Bugatti will present its virtual concept car, the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo, as a real show car at the 66th International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt. The car was developed in cooperation with Polyphony Digital Inc., the creator of the Gran Turismo video game franchise. The design celebrates Bugatti’s racing history and is based on state-of-the-art motor sport technology.

This project is a tribute to Bugatti’s racing tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, specifically its victories in Le Mans 24-hour races. According to Achim Anscheidt, the head of Bugatti Design, the project is special as it gave the design team an opportunity to do something for their fans, gamers, and high-performance aficionados.

The Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo was inspired by the brand’s successful racing tradition, particularly the Bugatti Type 57 Tank and its victories in the 24-hour Le Mans race in 1937 and 1939. The virtual race car was designed to look unmistakably like a Bugatti and embody the brand’s values of ‘Art, Forme, Technique’.

Every part of the vehicle has a real function and is based on cutting-edge racing technology and precise aerodynamic analyses, developed in close cooperation with the Bugatti engineers.

The Bugatti Veyron combines beauty and beast, while the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo is a radical thoroughbred for the virtual race track. The designers have transferred Bugatti’s design DNA into the styling of the virtual race car, using famous Bugatti lines, a horse shoe on the front grille, and a centre fin on the front and rear wings, as well as on the roof for dynamic stability. The NACA air intake on the roof contributes to the car’s aerodynamic conditions.

The car has a strong trailing edge which provides great longitudinal-dynamic stability, exhausts the H๏τ air from the engine compartment and, no less important, communicates to the pursuer in the video game that a Bugatti is getting away from him.

“We wanted to create a project as realistic as possible for our fans and put a real Bugatti in the virtual world of the PlayStation video game franchise,” explained Frank Heyl, the head of Exterior Design for Production Development at Bugatti. “Every design characteristic is defined by its function. Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo is the perfect symbiosis of engineering and
aesthetics.”

Just as in the exterior design, no concessions were made in the design of the car’s interior. “This is an uncompromising race car,” emphasised Etienne Salome, the head of Interior Design at Bugatti. The interior is designed to meet racing requirements. All indicators, displays and controls are located where a race-car driver expects them – easy to read and easy to reach.

“We wanted to develop a virtual race car for our fans which is a genuine Bugatti down to the last detail and radiates the unrestricted values of the brand,” the designers said. “We hope that the gamers will have just as much fun racing the car as we did in developing it.” The Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo show car will be displayed from 17–27 September 2015 at the Bugatti exhibit in hall 3.0 of the IAA grounds in Frankfurt am Main.