Bugatti has tested its hybrid hypercar, the Tourbillon, at temperatures above 40°C (104°F) on the racetrack in Seville, southern Spain, before moving to public roads where conditions reached roughly 45°C (113°F). The programme features in Episode 19 of the brand’s documentary series “A New Era.”
The testing focused on validating the cabin’s climate-control system, component temperatures and the wider cooling architecture, using more than 200 thermocouples installed in the prototype to read data in real time. Daniel Ríos Hidalgo, Vehicle Development Engineer at BUGATTI Rimac, said the team needed to cool the cabin and engine bay without compromising the design, adding: “We need to make sure that these cars perform properly in all these varieties of conditions.” Vehicle Development Driver Paolo Magrone noted that cabin temperature strongly affects driver comfort and precision.
The Seville programme follows a year of extreme-condition testing for the Tourbillon, which was previously validated in temperatures as low as -30°C in Arjeplog, northern Sweden, and, with an earlier XP prototype, above 50°C in Dubai. Pairing a naturally aspirated V16 engine with three electric motors — two on the front axle and one supporting the V16 — and an 800V battery, the Tourbillon produces a combined 1,800 hp.
Bugatti said the Seville programme collected the required data and validated the targeted systems. The Tourbillon is not yet subject to EU Directive 1999/94/EC, as type approval has not been granted.
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