By the time you read this, Bugatti had revealed its all-new V16 engine-powered hypercar, the Tourbillon. That also means the reign of the W16 is over.
And what a reign it’s been. The numbers from the unique 8.0-liter, quad-turbo, sixteen-cylinder leviathan might not seem all that remarkable in a world of 2,000hp electric supercars, but when the Veyron was unveiled in 2005, its 987hp (1,001PS) output was staggering.
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Over the next two decades, power went up to 1,200hp for the Super Sport model, the arrival of its 2016 successor (the Chiron) saw a rise to 1,500hp, and its own Super Sport variant took us to 1,600hp – and over 480kph.
Let’s not get lost in the numbers though, despite the Top Trumps statistics. The Veyron was the world’s first hypercar, it and the Chiron normalised four-figure outputs, and the pair remain the only true luxury hypercars. Nothing else has such a colossal breadth of abilities.
To celebrate the W16, we took the Veyron and Chiron on one final road trip with Bugatti's chief test driver Andy Wallace, who shared a few secret stories – including one of jumping a Chiron at over 400kph.
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
