The Bugatti EB 218
saloon is the second concept car presented by Bugatti under the ownership of the
Volkswagen Auto Group. The EB 218 was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who also designed the
EB 112, the car's predecessor and the
EB 118, the car's 2-door variant. The EB 218 can be considered as an update of the EB 112, a concept saloon introduced by
Bugatti Automobili SpA in 1993. The EB 218 features Volkswagen's unconventional
W18 engine and
permanent four-wheel drive
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
borrowed from the
Lamborghini Diablo VT.
Design
Bugatti commissioned
Giorgetto Giugiaro
Giorgetto Giugiaro (; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont.
Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted ...
of
Italdesign
Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. is a design and engineering company and brand based in Moncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best k ...
to update the
EB 112 concept that he designed for
Bugatti Automobili SpA in 1993. The EB218's wheelbase measures and it has a total length of . This makes the EB 218 longer that the EB 112 by . The most notable visual differences between the EB 218 and the EB 112 is a redesigned hood, bumpers and lights. The overall design is far less controversial than the EB 112's "Droopy
hatchback-saloon" design and has a much more of a typical saloon shape rather than the EB 112's
hatchback shape. The interior design is very simple yet extremely luxurious, with beige leather seats and a large wooden dashboard which manages to keep all the instruments and vents "composed". The EB 218 draws inspiration from the classic
Type 101 Guillore.
Debut
Bugatti introduced the EB 218 at the
1999 Geneva Motor Show,
one year after its
2-door counterpart was introduced at the 1998
Paris Auto Show
The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...
.
Powertrain
The EB 218 uses the same
W18 engine and permanent
four wheel drive
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer cas ...
powertrain that debuted in the 1998
EB 118. The same technology was used in the 1999
18/3 Chiron concept car.
Power comes from a
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
-designed, and ,
W18 engine. This engine design was extremely unconventional due to the unusual firing order of the engine. The EB 218 W18 engine is composed of three banks of six cylinders with a sixty degree offset between each cylinder bank. In contrast, the
W16 engine
A W16 engine is a sixteen-cylinder piston engine with four banks of four cylinders in a W configuration.
W16 engines are rarely produced, with the notable exception of the Volkswagen Group 8.0 WR16 engine, which has been used since 2005 in the ...
in Bugatti's (Under Volkswagen ownership) first production car, the 2005
Veyron EB 16.4 features four banks of four cylinders. The EB 218 has the permanent all-wheel drive taken from the
Lamborghini Diablo VT sports car.
References
External links
*
Motor1.com. Bugatti ID 90 And EB 112, EB 118, EB 218: Concept We Forgot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bugatti Eb218
All-wheel-drive vehicles
Retro-style automobiles
1990s cars
Bugatti concept vehicles