Bugatti has released the first pictures of its concept car for the Vision Gran Turismo project.
The concept is described as previewing the next phase of the company's design language, which will first be seen on a production car with the launch of the Veyron's successor, currently dubbed Chiron, in 2017.
Bugatti says the concept presents "the new form and design language developed by the brand to celebrate the next chapter in its history following the end of the Veyron era."
Production of the regular Veyron recently came to an end with the La Finale special edition, which was unveiled at the Geneva motor show back in March.
Announcing the concept, Bugatti design boss Achim Anscheidt said: "Bugatti’s design DNA has reached a new stage in its evolution. In view of the nature of the project, our concept car for ‘Vision Gran Turismo’ will be exaggerated and extremely performance-oriented.
"Even so, the progressive design language will give an impressive demonstration of the path to be taken by Bugatti design over the next few years.”
While keeping the Veyron's overall proportions, the Vision Grand Turismo project features redesigned front and rear bumpers, with a more prominent Bugatti grille at the front. The car's most distinguishing external feature is its large fixed rear wing. An all-digital instrument cluster can be seen inside alongside a race-inspired steering wheel.
The Chiron was recently spotted in disguised prototype form at the Los Angeles airport, prompting speculation that VIP visitors to the Pebble Beach Concours were being shown the car for the first time. Power for the car is expected to come from a heavily revised version of the Veyron's 8.0-litre W16 engine, producing as much as 1479bhp.
Bugatti boss Wolfgang Dürheimer said: "Bugatti is the world’s most exclusive super sports car brand and Bugatti cars are only available to an extremely small group of automobile connoisseurs.
“At the same time Bugatti is admired and loved by countless people throughout the world. We highly appreciate this enthusiasm. The ‘Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo’ will make our brand available to them as well as to gamers and high-performance aficionados throughout the world, only very few of whom will be able to afford a real Bugatti. They can all benefit from the success of our brand. This is a project for our fans."
The Vision Gran Turismo project was announced in 2013, when series creator Kazunori Yamauchi invited 28 vehicle manufacturers to submit designs for their dream two-seat sports car. Designs to be revealed as part of the project include cars from Aston Martin, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Toyota.
Bugatti's Vision Gran Turismo concept will be seen in full-scale form at the Frankfurt motor show later this month. Players will be able to download and drive the Vision Gran Turismo concept in the coming months.
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