Bugatti - Beyond Chiron

We expose what’s in the pipeline for one of the world’s fastest brands

- Georg Kacher

The billion dollar question Achim Anscheidt has to help Bugatti answer is where it sees itself in a decade or two. After all, it’s literally his job. Today, at 57, he heads the Bugatti design department that lives discreetly on an industrial estate in Wolfsburg, Germany. He joined the iconic brand 16 years ago and in a previous life the well-dressed son of the three-time motorbike world champion Georg Anscheidt worked as a stunt rider and circus artist.

With help from the former Porsche chief designer Harm Lagaay, Anscheidt later graduated in transportation design and joined Volkswagen, working next in Weissach, Sitges, Berlin, Wolfsburg and Molsheim, France. He currently devotes his free time to restoring a Bugatti Type 35 and drives a superclean silver 1981 lightweight Porsche 911SC. “My vision for Bugatti is Form Follows Performance,” says the father of three. “The shape of a Bugatti is dictated primarily by engineering necessities. As an iconic statement, it must remain authentic for at least half a century.”

We wonder if in another 35 years that’s how we’ll see the Veyron – and it’s a legacy the Chiron continues today. The Veyron was the baby of Ferdinand Piech who acquired Bugatti in 1988 for the Volkswagen group. A gifted engineer and a very good driver, the powerful Austrian shareholder suggested fusing two 4.0-litre VR8 engines (also his brainchild, but a major flop in the Passat W8) to create the legendary 736kW 8.0-litre W16. Piech purchased several Veyrons and before his untimely death he allegedly also ordered the one-off Voiture Noire at A$18m before tax.