The bugatti tourbillon unveiling encourages revisiting the chiron, which could have worn a dramatically different set of clothes.
The Nationales Automuseum in Germany’s Loh Collection is staging a seminar to celebrate Bugatti’s history with never-before-seen archival materials and photographs in honor of the occasion.
One such photo seems quite sensational in nature: showing alternate design studies for the Bugatti Chiron, which had been in development shortly after the Bugatti Veyron began production. Here’s what the Chiron could have looked like-and arguably wasn’t all that flattering-along with a quick Bugatti history.
The Bugatti Chiron took the well-defined foundation of the Veyron into new territory with its similar mid-engine format and quad-turbocharged W-16 engine, churning out more than 1,400 horsepower, though special editions feature even more.
These design mockups show everything from a conservative design to a wild look for the Chiron. It turned out, the production design was sleek and refined, with horizontal headlights and a simple grille, somewhat conservatively and evolutionarily echoing the Veyron. Other concepts that have surfaced online are more radical-and in a few cases, less good-looking.
Some of the mockups draw inspiration from older Bugatti designs with a number of very rounded and somewhat aggressive curves, while others try to be more aerodynamic with large lighting features. Noticeably, not all of the concepts included what has become pretty ubiquitous on the C-shaped cutout for the door.
More interestingly, it seems that the production design took some cues from the third-from-the-right mockup, and the backside looks to have been inspired by another second from the right.
Further, Bugatti posted some images of designs supposedly done by an artificial intelligence program; these are probably done as a lark rather than a serious design exercise.
All the other images released are classic Bugatti models that are pretty much a far cry from these more modern concepts. We have combined those – the Type 32, 35, 41, 45 and 50 – together with some modern conceptual ideas in the Vision series in a gallery for your pleasure.