It’s hard to believe the Bugatti Veyron is over 20 years old. The now-iconic supercar made its debut back in 2005 at the Geneva Motor Show, but it still looks fairly modern, and its specs—1,001 horsepower from a quad-turbo W16 engine paired with a dual-clutch transmission and all-wheel drive—rival many of today’s performance machines.
All the way back in 2005, those specs seemed otherworldly. They were enough to cement the Veyron in the history books as the fastest production car ever, at 253 mph (and later, 267 mph with the Super Sport variant).
My point is, the Veyron is far from a “classic” car. It marked a revolution in tech and performance that sent ripples throughout the industry that can be felt to this day. It doesn’t look old, and while I’ve never driven one, it probably doesn’t feel old to drive, either.
Veyron production ended in 2015—a long time ago, sure, but in the grand scheme of car history, it’s not that long. Bugatti has already built a tribute car that harkens back to the Veyron, and it has me asking: Is it too soon?
The car is a one-off called the Veyron F.K.P. Hommage, built through the company’s ultra-exclusive Solitaire program, which builds single vehicles at the request of customers. This is the second car to emerge from that program, following the Brouillard, which was unveiled at Monterey Car Week in August. “FKP,” in this case, stands for the late Ferdinand Karl Piech, the man in charge of Volkswagen Group (Bugatti’s parent company at the time), who was a big driver for getting the car developed.
Though I’m not totally sold on Bugatti doing a tribute car for the Veyron just 11 years after production ended, I’ll admit this F.K.P. Hommage is incredibly cool. From some angles, like the side and the rear, it looks pretty much exactly like that original Veyron concept revealed back in 2003. Even the engine bay and interior replicate the O.G. Veyron’s designs well.
The nose is what gives the Hommage away, with modern, thinner headlights and a squished version of that iconic horseshoe grille. Bugatti says the car is based on a Chiron, and uses the Chiron Super Sport’s 1600-hp quad-turbo W16 engine.
Unsurprisingly, Bugatti hasn’t revealed a price for the Veyron F.K.P. Hommage, but seeing as how the only other Solitaire-built car from the brand cost around $15 million, I’d bet this car is somewhere in that ballpark. Personally, I think I’d just drop $2-3 million on a used Veyron and call it a day.
Top image: Bugatti
It looks so similar, I thought the pictures where of the Veyron.
Personally, I’d drop 2 or 3 million on a house in Mendocino and take an Uber or Lyft around. $15 million! I just cannot wrap my head around that for a four-wheeled personal conveyance. I can’t do that for an airplane either. Well, and I don’t have that kind of money, so it’s really not an issue.
Looks better than the Chrion imo. I actually like the OG Veyron’s design (perhaps I’m in the minority there) and this improves on that n basically every way to my eye.
On the other hand, I believe I’m several tax brackets too low to be allowed to form an opinion on the matter
I’ll just get a brown manual diesel wagon Veyron. Used. Thank you very much.
Hot take, I don’t think you should be able to call it a tribute if the original is less than 20 years old.
Like there’s people calling themselves “tribute bands” going around, even though the original band is still alive!
Well, that’s acceptable if it provides a means for the original band to earn some licensing fees from a performance at a venue they wouldn’t touch themselves with a 30 ft pole
So you’re saying tribute band rules are like the Necromongers in Chronicles of Riddick? Just gotta kill the original band, then you own the songs?
If we waited on Keith Richards to die, the heat death of the universe would have already happened and no one would be around to be in a band
Meh, rather see a tribute to the EB110
You mean this?
BUGATTI CENTODIECI | BUGATTI
Yeah. That one was more memorable when it came out that the Veyron.
They need to pay homage to a car that was in production 11 years ago, because EVs are “democratizing” performance. ICE is having an identity crisis. I think that the current fad of super car priced resto mods will continue. It’ll be much more about identity and vibes from here on out
Their design language is almost too distinct, because every car since the Veyron has looked like an updated Veyron to me. But I also feel I’m getting too old to care about these codpieces.
I know I’m not supposed to like it because of how derivative it is, but I think it looks so sharp. It improves on the Veyron in every way. Part of me wishes they continued the Veyron line instead of axing it for the Chiron, and this would have been the ‘Gen 2’ model.
“Tribute” Because “The search for more Money” was too on the nose?
or Mel Brooks trademarked it
F.K.P. the quest for more money
Wonder how they paid tribute to all the VW parts that were slapped onto it.
Why does this feel like the car version of constant movie sequels?
As Mat Armstrong has found out, Bugatti won’t sell you parts. So I’m not buying one.
“We like ourselves, don’t we?” — Dana Carvey as Church Lady. (It’s an older meme, but still valid.)
Tenacious D released their song Tribute in 2001, which obliquely referred to Metallica’s One that was only about 13 years old at the time. Even if you take the song literally and assume it’s about Stairway to Heaven, that was only about 30 years old at the time.
So, on average, 20 sounds about right based on my extrapolation of stupid pop culture references.
(Jack Black mentioned in an interview years ago that the song was intentionally obscure in its reference, probably kind of like how you don’t look directly at the Ark of the Covenant)
I’d like to know more about this. I’m familiar with “Tribute” and “One,” but the connection eludes me. Link?
https://consequence.net/video/tenacious-d-greatest-song-in-the-world/
Which one did James May flog on Top Gear? The Super Sport? Every time I hear Veyron that’s what I think.
That black and red is perfect on both cars.
I always thought these were sorta’ ugly looking cars. Its that front end. It looks almost exactly the same as an Edsel- complete with that dumb ” Horse collar” looking thing on the grill.
The shape was a tribute to Ettore’s father Carlo, a furniture designer (the elephant hood ornament on the Royale was a reproduction of one of his brother Rembrandt’s sculptures). I’ve seen it specifically pointed out that the horseshoe shape was from one of Carlo’s chair back designs, but if you look up his work, you can see that the shape was a common motif he used on all kinds of pieces. It worked with the narrow and taller proportions of prewar cars, but does not translate well to post war wide and low. Some manufacturers managed to adapt the proportions of their trademark prewar designs to fit the more modern body styles or others went with something different altogether. Unfortunately, there’s no good way to do that with the horseshoe shape, so it tends to look forced, but then, the whole brand is forced, anyway.