Draft in an envelope during a TGV trip led to the best engine of all time

Ferdinand Piëch, the legendary Porsche and Volkswagen engineer, dreamed of a revolutionary 18-cylinder engine in W. During a train trip, he scored it in an envelope. One day, he bought a bugatti of play that his son had asked. He had found the mark that could shape his dream.

Last week would have marked the 88th anniversary of the visionary Engineer and Austrian entrepreneur Ferdinand PiëchPresident of the Volkswagen Group between 1993 and 2002 and the driving force behind one of the boldest projects in the history of the automotive industry: the Bugatti Veyron 16.4.

To mark the occasion, the Bug decided how Piëch, who died in 2919, at the age of 82, resurrected the brand and created the Best engine of all time.

Bright engineer, Piëch was strongly involved in the development of iconic cars like Porsche 911 and 917and later, at Audi, it was essential for the creation of four -wheel drive system Quattrofive -cylinder engine and technology diesel tdi.

But it was between 1993 and 2002, during his term as a CEO of the Volkswagen group, (where he remained Chairman more thirteen years), than the mythical Bugatti was reborn e Changed the car panorama forever.

In 1997, Piëch was traveling on the Japanese high speed train Shinkansen with VW’s engine development director, Karl-Heinz Neumannwhen you mentioned your idea of ​​a revolutionary eighteen cylinder engine in W “Something I had been boiling in the engineer’s head.”

During the trip, which took the two executives from Tokyo to Nagoya, Piëch Sketched on the back of an envelope A diagram that generically described its theorist motor W18.

Piëch dreamed of a car that had almost 1,000 horsepower and be able to break the barrier of 400 km/h for the first timeremaining ultra-refined and luxurious enough to make long trips. The problem was that the Group VW did not have an appropriate company for the project.

A fateful paschal gift

Volkswagen had considered Reconnect in Bentley or Rolls-Roycebut during Easter holidays that same year, he had discovered that BMW would acquire Rolls. On this same trip, Gregor, son of Piëchhe asked his father to buy him a Model of a Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantica car that idolized.

Bugatti, realized Piëch, would be the perfect candidate for your revolutionary idea. On May 5, 1998, VW bought Bugatti brand rights and immediately put it to work.

Piech hired the industrial designer at the time Giorgetto Giugiarospecializing in supercars, which in Italdesign had designed the EB112 with V12 engine for previous Bugatti owners in 1993, to reinvent the brand.

In September 1998, the revitalized revitalized Bugatti launched its Concept-Car EB118in the Paris Motor Show, followed by Sedan Eb218in March of the following year, at the Geneva Motor Show.

Although both models had an evolutionary design compared to EB112, They already used experimental versions of the W18 engine with a four -wheel drive system.

It was only at IAA in Frankfurt in September 1999, that Bugatti introduced the car that would take directly to the production veyron: tells: the concept EB 18/3 Chiron.

Opting for a Superdestive Layout With a central engine, instead of a front engine GT like its two predecessors, Chiron had an aerodynamic design with carbon fiber body, as well as advanced characteristics as a rear wing automatically detachable.

In the three concepts, the W18 of 6.3 liters of natural aspiration It consisted of three six -cylinder seats removed from the VR6 engine, displaced 60 degrees. The engine produced 555 horses of power and 649 Newton-Meter of Binarya little more than the four -turbian V12 used by EB110.

18 cylinders for 16

Just a month later, at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show, Bugatti revealed the concept EB 18/4 Veyrondesigned internally by Jozef Kaban under the direction of the then design chief Hartmut Warkußwhich still used the eighteen cylinder engine. It was the most refined and popular design so farso it was chosen as the basis for the production car.

Advancing to the Geneva Hall in the next spring, Piëch formally announced that Bugatti planned Build a Super Desportive with 1,001 hp e capable of reaching 400 km/h.

“It will be possible to conduct this supercar at an absurd speed on the track or the highway, ”said Piëch,” and take it comfortably to the opera That same night – all with the same tires. ”

In this fall of this year, at the Paris Motor Show, Bugatti showed a new Veyron prototype with an almost ready production design. It was now called EB 16/4because it had abandoned the W18 in favor of a slightly smaller and slight W16 engine. Simplifying, W16 was like two V8 glued to an angle of 90 degreeswith the seats of each V8 inclined to 15 degrees.

Also won Four turbocharger to reach the power and speed values ​​that Pipech desired, and the 5 -speed manual box of the previous 4 concepts was abandoned in favor of a Automatic Double Clutch Box.

Although Bugatti announced Veyron’s serial production in 2001, this would reach the hands of customers four years later; As you can imagine, developing a car like this was an arduous task, and the engineers had to start practically from zero in all aspects.

The production veyron would come to Break Upper Speed ​​Records And establish an impossibly high standard, which is still difficult today to overcome. And all started with an outline in an envelope and a play car.