The W16 is gone. Bugatti replaced it with a V16 — and spent years figuring out how to make that engine sound the way it does without piping anything fake through the speakers.
That’s the story behind a new video Bugatti released this week, showing the acoustic development work that went into the Bugatti Tourbillon engine before the car went into production.
The W16 Ended With the Mistral. Bugatti Put a V16 in the Tourbillon.
Bugatti put the W16 in every production car it built from 2005 to this year. Veyron first. Then the Chiron. Then the Divo, the Centodieci, the Bolide, the Mistral. Four turbochargers, sixteen cylinders, 1,578 horsepower in the Chiron Super Sport 300+. The Mistral was the last one out of Molsheim — finished a few months ago, and that was it for the W16.
Replacing it with anything was always going to be a problem. Replacing it with another 16-cylinder engine — naturally aspirated, no turbos, co-developed with Cosworth — is either a stroke of engineering confidence or sheer stubbornness. Possibly both.
The Bugatti Tourbillon engine is an 8.3-liter V16. It produces 1,000 horsepower and redlines at 9,000 rpm. No forced induction. No hybrid assistance on the combustion side — though the Tourbillon does use electric motors for additional output. The V16 does its work on its own, breathing naturally at an rpm ceiling that most production engines never approach.
Why Bugatti Refused Fake Engine Sound
Pumping amplified or synthetic engine noise through cabin speakers is standard practice across the industry now. BMW does it. Volkswagen does it. Ford did it with the Mustang Mach-E. The argument is always the same — modern sound regulations force engineers to muffle engines to the point where the natural exhaust note disappears, and speakers fill the gap.
Bugatti decided against it for the Bugatti Tourbillon engine. The company’s position is straightforward: a hypercar at this price point — the Tourbillon starts above four million euros — doesn’t fake anything. The sound the driver hears is the sound the engine makes. Nothing added, nothing piped in.
Getting there without violating homologation noise limits took thousands of engineering hours and a development process that went well beyond bolting on an exhaust system and measuring the decibels.
Thousands of Simulations, One Exhaust Note
Bugatti’s acoustic engineers ran thousands of computer simulations covering the intake and exhaust systems before cutting a single piece of hardware. The goal was to find a configuration that hit three targets simultaneously — performance, refinement at low speeds, and mechanical character at full throttle.
Those three targets pull in different directions. An exhaust optimized purely for power output tends to be loud and unrefined at low rpm. An exhaust tuned for refinement kills character. Bugatti needed the Bugatti Tourbillon engine to behave like a grand tourer in traffic and a racing engine on an open road, with the same exhaust system handling both.
The result, by Bugatti’s own admission, is not a clean-sounding engine. That was a deliberate call. As one of the engineers put it in the video: “Bugatti, from a sound perspective, has never had a very clean-sounding engine. It has always been a little bit dirty and raw, so we decided to keep that as one of the key points of the sound.”
Dirty and raw, at 9,000 rpm, from a naturally aspirated V16. That’s the target Bugatti set and what the Bugatti Tourbillon engine development team spent years working toward.
The Homologation Problem: 72 Decibels and a Moving Target
Passing a noise homologation test sounds simple. Drive the car past a microphone. Stay under the limit. Move on. The reality is considerably more complicated, and the Bugatti Tourbillon engine made it more complicated than most.
The relevant test sets a maximum permitted noise level of 72 decibels. That number applies to the entire vehicle — not just the exhaust. The microphones measure everything the car generates as it passes: engine, tires, bodywork, aerodynamic turbulence from body panels and active aero components.
The Tourbillon’s active aerodynamics add a specific problem. The car runs aerodynamic elements that move under load — elements that generate their own acoustic signature at speed. That noise feeds into the homologation measurement alongside the exhaust. Managing the total figure, not just the engine figure, shaped decisions throughout the development of the Bugatti Tourbillon engine and its surrounding hardware.
Weather adds another layer. Homologation runs require temperature and wind speed to stay within specified limits. A gust of wind during a run invalidates the result entirely. The team doesn’t get to pick the best reading from a session — conditions have to hold for the measurement to count.
