• Also, see here a photo gallery of the Bugatti Veyron project
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The first time the idea of ​​making a car like the Bugatti Veyron came out of Ferdinand Piëch's dreams and materialized, it was in conversation with an engineer from his team on a trip on the "Shinkansen" express between Tokyo and Nagoya, in 1997. Piëch had an enormous worldwide reputation for being an eminent, tireless and perfectionist mechanical engineer, so his interlocutor at the time, Karl-Heinz Neumann, then Director of Volkswagen Engine Development, was not even surprised, much as the idea could seem that of a megalomaniac.

And the sketches that the CEO of the Volkswagen Group drew on the back of a used envelope even seemed to make sense: create three cylinder banks each with a six-cylinder engine from the VW Golf VR6, for an 18-cylinder colossus, with a total of 6.25 liters of capacity and 555 horsepower, as "start of the conversation", obtained only by the combination of the three engines.

Rolls-Royce or Bugatti?

From here, it was important to define which brand would receive such a technological jewel, although Piëch knew very well that none of the brands in his consortium would measure up. It would have to be a carmaker that represented not only high performance, but also groundbreaking technology, design, and unmatched luxury - and only two names were on its mind: Rolls-Royce and Bugatti. The outcome was less scientific or commercial than could be expected. During the Easter holidays in Mallorca in 1998, Piëch showed his youngest son, Gregor, a miniature of a Rolls-Royce on a toy shelf in a gift shop, but Gregor pointed to the car next door, which was the that made his eyes shine.

It was a Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic that he received as a gift minutes later, as Ferdinand Piëch himself wrote later in his book Auto.Biographie: "A fun hit of fate." What few know is that he also bought a second miniature in that same store to show it to Jens Neumann at the first meeting of the Board of Directors after the holidays, adding the request to verify the rights of the French brand, so that it could be bought ASAP (and BMW had the same intention).

Chance chose to go hand in hand with logic in this situation. Apart from Ferdinand Piëch, probably only Ettore Bugatti would have been brave enough to go ahead with such a project. In 1926, the Bugatti Type 41 Royale was a masterpiece of technique and a manifesto of sheer opulence as the world's largest, most powerful and most expensive car, powered by a 12.8-liter inline eight-cylinder engine and a few 300 horses.

The purchase agreement was closed in 1998, after brief negotiations with car importer Romano Artioli, owner of Bugatti since 1987. Artioli had built an innovative factory near Modena, in Campogalliano, and on September 15, 1991, in Ettore Bugatti's 110th birthday, he presented the EB 110, the most striking super sports car of the decade and that marked the rebirth of the French ensign. But the supercar market was going to drop sharply later, which dictated the factory shutdown in 1995. Although the Bugatti legend wasn't going to be on hold for long.

And he could have been born in Spain ...

Ferdinand Piëch's plan was clear: to return Bugatti to its peak in the 1920s and 1930s, starting with a car that respected the symbiotic relationship between the engine and the rest of the vehicle, made to order and posed with the unquestionable talent of a great stylist. Piëch probed his friend and designer Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign, and the first sketches started immediately.

The first prototype, the EB118, saw the light of day at the 1998 Paris Motor Show, following a very rapid genesis of just a few months. Giugiaro resisted the temptation to make a retro-style car, preferring to reinterpret the design of the French brand in the light of modernity. The enthusiastic reception from the world served as a tonic for the second concept car, the EB218, which debuted six months later at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show. The body of the ultra-luxurious saloon was essentially made of aluminum, the wheels Magnesium and the blue undertones of its paint seemed to ensure that the EB218 had come straight from the dream world.

With the third prototype, Bugatti switched to a super sports philosophy, dropping the limousine idea. The EB 18/3 broke with traditional lines and acquired even more exclusive characteristics, delighting visitors to the 1999 Frankfurt Motor Show. It had the last name Chiron, a name that was used for the first time in the brand (later it would be its own car) in tribute to the former official Bugatti driver, Louis Chiron, winner of several F1 GPs.

