Mate Rimac Teases Manual, Non-Hybrid Bugatti V-16 Hypercar
Mate Rimac wants to build a Bugatti that strips away everything the Tourbillon just added. In a recent Top Gear interview, the man who now controls Bugatti outright floated a manual-transmission, hybrid-free V-16 built on the Tourbillon’s bones, the polar opposite of the car now in production.
The Tourbillon pairs its naturally aspirated 8.3-liter V16 with three electric motors and a 25-kWh battery for 1,800 hp total, sent through an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Rimac’s variant would delete the hybrid hardware and bolt a manual straight to the engine. That leaves roughly 973 to 986 hp from the V-16 alone, with none of the electric assist.
Rimac Frames It As A Return To The Type 35
Rimac told Top Gear the Tourbillon “made a lot of sense as a successor to the Chiron,” but he’s already thinking past it. After two decades of sledgehammer hypercars, he wondered whether Bugatti could build something lighter and simpler: “more engaging, more back to the roots, more Type 35.”
The Type 35 was a lightweight, driver-focused 1920s Grand Prix car, nothing like the four-figure-horsepower missiles Bugatti has built since the Veyron. Pairing that name with a hybrid-deletion plan signals Rimac wants the brand’s next chapter to be about feel, not just numbers.
Rimac first floated a stick-shift Bugatti in August, telling Road & Track he wanted a “real manual” with an actual clutch pedal, not the simulated shifts of Ferrari’s 12Cilindri Manuale. At Monterey Car Week, he said he was “one hundred percent” on board when asked directly.
Rimac did say that the one thing his customers absolutely don’t want was a hybrid. But he believed that the way the system works in the Tourbillon is unlike any other hybrid hypercar.
Ditching the battery and three motors is the new angle, and it would simplify the drivetrain enough to make a manual feasible. It would also cut a big chunk of the weight that pushes the Tourbillon close to 4,400 lbs, creating a car that drives nothing like the dual-clutch hybrid heading to all 250 buyers.
Nothing Is Confirmed, But The Timing Says Everything
Rimac hasn’t committed to production, a timeline, or a model name. It could even end up as a bespoke build through Bugatti’s Solitaire program, which created the one-off Destrier. Still, Bugatti is no longer tethered to Volkswagen’s electrification mandates after this year’s full separation, and Rimac is calling the shots.
Building a manual that can survive 973-plus hp and 664 lb-ft from a V16 revving to 9,000 rpm is a serious challenge. Then again, Bugatti already built a naturally aspirated V-16 road car when nobody else dared. A lighter, analog Tourbillon is exactly the halo project collectors would fight over, and every time Rimac brings it up, it sounds less like a hypothetical and more like a direction.
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