It may be out of focus and taken at a distance, but the first unofficial photo of the next Bugatti megacar strongly suggests the company is on track to reveal the Veyron successor sooner rather than later.
Although its name has not been confirmed, the photo of the Bugatti 'Chiron' was published on AutoBlog.nl, reportedly snapped at an airport in Los Angeles in California.
The city of angels is one of the few places in the world where the million dollar Bugatti Veyron (second picture) is relatively common, a car that currently holds the Guinness
World Record as the fastest street-legal production car on the planet, at 431km/h (268mph).
The Bugatti Chiron mule appears to be wearing camouflage to disguise it as a Veyron, but the headlights appear to be different.
Naturally the car is ultra-low and super-wide, which together with active aerodynamics (adjustable winglets etc) will allow it comfortably surpass 400km/h. Its predecessor is limited to 415km/h so it's expected to punch past that – at least.
Although the Bugatti Chiron name is not confirmed, it's adoption of hybrid power most certainly is, the burly bruiser's 8.0-litre quad turbo W16 to get even more pepper thanks to electric motors.
The boss of Bugatti's parent company (Volkswagen Group), Martin Winterkorn, previously stated that a hybrid option would be offered alongside turbo-petrol models, and could depose the mad 1000kW Koenigsegg One:1 as the current dreamcar of choice.
Power from the next Bugatti megacar's 8.0-litre engine is expected to be hiked from 883kW to more than 1100kW, or around 1500hp, when the electric motors are factored in.
Based on a carbon-fibre chassis, the next Bugatti will again be a two-seater vehicle and will envelop occupants in supreme luxury. Naturally, it will be priced at levels few can afford.
A likely scenario for the vehicle's appearance at an LA airport is that Bugatti has flown a pre-production model into
the US for a behind-closed-doors preview at the Pebble Beach Concours
d'Elegance. This would allow the company to both canvas potential customers and attain feedback from
super-rich collectors.
It's not clear when the car will make its public debut, but with sales not expected until 2018 a preview of the new model could happen late in 2016 or early in 2017.