Despite initially announcing an official retirement of its old high-performance W16 engine, Bugatti surprised the world earlier this month with one more very special car dubbed the Brouillard. It’s a one-off creation for a special customer, and it also spearheads a new coachbuilding program the automaker is calling “Solitaire.” We caught up with Bugatti’s head of design, Frank Heyl, at this year’s Monterey Car Week to get more details on what to expect from the new effort, and it sounds like they’re taking it very seriously.
Buying In To The Bugatti Family
The new owner of the Brouillard Solitaire is a long-time Bugatti collector and connoisseur of other items like furniture, art, and other items, and has had a long-standing relationship with the automaker that has now been rewarded. Heyl calls the relationship between the brand and the customers a “family” situation, and the goal of Solitaire is to tell new stories through their unique cars.
“We can usually find a way to get what the customer needs,” he said. “We have a lot of options and possibilities that we can do.”
Four Layers Of Customization
Heyl walked us through the four layers of customization offered to people who order a new car. If it’s just something like one of the 250 planned Tourbillon supercars, it begins with an online configurator that “already has limitless options.” Then, Heyl says, those who want something tailored to them or very specific, like a particular embroidery or a certain yarn color or an exterior color, that becomes “face to face, case by case.” Then there’s “Sumizu,” he explains, which gets into altering more of the existing car for those who desire a unique “zebra car or specific parametric pattern in the paint job.”
Beyond that is the new Solitaire program, which is limited to a single piece and is “physically, geometrically” different from a standard car. However, Heyl confirms that not just anybody is going to roll up and be granted a special car, not even some existing Bugatti customers.
“If a customer came to say, ‘I want an SUV,’ we’d have to say no.”
-Frank Heyl, Bugatti head of design
Rooted In The Past, And Kept Within Reason
Heyl points out Bugatti’s past of coachbuilt models, and highlighted some favorites, including the Type 46, the Type 57 Atalante, and the Type 57 Atlantic. He also mentioned how Jean Bugatti, the company founder’s son and an engineer and designer, was heavily influenced by early coachbuilt cars and their manufacturing back in the early age of the automobile, and that’s what now inspires the company’s new program. He also draws a hard line that he says Bugatti won’t cross, the aforementioned SUV being among them. He also confirmed that, despite being separate from Volkswagen Group now, they would have never (and will never) use something like a Bentley Bentayga platform for a Bugatti customer.
The design boss also confirmed that business is booming. He says they are now in finalist trials for the Tourbillon, and he’s been working on 252 unique wheel designs for the project. He says they are currently “sold out until 2029” at the company’s current production pace and capacity. He wouldn’t confirm whether there would be another W16 Solitaire car, but it sounds like they would do it again for the right customer with the right idea.
“That remains to be seen,” Heyl said.
Heyl has also seen the future, based on an experience with the past. He mentioned celebrating 100 years of Bugatti last year at an event at Laguna Seca with a 1924 Type 35 race car parked next to a 2024 Tourbillon, which he said “gave a perspective on where we are in time.” He says you have to take the future experience of the car into account as a designer. That has already had an impact on new models, with Heyl highlighting that they avoided using big screens in the new Tourbillon.
“It’s rather more how you feel when you sit in the driver’s seat,” he explained. “How does it feel to own a Bugatti, to live with a Bugatti in your life and collect it and possibly pass it on from generation to generation?”