We’re still not quite over the fact that the year is 2024, and Bugatti – now owned by a company famous for a mind-boggling EV hypercar – is going to build a V16-powered car.
Oh, and in case you have missed out on the Bugatti Tourbillon so far, that 8.3-litre V16 is naturally aspirated, goes to a 9,000rpm redline and on its own produces 986bhp. So about the same as the original Veyron. Before it’s then paired with three electric motors for a total of 1775bhp.
Although we had the stats, and the talk about its crazy one-metre-long crankshaft, we’d only heard it through audio files and had no idea how it sounded in reality. Until now, anyway.
YouTube channel Car Therapy has uploaded a video of what it claims to be the first real-world footage of the Bugatti Tourbillon and its engine note. As far as we can tell, it’s a claim that can’t be disputed.
You’re better off listening to the video yourself than allowing us to describe how it sounds, but even at low RPMs, there’s a real sense of theatre about it. We don’t see the Tourbillon at full chat so we can only assume it doesn’t reach anywhere close to its 9000rpm redline in this footage, so that’s something to look forward to.
It’s worth noting that this is clearly an early prototype (if you look closely at the door it’s even sporting an ‘XP7’ decal), so there’s no guarantee this is what the final production car could sound like. We’re unsure if this is using a road-legal exhaust system, although we’ll hope that even with emissions-friendly filters and catalytic converters, this is the real deal.
It’ll be a while before you can start Tourbillon spotting on the streets. Deliveries are expected to start in 2026, and just 250 are planned for production – each costing about £3.2m.
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