First, let me explain what I mean, by giving out a free history lesson. In 1998, VW bought the Bugatti brand, which was about to go under, due to an economic crisis. They wanted to re enter the supercar market with a replacement to the rather misunderstood, EB110. VW decided to release a few concept cars, all with similar technology, to show off some ideas they had about the new car. One of these concept cars, unveiled in 1999, was the first ever, Veyron. Back then it had a 6.3 litre 18 Cylinder engine, which if you ask me is a little excessive. But being German, you would expect them to over do it. Despite the absolute monolith under the bonnet, it had a rather average 555hp.
VW then announced that the replacement car would have 1000 hp, and go 400 km/h (which translates to 248 mph for us weirdos). Considering this was early 2000's, people thought that Mr. Volkswagen had gone mad. It seemed completely impossible for a road legal car. Long story short, they did it. In 2005 the Veyron was actually put on sale, and had everything as promised. The engine in question was an even more absurd, 8 litre, Quad Turbo, W16. It produced, EXACTLY 1,001 hp (or 987 bhp if you care). But for this particular article, we're not interested in the car. We're interested in that engine. Why?
Because since the release of the Veyron, that's the engine that's been, in every single Bugatti since. Up until, well, the Bolide in 2020. Admittedly, it produces a bit more power now, (some models have 1600 hp, the bolide has over 1800), but the engine itself is not much different. Still 8 litres. Still 4 Turbos. Still 16 Cylinders. I mean, you could argue the whole, "don't fix what ain't broke" thing, and that would be fair enough. But it still seems unnecessary. In a world where climate change is clearly a major issue, you'd think that by now, they would have at least considered a V8. Everyone else does. Hennessey, SSC, Koenigsegg. They're all just as quick. Or they could, and forgive me for this, go electric. Electric hypercars are all the buzz nowadays. What harm would it do? It's not like Bugatti's sound nice anyway.