It may sound a little strange, but Bugatti will be presenting a tangible, real show car of their digital concept study, pertaining to a racing super sports car, otherwise designed to appear in the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo video game franchise.
To create a virtual race car, the designers drew their inspiration from Bugatti's successful racing tradition, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. The historical theme for the design of the Vision Gran Turismo virtual modern race car was, in particular, the Bugatti Type 57 Tank and its victories in the 24-hour Le Mans race in 1937 and 1939. According to official press release, this is the reason the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo makes its appearance in the classic blue two-tone finish of the Type 57 G Tank, the winning car in 1937, simultaneously evoking the colours of the historical French race cars of that period. Since then, blue has also been Bugatti's brand colour.
The Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo will be racing in a class of cars that have little or no relationship to reality on the road, so their designs are far more extreme and performance-oriented than that of a street-legal car. Designer-wise, two things were imprtant to the team: firstly, the virtual car should look unmistakably like a Bugatti and completely embody the brand values of 'Art, Forme, Technique'. Secondly, every part of the vehicle should have a real function, so despite it being a virtual race car, it was developed in close cooperation with the Bugatti engineers and is based on cutting-edge racing technology and precise aerodynamic analyses. Sasha Selipanov, the Head of Exterior Design Creative Developmen, stated: "Under no circumstances did we want to create a retro-style race car in memory of the successes in Le Mans, but rather to transfer the feeling and mood of these special moments in Bugatti's history to a modern vehicle."
Achim Anscheidt, head of the Bugatti design team, said: "The Bugatti design team normally works only for the exclusive and very distinguished circle of the brand's customers. Now Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo has given us the opportunity, for the first time, to do something special for our fans as well. When the target group suddenly grows from 450 Veyron owners to several million fans, gamers and high performance aficionados, it is a very exciting matter. We had a lot of fun with this project."
The Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo show car will be displayed from 17–27 September 2015 at the Bugatti exhibit in Frankfurt am Main.