This was when the head of design of the VW Group, Hartmut Warkuss, decided to challenge Walter de Silva. Newcomer to the German group to revolutionize Seat design, after a successful career at the Fiat Group, De Silva was required to submit a proposal for the first Bugatti of modern times, as the stylist explains in his book "Form in Motion "published in 2019.

"I was strengthened by the trust he placed in me and by that legendary name: Bugatti. Although appreciated for its elegant lines, my proposal was never shown in public, but it had a significant impact on the final Veyron. Warkuss was the first to congratulate me and he encouraged me. He told me not to be discouraged and asked me to produce a concept car for Geneva 2000 that incorporated my criteria studies for the identity of Seat, a kind of manifesto of our future guidelines - and the Seat Salsa was born. "

A few months later, Warkuss and Josef Kaban (its designer at VW) proudly showed off their work, the EB 18/4 Veyron, at the 1999 Tokyo trade fair. It would be the fourth and final prototype, already very close to the production model that it would respect the principles of the founder of the brand (Ettore Bugatti said "if it is comparable, it is not a Bugatti") and the order sheet established by Piëch. That is, more than 1,000 horses, maximum speed greater than 400 km / h, less than three seconds from 0 to 100 km / h. And with the same tires with which he achieved these benefits on the track, he intended to transport an elegant couple with all the comforts to the Opera that same night.

MORE THAN 406 KM, 1,001 CV AND 16 CYLINDERS

When the first serial Bugatti EB 16.4 Veyron was launched in Paris in September 2000, there were major changes. Instead of the 18-cylinder engine, the engineers switched to a 16-cylinder engine that did not use the three banks of six cylinders from the initial design, but two with a V8 engine in each, hence the W16 designation.

The displacement would be eight liters and there would be four turbos for a maximum performance of 1001 CV and 1250 Nm. It was not long until the homologation of its benefits and with it the mission confirmation accomplished: 0 to 100 km / h in 2.5 seconds and a top speed of almost 407 km / h, a point of honor that Ferdinand Piëch never knew. He got tired of remembering as a target during the development of the car, which caused the strangeness of many.

Much later, it was Piëch himself who explained the reason for that almost obsession: in the 1960s he had developed the legendary V12-powered Porsche 917K himself, as well as the 16-cylinder engine of the Porsche 917 PA in the 1970s which, however, it never ended up being used in racing after testing at the Porsche Development Center in Weissach.

The 917K would end up crowned the winner of the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first time for Porsche, with a top speed of 406 km / h on the legendary Hunaudières straight. And, even if that feat were also the work of his talent, Piëch would never have been satisfied if "his" Bugatti Veyron did not equal, and even exceed, this impressive record.

Winkelmann: "We owe everything to Ferdinand Piëch"

For decades at the Volkswagen Group, Stephan Winkelmann is now President of Bugatti, having held the same position at Lamborghini. Explain how much the French ultra-luxury brand owes the genius of Piëch.

- Without the Veyron, Bugatti probably wouldn't exist today ...

SW- Without a doubt. The Veyron catapulted the Bugatti into an unprecedented new dimension. This hyper sports car allowed the brand to be resurrected in a way completely faithful to the spirit of Ettore Bugatti, because it was able to elevate engineering to an art form. And it was only possible because Ferdinand Piëch was always seeking maximum perfection in everything he did.

- Few people could, almost by themselves, revive a legendary car brand like Bugatti. Do you agree?

SW- In 1997, the ideas of this brilliant mechanical engineer were a testament to a brilliant mind. In addition to his incredible idea of ​​designing an engine with unmatched power, he was also the driving force behind the resurrection of the Bugatti brand in the French city of Molsheim. That is why I would like to pay my utmost respect to him and his employees at that time. For their great courage, energy and passion to bring this exceptional brand to life.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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