3D-printed front end.

These structures are designed to fit around the powertrain’s radiators and front motors while still allowing for a small frunk equal in size and shape to the Chiron’s. They also package around the Tourbillon’s dual-valve electronically adjustable suspension, which features front and rear multilinks with additive-manufactured aluminum A-arms sprouting at all four corners. Finishing off the hardware package are massive eight-piston front brakes and six-piston rears (operated by-wire for the first time in a Bugatti), wrapped in 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels. The active rear spoiler further assists braking, tipping into the air at a 55-degree angle to maximize the Bug’s contact patch.

On the software front, Rimac told us the Nevera team is hard at work developing the traction control and torque-vectoring systems. A variety of drive modes, including a Top Speed mode necessitating an intricate metal V-16-shaped key, are also in the works, he says.

Bugatti’s Type

With the design mandate to create “art on wheels,” Bugatti’s designers—working at an exterior studio in France and an interior one in Croatia—looked back at the automaker’s storied past and at high-end luxury goods when designing the new flagship.

The exterior team, led by Achim Anscheidt (the recently retired head of design responsible for the Veyron and Chiron) aimed to pay tribute to the Tourbillon’s direct predecessors while looking back to the company’s old glory days. It did so in ways that are both overt and subtle.

First, there’s the car’s overall shape. The horseshoe grille, “Bugatti line” scallop along its flanks, and two-tone color scheme distinguish the new plug-in hybrid hypercar as the descendant of the Veyron and Chiron. Meanwhile, its wide rear hips, low cowl with its art deco-inspired fuselage-style surfacing, and the distinct spine running down the middle recall the Type 57SC of almost a century ago. Much like the Tourbillon is to the Chiron, the Type 57SC was lower, faster, and lighter than its direct predecessor, thanks to its magnesium-alloy sheetmetal, which, due to the material’s intense flammability, had to be riveted together in the middle, forming a spine that ran down the car.

More than just a pretty face, the new Tourbillon’s form follows its function. Its roof and cowl are 1.29 inches and 1.77 inches lower than the Chiron’s while still preserving the same overall footprint and passenger volume inside. Look closely, and the flowing roofline, haunchlike fenders, and electronically deployable active rear spoiler combine with the deep, exaggerated La Voiture Noire–inspired rear diffuser help the Tourbillon produce both 15 percent less drag than the Chiron with the wing stowed and 14 percent more downforce with it deployed.

Even more impressive is how that rakish roofline and diffuser work in tandem with the V-16 at nearly 300 mph. As new design chief Frank Heil describes it, the Tourbillon’s profile, evoking a peregrine falcon, combines with long underbelly diffuser strakes to effectively make an aerodynamically neutral wing when running at top speed. The exaggerated diffuser also benefits from immense heat generated from the V-16’s large quad exhaust tips, creating an energized boundary layer that helps the Bugatti cut cleanly through the air.

The interior team, meanwhile, aimed to produce a timeless design and avoid screen inflation in the Tourbillon. Open the butterfly doors and slip in over the small sill into the fixed seats (the pedal box adjusts instead), and you find a refreshingly analog and—Bugatti hopes—timeless experience. In front of the driver sits a fixed-hub steering wheel that rotates around a hidden collar on the steering shaft. Like a Rolls-Royce wheel, this keeps the Bugatti logo permanently upright.

Behind that wheel are three mechanical gauges created by a private label Swiss company that builds high-end watches. Like a fine watch, the left cluster’s oil and coolant temperature, fuel level, and state of charge gauges, the center’s speedometer and tachometer, and the right cluster’s power meter feature exposed, finely meshed gears behind sapphire glass. It’s all built with a tolerance range of 5 to 50 microns, ensuring the gauges can keep up with the car. The sole screens in the new Bugatti are a small multifunction display beneath the speedo and, in acquiescence with modern realities, a small screen that pops up out of the top of the machined and crystal glass-outfitted center stack. The rest of the cab is as you’d expect in a multimillion-dollar hypercar, outfitted with rich stitched leather and carbon fiber.

Rollout

With much development work still to do and a backlog of Bolide and W16 Mistral Chiron variants to get through, don’t expect to see the 2027 Bugatti Tourbillon in your Instagram or TikTok feeds anytime soon. Bugatti plans a modest 250-unit run, with production and deliveries slated to begin in 2026. Plenty of time to pull enough scratch together for its $4.3 million starting price—though word is by the time you read this that every Tourbillon might already have been sold to the flocks of wealthy who chased the car from old techno clubs in Berlin to wealthy Middle East and Asian ports to Los Angeles warehouses and back to Europe since November of last year.