Bugatti’s forgotten sedan resurfaces with a supercharged W16 engine

The Autostadt Museum next to the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg is the gift that keeps on giving. With so many wild experiments secretly developed during the Ferdinand Piëch era, this destination, owned by the VW Group, is definitely worth a visit. We recently talked about a Lamborghini Diablo SV with W16, but there is another one-off, powered by the illustrious sixteen-cylinder engine: the Bugatti Galibier.

The concept was originally unveiled in 2009 and was built on a Bentley Arnage chassis, but had a completely different body, interior and of course a different engine. While the donor car relied on V8 engines from BMW and Rolls-Royce, the unique Bentley-based Bugatti doubled the number of cylinders. Unlike the Veyron and its quad-turbo setup, it used a twin-supercharged layout and could also run on ethanol.

Oh, and the engine was mounted up front, hidden under a beautiful split hood. The 8.0-liter monster produced around 1,000 horsepower, with Bugatti opting for supercharging to improve low-end torque, better suited to a grand tourer. It is unclear how much the car weighed, but given its size and the enormous amount of luxury on board, the Galibier must have been heavier than the Veyron. For reference, the original 2005 16.4 model tipped the scales at 4,162 pounds (1,888 kilograms).

Although it has been seventeen years since the Galibier debuted, it remains a feast for the eyes. The unique Bugatti was technically a liftback rather than a sedan, thanks to its more practical tailgate. Coincidentally, the five-door Porsche Panamera was launched in the same year, but this concept took luxury and power to a completely different level.

A new walkaround video from YouTuber has been added below Horsepower fighters, to offer a rare view of the interior of the Galibier. Everything is wrapped in the finest leather that VW Group had to offer at the time, supplemented with a sea of ​​polished wood. While the Veyron kept the screens to a minimum to maintain a timeless cabin, Bugatti went in a different direction here. It not only had a large digital instrument cluster, but also a touchscreen mounted low on the center console.

In the back of the video recorded at the Car city reveals that another screen would raise and swivel towards the rear occupants at the touch of a button. The Galibier was strictly intended as a four-seater, with two individual rear seats separated by a leather-covered armrest and a center console that cut the entire cabin in two. But the pièce de résistance was not the wood or the leather. Instead, it was a feature hidden in plain sight: a $100,000 watch that emerged from the dashboard and could be removed and worn on the wrist.

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Source: Autostadt GmbH

What happened to the Galibier? When Bugatti unveiled it in 2009, the company said the concept was designed to gauge interest in a possible production version. However, the opulent fastback never came to market because Bugatti thought it would have confused customers. The thinking was that the brand was defined by its all-conquering Veyron, so it opted to follow on from the Chiron rather than pursue a luxury-focused model.

Taking Motor1s: The Galibier may seem like a missed opportunity, but it’s worth remembering that it took Bugatti an entire decade to sell all 450 Veyrons. A sedan or liftback would probably have been an even harder sell if it had gone into production in the mid-2010s. That’s not to say it wouldn’t have been spectacular, but the company probably made the right choice.

While we missed a sedan with eight exhaust tips, Bugatti’s new Tourbillon offers that dramatic setup as an option for one percent. The V16-powered hypercar is sold out until 2029, so peace of mind might convince the higher-ups to greenlight a second model. Given the brand’s heritage, a sedan would make the most sense, so the spirit of the Galibier could yet return as an opulent car for the ultra-wealthy.