How the new Bugatti Tourbillon draws inspiration from the Bugatti Type 35

Bugatti’s early racing icons shape today’s hypercar excellence.

Bugatti has over a century of automotive excellence to spare, with the manufacturer bringing the world cutting-edge luxury and performance since its inception. However, it has recently chosen to pay tribute to the Type 35’s heritage, including the reveal of the new Bugatti Tourbillon hypercar, inspired by the Type 35’s racing successes.

The Type 35, one of Bugatti’s most successful racing cars, achieved over 1,000 race victories in its time. Its reputation as a Grand Prix winner is due in part to its innovative lightweighting, impeccable mechanics and avant-garde design. A century after the Type 35’s debut in 1924, the new Bugatti Tourbillon hypercar evokes the same philosophy that guided the Type 35’s birth: to create a beautiful and luxurious car with revolutionary performance-driven innovations.

Like the Type 35 with its aluminum wheels and hollow axles, the new Bugatti Tourbillon has gone to great lengths to save weight, offsetting its V16 hybrid powertrain with the use of a carbon fiber body and 3D-printed suspension components. The Tourbillon isn’t the only one drawing inspiration from the Bugatti Type 35’s long-standing heritage. The Bolide, Bugatti’s track-only W16-powered hypercar, also sports “Type 35 100 Anniversaire” graphics on its fenders, and the example that graced this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed ​​was painted “Bleu de Lyon,” a color that recalls the Type 35 and pays homage to its beginnings in Lyon, France.

With an unmatched level of automotive excellence seen in its creations past and present, Bugatti can draw on a rich history and build on its new hypercars like the 1,800 horsepower V16 hybrid Tourbillon. With its racing successes, the Bugatti Type 35 was the perfect ancestor for Bugatti’s latest hypercar creation.

Image source: Bugatti