Mystery Bugatti With ‘X-Wing’ Rear Lights Spotted Testing In France

We spy, with our little eyes, something quite new and absolutely bonkers from Bugatti. This mysterious and absolutely 100 per cent track-focused wedge covered in camouflage looks to be marking a significant shift in attitude by the French brand.

Known until recently for its hyper-luxurious marvels of high-speed engineering, Bugatti has steered clear of going down the ten-a-penny track car route. Its prior gentlemanly ways seem to be taking a turn for the angrier, though, with this outrageous new design that is clearly built for circuit speed.

The one-volume shape, though stuffed with vents and aero, looks tightly wound around a fairly large body. We’d guess that the famous mid-mounted W16 remains; Bugatti’s financial issues aren’t going to be solved by coming up with a totally new engine, and we can’t imagine the brand cheapening itself with an Audi hand-me-down.

In the limited amount of testing footage available right now courtesy of the G-E SUPERCARS YouTube channel, we can’t hear the engine super-clearly but it does hint at a monstrous amount of cubic centimetres. Perhaps the most intriguing thing of all, though, is the totally nuts layout of the rear lights.

This ‘X-Wing’ layout looks stunning, drawing even more attention to a skeletal body frame at the back, and to the F1-inspired red light in the centre. Whether that has a specific function on this new Bugatti remains to be seen. Could we be looking at a hybrid, with active energy recuperation systems?

There was no extended or high-speed running at the southern French circuit, but whatever it is we can safely assume it’s rapid. We didn’t see it coming, but we’re sure as hell going to be keeping tabs on future reveals.