Autoblog

Speculation over a potential second model from Bugatti has been a colossal roller-coaster. There were rumors of a super-luxury sedan, an entry-level roadster and a targa variant of the existing Veyron.

The Veyron was a pet project of former VW Group CEO Ferdinand Piech, who remains chairman of the VW supervisory board and is said to be keen on moving ahead with a follow-up to the Veyron. When Martin Winterkorn took over, however, he was reported to have shelved any plans for an additional model, prompting Bugatti CEO Thomas Bscher to resign. Bugatti then shifted to the control of Bentley CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen, who, after shoehorning the Veyron's engine into a Bentley Arnage luxury sedan, revealed last September that there would be an additional Bugatti coming.

Reports are now surfacing which indicate that the new model could be an even more expensive, even faster supercar than the Veyron. Whereas the Veyron, for all its enormous, time-bending power and speed, was designed as a comfortable grant tourer, the new model would be a tighter, more track-focused supercar. Power would likely come from a retuned version of the Veyron's 8-liter quad-turbo W16, which was long reported to be under-rated in its power production of 1000 hp, and is tipped to produce 1175 hp in the new version. Artistic renderings from German magazine Auto Motor und Sport depict the car with styling more akin to a Le Mans racer, with a protruding front splitter and an enormous rear wing.

The vehicle, currently rumored to be code-named "Project Lydia" after Ettore Bugatti's wife, would exceed the 400km/h top speed of the Veyron in pursuit of a Nurburgring lap time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. While these reports could very well turn out to be no more substantial than previous ones, if Bugatti did built Project Lydia in a reported run of 70 examples for a whopping Є2.5 million apiece, it would easily eclipse anything else out there.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport via Motor Authority]

Click on the image above to view 17 high-resolution images

Spyker was focusing our attention on the C12 Zagato, its new super-exclusive supercar which took center stage. But sitting inconspicuously at the back of the booth was the D12 Peking-to-Paris "Super Sport Utility Vehicle" (SSUV). Most people passed it by, as it was all but completely indiscernible from the show car Spyker unveiled here a year ago. But the D12 was no concept, this was the pre-production version.

A Spyker corporate spokesman confirmed that they didn't highlight the pre-production D12 on their stand or during their press conference because they didn't want to detract from the C12 super-exotic, but said they'd be making a bigger deal of the SSUV at the New York show next month.

Aside from the different color scheme – last year's concept was black with tan interior, whereas this year's version was a dark grey over Dutch orange – the pre-production D12 Peking-to-Paris is 99-percent the same as the concept, according to Spyker. The main difference was what we couldn't see, as this version sat on Spyker's own aluminum frame instead of the "borrowed" underpinnings on which the concept sat.

Related posts:

• Dutch Treat: Spyker to unveil production SUV and concept four-door at Geneva
• Geneva Motor Show: world premiere Spyker D12 Peking-to-Paris

Click below for our full gallery of the pre-production D12 Peking-to-Paris SSUV, along with some other Dutch treats from the Spyker stand.