Eight Exhaust Tips and What They Actually Do
The Tourbillon runs up to eight exhaust tips depending on specification. That’s not a styling decision. The number and diameter of exhaust outlets directly affect back pressure, which affects power output and acoustic character simultaneously. Getting the tip configuration right was part of the same simulation process that shaped the intake and exhaust routing upstream.
The Bugatti Tourbillon engine exhaust system routes the gases from a V16 — eight cylinders per bank, firing in a sequence tuned for both power delivery and sound character — through a system designed to hit a specific acoustic target at the tailpipe without exceeding 72 decibels at the homologation microphone.
Those are opposing pressures. More exhaust flow generally means more noise at the tip. Restricting flow to hit the noise limit costs power. The simulation work Bugatti describes in the video was the process of finding a path through that constraint — one that kept the Bugatti Tourbillon engine at 1,000 horsepower while giving it a sound the company was willing to put its name on.
What the Tourbillon Is, Beyond the Engine
The Bugatti Tourbillon engine is the centerpiece of a car that goes well beyond powertrain engineering. The Tourbillon is Bugatti’s first post-W16 production hypercar — the model that has to justify the end of an engine that ran for twenty-three years and defined the brand’s identity in the hypercar segment.
Two electric motors sit on the front axle. One more at the rear. The V16 handles 1,000 horsepower of its own. Stack all four together and the Tourbillon hits 1,800 horsepower total. The Bugatti Tourbillon engine does the heavy lifting — the electric motors fill the torque gap while the V16 builds revs. The electric motors handle the rest and provide instant torque where the naturally aspirated engine takes time to build it.
The name Tourbillon comes from watchmaking — a tourbillon is a mechanism used in mechanical watches to counteract the effect of gravity on the movement. Bugatti has used watchmaking references throughout the car’s interior design and mechanical philosophy. The V16, redlining at 9,000 rpm with no turbochargers, fits that philosophy directly. It is a mechanical instrument first, a horsepower figure second.
Pricing starts above four million euros. Bugatti has not published a production number, but volumes will be extremely limited — consistent with every hypercar the company has built since the Veyron.
At Four Million Euros, the Sound Has to Be Real
At four million euros, a buyer has every right to expect that what they hear is what the car is actually doing. The Bugatti Tourbillon engine development process — thousands of simulations, homologation runs in controlled weather windows, eight exhaust tips — exists because Bugatti chose to solve the acoustic problem mechanically rather than digitally.
Other manufacturers at lower price points make a reasonable argument for speaker-assisted sound. The regulations are strict, the natural exhaust note gets buried, and buyers still want to hear something. At the Tourbillon’s price and positioning, that argument doesn’t hold. The engineering has to do the work.
The dirty, raw V16 note Bugatti’s engineers describe is the sound of that work paying off.
Bugatti Tourbillon Engine — Full Specification
- Engine: 8.3-liter V16, naturally aspirated, Cosworth co-developed
- V16 output: 1,000 hp at 9,000 rpm
- Total system output: 1,800 hp — V16 plus two front electric motors and one rear electric motor
- Exhaust tips: Up to eight
- Homologation noise limit: 72 decibels
- Fake sound: None
- Price: Above four million euros
- Production: Limited; volume not published
FAQ
What engine does the Bugatti Tourbillon use?
Naturally aspirated 8.3-liter V16. Cosworth co-developed it with Bugatti. The Bugatti Tourbillon engine hits 1,000 horsepower and the rev counter stops at 9,000 rpm.
Does the Bugatti Tourbillon use fake engine sound?
No. Bugatti ran thousands of acoustic simulations and developed the exhaust system specifically to produce a real mechanical sound without speaker assistance.
What replaced the Bugatti W16?
The Bugatti Tourbillon engine — a naturally aspirated V16. The W16 ended production with the final Mistral earlier this year.
How loud is the Bugatti Tourbillon?
The homologation limit is 72 decibels. Bugatti designed the entire car — exhaust, bodywork, and active aerodynamics — to stay within that figure while keeping the V16’s raw character intact.
How much does the Bugatti Tourbillon cost?
Above four million euros. Production numbers have not been disclosed.
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