Bugatti's Interested In Bringing A 'Real Manual' 16-Cylinder Hypercar To Life

If there was ever a household name when it comes to hypercars, it's Bugatti. The company practically invented the luxury hypercar with the Veyron, and it's been firing on all cylinders ever since. Cars like Chiron, Divo, and Bolide barely resemble cars as we know them; instead, they're more like futuristic concept cars the designers penned in a wild fever dream. They're extraordinarily powerful, unique, bold, and on the bleeding edge of car technology. Those words aren't typically ones we use to describe a manual transmission.

Historically, manuals were generally known as "standard" transmissions because, frankly, they were standard. Cheap beater cars from the old days had three-speed up to five-speed manuals as standard, with the convenience of an automatic generally being several thousand bucks extra. That "convenience" is typically what one associates with luxury. You're hard-pressed to find any luxury car with a manual, period, much less a modern one. Oddly, though, Bugatti might change that, at least according to a quote made by CEO Mate Rimac.

Speaking to Road & Track at Monterey Car Week, Rimac — no, not the company behind the latest record-breaking Nevera R EV, the person — suggested that a manual V16 Bugatti might be something the company's looking into. "Imagine [a] V16 with a manual. A real manual," he said. An evocative image, if there ever was one. Just a V16 alone is enough to stir one's pot, much less one with three pedals. Granted, this is obviously speculative, but is it even feasible? Let's take a look.

Bugatti, much like other hyper-luxury brands such as Rolex or Bulgari, has built its reputation on making aspirational products — cars, in Bugatti's case. Cars literally built for royalty, in some cases, like the massive Bugatti Type 41 Royale, once considered the most luxurious and extravagant car in the world and putting contemporary Duesenbergs to shame.

Fast forward about 80 years and you have the Veyron, displacing 1,000 hp before almost anyone else, thanks to the W16 it shared with many later models. Everything between then and now, from the outlandish Type 57 SC Atlantic to the Lamborghini-rivaling EB110, established Bugatti as a wildcard of a company, creating truly insane and stunning cars, in limited quantities, for exclusive clientele with specific taste.

Today is the age of the hypercar, which Bugatti certainly capitalized on, as any enthusiast knows. But with the increasing digitization and automation of cars today, some enthusiasts may yearn for a purer, more visceral driving experience. Enter the resurgence of the manual transmission. Okay, it's not exactly standard equipment on cheap modern cars anymore, but it's absolutely relevant among enthusiasts of means. Take, for example, Ferrari's 12Cilindri Manuale, which offered a simulated manual for its DCT, complete with a gated shifter. Granted, it's unlikely that Bugatti would name its creation "16Cylindres Manuelle," but if Rimac is to be taken at his word, then a competitor in the manual hypercar market may indeed be on the cards.

Of course, the obvious question is what on Earth this thing would even look like, and truthfully, no one outside CEO Mate Rimac knows for sure. It's likely just an idea at the design stage, if that, but it certainly raises a few interesting points.

Firstly, Rimac specified that he desired a V16 with a "real manual" transmission. That's likely a jab at the automated clutch-by-wire DCT that Ferrari put in the 12Cilindri Manuale, a controversial transmission to say the least, and certainly one of the most complicated transmissions ever built. Mate's wording suggests that Bugatti would build an actual manual, with a human-operated clutch and everything.

The second part of this discussion is, naturally, the V16 elephant in the room. Now, Bugatti has already announced the V16-powered Tourbillon hypercar, which will come with a traditional eight-speed automatic. It's therefore possible that the company either plans to fit a limited quantity, if not a one-off, with a manual transmission like the 12Cilindri Manuale, or it'll borrow the V16 powerplant and build an entirely new, more driver-focused vehicle around that. Either way, Bugatti has never failed to disappoint, so we're excited to see what they're cooking up next.