Having revealed its Vision Gran Turismo in digital form a couple of weeks ago, Bugatti has rolled out the real thing at the Frankfurt Motor Show. While the show car on display at IFA won't be going anywhere under its own steam, the carbon-fiber racer does serve as a design language stepping stone between the Veyron and Bugatti's next super sports car offering.
Bugatti has attempted to keep its Vision Gran Turismo firmly grounded in reality, with every component required to have a real performance function, such as the NACA air intake on the roof that directs air into the engine at roof level without creating turbulence in the inflow of the rear wing.Real to virtual is generally the road vehicles take when appearing in the Gran Turismoseries, but the flexibility (and significantly reduced development costs) of creating a virtual vehicle has seen everyone from Peugeot to Chevy hitting the digital bitumen with out-of-this-world concepts.
Other practical design features include the eight-eye headlights that flank the Bugatti horseshoe symbol on the front grille. These headlights were specifically designed for the virtual car and perform an aerodynamic function by acting as air intakes to cool the brakes. Meanwhile, the central fin that runs the length of the roof contributes to the car's dynamic stability. It's line is also echoed on the interior, where it merges with the central console to separate the cockpit from the rest of the interior.
And it's not just the design that has been given a dose of reality, with the car's virtual performance based on Bugatti's latest simulation models of driving dynamics and aerodynamics. From this, Bugatti's engineers calculate that the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo, with its W16 engine, will reach over 400 km/h (250 mph) on the straights on four sections of Le Mans.
The virtual Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo will be available as a digital download for Gran Turismo 6 soon, but in the meantime you can check out the real thing in our gallery.
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