Bugatti Galibier is the Luxurious Four-Door Sedan You Probably Never Knew Existed

The Bugatti Galibier promised a four-door sedan with the ferocity of the Veyron and enough space to transport four passengers in absolute luxury. This concept, unveiled in 2009, marks a significant milestone for the firm, as it was exactly a century after Ettore Bugatti founded the company. People immediately took notice. This wasn’t just a curiosity; it was a serious attempt to break away from Bugatti’s typical line of two-seater hypercars.

The Galibier was built on a modified version of the Bentley Arnage chassis, but there was no evident original work that hadn’t come directly from Bugatti’s design and technical staff. The body was built of carbon fiber and aluminum, and it was finished with a deep two-tone paint job and plenty of polished chrome highlights. The front end featured Bugatti’s iconic horseshoe grille in all its huge chrome glory, as well as some incredibly detailed headlights with the EB emblem etched on them. A split windshield provided individuality, while the rear had eight exhaust outlets, neatly organized in a quad pair on each side. Then there were the active aerodynamics: rear flaps to keep it stable at high speeds, and some fairly nice twenty-two inch wheels with special Galibier logos on their tires to round it off. It looked great from every angle, combining the best aspects of fastback styling with practical four-door access in a way that felt… just perfect.



According to reports, design director Achim Anscheidt was heavily influenced by the classic Type 57 Atlantic coupe when developing the concept. You could see it in the way the lines just happened to echo that heritage, and that longitudinal rib running along the hood is a dead giveaway, but the design remained sleek until Bugatti took a second look and decided that, in fact, it needed to be a little longer and taller to be more practical. However, this changed the appearance of the back from a tidy liftgate to a normal ol’ trunk, which some people did not like.


Inside, the cabin was a riot of handcrafted luxury, with no needless extras in sight. Four individual chairs upholstered in soft leather in dark brown or tan. Brushed aluminum and polished wood trim the dashboard, doors, and console, with a splash of modest instruments on display to let everyone in the back know how fast you were going and whether you were using any of the 1,000 horsepower Bugatti promised. There was also a high-end Parmigiani Fleurier tourbillon watch perched on the dashboard, which served as both a dashboard clock and a personal timepiece, as well as a leather strap to attach it to your wrist if you wanted to wear it that way. There were only the typical physical controls and a small LCD screen on the side, as well as a pop-up infotainment display in the back that swung around from the center console as needed. Overall, there was a lot of attention to detail, even down to small details like lighted wood switches and faint Bugatti stitching.


Power came from a direct descendant of the Veyron’s 8.0-liter W16 engine, which resembled a V with a W tossed in for good measure. The four turbochargers were removed and replaced with twin cascade superchargers to provide additional torque at low speeds, which is exactly what a luxury vehicle need. It produced between 950 and 1,000 horsepower, all of which was channeled through an eight-speed automatic transmission and permanent all-wheel drive. Bugatti claimed it could go from 0 to 60 mph in around 3 seconds flat and peak out at nearly 235 mph. Furthermore, it ran on ordinary gasoline or bioethanol. There was even talk of a hybrid system to reduce emissions, but it never really took off.


As for what Bugatti intended to achieve with the Galibier, they obviously saw it as a natural evolution of the Veyron, as well as a potential replacement, with intentions to adhere to just one model line after making 450 Veyrons. The plan was to commence manufacturing in 2013 or 2014, with pricing far over a million pounds. But then people started voicing what they wanted, prompting Bugatti to rethink the second generation of the Galibier, particularly in terms of trunk space. Chinese buyers, after all, want a little extra room in the rear.
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