Inside The Bugatti 16C Galibier: One-off Veyron-based 4-door Sedan That Never Made It To Production

The one-off Bugatti 16C Galibier remains the most famous four-door sedan from the French hypercar manufacturer, nearly 17 years after the futuristic concept was first shown to the general public at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show as a potential replacement for the Veyron.

Currently housed in the collection at the Autostadt visitor attraction in Wolfsburg, Germany, the Bugatti 16C Galibier is an ultra-luxury four-door concept first unveiled in 2009 at an invitation-only show held at the Molsheim, France assembly salon on September 12, 2009.

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Named after the Col du Galibier pass in the French Alps, the 16C Galibier name is a reference to the Type 57 Galibier—Bugatti’s factory-designed sports saloon produced between 1934 and 1940—while the “16C” refers to the engine’s 16 cylinders.

Inside, the four-seat cabin is wrapped in matching caramel-brown, top-grain leather. Centerpiece includes a hidden LCD displays, and an analog timepiece housed inside the dashboard designed to be removed and inserted into a wristwatch strap for the driver to wear.

The front-engined Galibier is powered by a modified version of the Veyron’s 8.0-liter W16 engine, putting out 986 horsepower and allowing a top speed that exceeds 235 mph. It uses two turbochargers rather than the four fitted to the 268-mph Veyron Super Sport for improved torque characteristics.

According to reports, the Bugatti Galibier project was cancelled in May 2012 because a “powerful and influential gentleman from Salzburg, Austria”—speculated by the press to be Ferdinand Piëch—did not like the design.

Bugatti initially planned to produce 3,000 production versions of the 16C Galibier concept, which was expected to be named the Royale and originally scheduled to reach the market in 2013, before pulling out of the project in favor of the Veyron’s successor, the Chiron.

Speaking with Top Gear in a 2014 interview, the then-President of Bugatti, Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, said that the marque ditched the decision to produce the Galibier or a SuperVeyron because it would confuse their customers.

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