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The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

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The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

If you take a look at the creative force that drives Bugatti, it becomes immediately and unmistakably clear that a team of exceptionally talented designers has dedicated themselves to the task of leaving a legacy of excellence. This claim goes back to Bugatti's rich history and racing tradition of the glorious 1920s and 1930s, but also to the will to push the limits of what is technically feasible. The Bugatti Bolide1 is the most extreme vehicle concept in the recent history of the French luxury brand, its development - entirely in keeping with the company's brand values ​​of Excellence, Courage, Dedication - an inspiration in itself.

"Form follows performance"

The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

The Bugatti Bolide consistently follows the Bugatti design ethos “Form follows performance”. The new hyper sports car answers one of the brand's big "What if ...?" Questions. What if Bugatti built a radically light vehicle around its legendary 8,0-liter W16 engine without setting any limits in terms of power-to-weight ratio? The result is the most extreme, uncompromising, fastest and lightest vehicle concept of the brand's modern era. The famous W16 engine from Molsheim has an output of 1.850 PS2 and almost achieves Formula 1 values. Its top speed is well over 500 km / h - but without foregoing maximum handling and maximum agility.

Designer Nils Sajonz was significantly involved

The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

As the binding force behind the ambitious experiment, exterior designer Nils Sajonz played a key role in the creation of the French luxury brand's latest hyper sports car. Sajonz started as an intern in 2015 as part of the Bugatti design team and wrote his thesis on a Bugatti design study for autonomous racing. In the years that followed, Sajonz helped design a number of limited edition models such as the Divo3, unveiled in 2018, as well as the La Voiture Noire4 and Centodieci4, which celebrated their world premieres in March and August 2019. As part of a five-person team, Sajonz was involved in the design of the bolide this year and was recently appointed Head of Special Projects within the Bugatti Design Team. "Working on the design of the Bugatti Bolide was a unique experience“, Says Sajonz, Head of Special Projects at Bugatti. "The bolide represents the entire range of expressiveness of our design team and embodies the current guiding principle of our design language. It's extreme, it's radical, it's contemporary - all that Bugatti currently stands for. But Bugatti will never stand still, we in design are constantly looking for new stylistic suggestions."

Through his involvement in projects such as the exterior of the Divo, Centodieci and La Voiture Noire, Sajonz was able to experience firsthand what it takes to design the most powerful, luxurious and exclusive hyper sports cars in the world. This experience as a designer in the development of small series, one-off pieces and creative concepts makes Sajonz the perfect fit for his new position as Head of Special Projects. In this role he will report directly to Bugatti chief designer Achim Anscheidt.

Committed to Bugatti's exceptional design legacy

The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

"It is important that Bugatti has many individual talents that contribute to the ultra-luxury and uniqueness that both customers and Bugatti enthusiasts have always associated with our brand. The Bugatti design team is supported by a group of exceptionally talented designers, all of whom are committed to our brand's exceptional heritage and who live up to our brand values“, Says Achim Anscheidt, Head of Design at Bugatti. "The development of the Bolide represents Bugatti's ongoing endeavor to be a leader in the field of innovation and at the same time to build on our stylistic past. Nils played a central role in this. He is an extremely talented designer and has already proven himself to be an extremely valuable member of our creative team."

Sajonz says of the Bugatti design tradition: "As a little boy, design and the beauty of things shaped my life. The cultural legacy of the Bugatti brand is omnipresent and I draw a lot of inspiration from the history of famous racing cars like the Bugatti Type 35 and the Type 57SC Atlantic. You can find references to Bugatti's racing DNA in the design of all our cars, of course also in the bolide. It is important that future projects remain true to the brand's design identity, as they must forever be timeless and unrivaled."

The Bugatti Bolide - a racetrack-oriented thoroughbred of the modern age

The experimental study of the Bugatti Bolide is a racetrack-focused hyper sports car with a W16 engine derived from the series as a drive, combined with a minimal body for maximum downforce. The bolide has an unprecedented power-to-weight ratio of just 0,67 kg / hp, which is made possible by the combination of the W16 engine with 1.850 hp and a vehicle weight of only 1.240 kg5.

The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

The choice of materials and production processes used in the Bolide represent a courageous step forward for what is currently feasible and what will be possible in hyper sports car construction in the future. A world first is the morphable outer skin of the intake scoop on the roof, which offers active flow optimization. When driving slowly, the surface of the scoop remains smooth, while when driving fast, a field of bubbles bulges out. This reduces the air resistance of the scoop by ten percent and provides 17 percent less lift. The dramatic effect of the overall appearance becomes clear with the total height of only 995 millimeters - exactly as high as the historic Bugatti Type 35.

Sajonz adds to the design of the bolide: "Many of the bolide's design features are both central stylistic elements and functional. The appearance of the Bugatti Bolide cites the so-called X-planes of aviation history and shows a clear X-signature from every perspective. This is also reminiscent of Bugatti's racing heritage, in which the X signature on the front of the bolide quotes the headlights of historic racing cars that were taped off in an X-shape to prevent broken glass on the track in the event of an accident. These topics are consistently implemented and contribute to the overall dynamics and performance of the bolide."

The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

The Bugatti team developed a lightweight carbon fiber monocoque around the drive. The integral front end flanged to it is also made of high-strength carbon fibers, as is the aerodynamically fully effective underbody and the monocoque itself. The individual fiber tensile strength of the fibers used is 6.750 Newtons per square millimeter, the individual fiber stiffness is 350.000 Newtons per square millimeter. Values ​​that are otherwise only achieved in the aerospace industry.

Instead of water-to-air intercooling, the Bugatti Bolide has air-to-air intercooling with water pre-cooling for optimum performance on the racetrack. The two water coolers, which are arranged in front of the front axle, offer a more effective radiator network in terms of flow technology than is even common in Formula 1. Newly developed hybrid carbon-titanium turbofan radial compressors ventilate and cool the high-performance racing brake system. If we get more information, there is of course an update for this report. You will be informed of this if you simply do ours Feed subscribe to. Have fun watching the pictures and stay true to us!

Of course, that wasn't the end of it. Our tuning magazine has tens of thousands more tuning reports in stock. Do you want to see them all? Just click HERE and look around. Or are you particularly interested in the Bugatti brand, with or without tuning? Then the following excerpt is sure to be just the thing.

Special model: Bugatti Chiron Sport "Les Légend du Ciel"!

The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

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The design of the Bugatti Bolide - "Form follows performance"

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About Thomas Wachsmuth

Thomas Wachsmuth - He has been an integral part of tuningblog.eu since 2013. His passion for cars is so intense that he invests every available penny in them. While he dreams of a BMW E31 850CSI and a Hennessey 6x6 Ford F-150, he currently drives a rather inconspicuous BMW 540i (G31/LCI). His collection of books, magazines and brochures on the subject of car tuning has now reached such proportions that he himself has become a walking reference work for the tuning scene.  More about Thomas

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