The Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse will make over 1,200 hp and over 1,100 ft-lbs of torque.
Bugatti has never been one to skimp on power, not since the launch of the mind-bogglingly fast Veyron broke the 1,000-horsepower barrier. But the maker has continued nudging up the pony count with a series of Veyron spin-offs and now is set to unveil what it’s billing as the world’s most powerful roadster ever at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.
While the specifics are yet to come, expect to launch from 0 to 60 mph faster than you can say: Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Vitesse Sport.
The new Grand Sport Vitesse will make the earlier Grand Sport roadster seem like a virtual piker when it comes to power, bumping the earlier model’s 1,001 hp up to 1,200, with the torque figure jumping from 1,250 Newton-meters to 1,500 Nm – or from 922 lb-ft to 1106 for the metrically challenged.
To get there, Bugatti engineers adopted a set of four larger turbochargers and intercoolers. The chassis has also been stiffened, the maker notes, “to support the power increase.”
The French maker plans to save a few surprises for the Geneva show floor, notably including the final performance numbers, though the maker notes that the hardtop version, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, holds the current world speed record at 431 kmh, or 269 mph. In production trim it is rated at 2.5 seconds 0 to 100 kmh, 6.7 seconds for the 0 to 200 sprint, and 14.6 seconds to reach 300 kmh.
“The rapid success of the Super Sport convinced us to increase the performance of the Bugatti roadster. Once again our engineers worked hard to demonstrate that Bugatti is able to constantly redefine the boundaries of what is technically feasible,” said Bugatti President Wolfgang Dürheimer – who also serves as CEO of sister brand Bentley. “We gave our all to transfer the achievements of the Super Sport over to the Grand Sport, thereby turning open-top driving itself into an extraordinary experience at high speed.”
Bugatti has been slowly launching spin-offs of the original Veyron 16.4 in the hopes of expanding the supercar’s appeal. Despite extremely low numbers, demand for the various Veyron offerings has been significantly slower than expected. The maker said it was approaching final production of the last of a run of only 300 cars last June. But it apparently still hasn’t quite gotten there yet.
While pricing is another detail likely to be held back for Geneva, don’t be surprised to see the Bugatti Grand Sport Vitesse nudge the $2 million mark.