The Veyron Reborn
Twenty years ago, Bugatti didn’t just drop a new car into the supercar ecosystem; it dropped a new unit of measurement for what a road car could be. The Veyron arrived with 1,001 hp, a top speed north of 400 km/h, and the sort of refinement that suggested you could do all of that, then roll straight into a nice hotel driveway without needing earmuffs or a chiropractor.
Now Bugatti is marking that moment with the F.K.P. Hommage, the second creation under its Programme Solitaire banner. And as the name telegraphs, this isn’t only a tribute to the Veyron’s impact, but to the person who effectively forced it into existence: Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Karl Piëch, the engineering maximalist who drove Volkswagen Group’s most ambitious mechanical ideas.
Bugatti’s origin story for the Veyron’s rebirth started as a sketch on a Japanese bullet train, where Piëch drew the W-engine concept that would become the beating heart of Bugatti’s modern era. It also ties neatly into his broader engine legacy at VW, from the brand’s unusual VR architecture (most famously the compact VR6) through to the W8 and W12 applications that spread across the group, before culminating in the ultimate expression of the idea: the quad-turbocharged W16.
By staggering cylinders in a short, wide-bank configuration, the engineers compressed what would normally be a very long engine into an astonishing 645 mm, which helped keep the Veyron’s wheelbase to a compact 2,700 mm.
Design-wise, Bugatti is careful to remind you that the Veyron was never chasing the prevailing supercar silhouette. When it first appeared as a concept at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show, the look developed by a young Jozef Kabaň under Hartmut Warkuß’s direction leaned away from the sharp, forward-tilting wedge school that had dominated for decades. The Veyron almost reclined: composed, self-assured, and strangely calm for a car that could turn tyres into vapour on request.
The F.K.P. Hommage takes that original posture and reinterprets it with today’s tools, today’s tolerances, and today’s appetite for detail. It sits on the highest evolution of Bugatti’s W16 platform and uses the 1,600 hp tune first introduced in the Chiron Super Sport, the car that finally pushed the Veyron’s speed ambition past the 300 mph barrier. Depending on what units you grew up arguing with your mates about, that “1,600” figure is typically quoted as metric horsepower (PS), which roughly translates to about 1,578 hp in mechanical horsepower. Either way, this is the final, fully weaponised chapter of W16 development, with larger turbochargers, upgraded intercoolers, enhanced cooling systems, and a reinforced gearbox built to carry the extra torque without crying.
From ten paces, it reads as Veyron. Up close, it’s all refinements. The horseshoe grille becomes a proper three-dimensional sculpture, machined from a solid block of aluminium and shaped to flow more organically into the bodywork than the earlier, flatter interpretation. The panel lines and the colour split have been rethought so they align with the new surfacing, making the two-tone division feel cleaner and more intentional. There’s more breathing space up front too, with larger air intakes feeding the hungrier W16, while the signature air ducts remain behind the occupants’ heads. Wheel sizing moves with the times, 20-inch at the front, 21-inch at the rear, paired with the latest Michelin tyre technology to sharpen both capability and stance.
If the Veyron was a landmark in performance, the F.K.P. Hommage quietly flexes how far materials and finishing have come since the early 2000s. Bugatti’s red exterior finish isn’t just “red”; it’s a layered effect, with a silver aluminium-based coat beneath a red-tinted clear coat to create depth that changes as you move around the car. The black contrast isn’t paint either, but exposed carbon fibre with a tinted clear coat.
Inside, Bugatti has gone for a full reset compared with other recent W16 cars, including Chiron and Mistral. The steering wheel returns to a circular, Bauhaus-leaning character that nods straight back to the Veyron, while the centre console and tunnel cover are bespoke pieces machined from solid aluminium blocks. There’s also a new direction in texture and tailoring: custom “Car Couture” fabrics woven exclusively in Paris, an approach Bugatti has been pushing since the Tourbillon as it expands beyond the Veyron era’s leather-forward cabins.
Then the owner went and did the most Programme Solitaire thing imaginable: they asked Bugatti to integrate an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Tourbillon into the dashboard. It’s a 41 mm timepiece mounted on a dedicated “island” finished in engine-turned polish, a technique borrowed from the finishing used on Ettore Bugatti’s original straight-eight cylinder heads. The clever bit is the watch’s self-winding mechanism, described as a gondola that rotates on a diagonal axis several times per hour, powered by the car itself without an electrical connection. It’s extravagantly unnecessary, mechanically obsessive, and therefore almost perfectly aligned with the spirit of the original Veyron project.