Bugatti V16 wins Powertrain of the Year

To think that Bruce Wood, Managing Director of Cosworth Powertrain, nearly didn’t answer the call of an unknown phone number belonging to Mate Rimac. We are very glad he did.

The brief from Mate was equally mind-blowing: a high capacity, high revving V16 capable of producing 1000hp. It is an engine configuration that hasn’t been mass produced in the automotive industry since the 1930s, with only a handful created as prototypes for niche vehicles in recent years.

It took Cosworth just 13 months to transform the first detailed designs into a V16 engine running on a dyno at Cosworth’s Northampton headquarters – a particularly impressive turnaround given the scale of the ambition in the project.  

The resulting product of this ambitious project is a 8.35-litre engine that can rev to 9000rpm. Cosworth elected for a cross-plane crank design with 90-degree bank angles and dry sump. Weighing just 252kg in total, steps were made to optimise weight throughout the engine, including titanium connecting rods and a carbon fibre inlet plenum. The overall length of the crankshaft is 900mm, made from a single billet, with a total engine length just shy of 1m – demonstrating the scale required to power this incredible car.

Car Magazine were equally impressed:

“Bugatti’s new post-VW era demanded a special engine. How about a V16?... Rimac knows better than most that hypercars are much more appealing when powered by an internal combustion engine rather than with electric motors… and he wanted the new Bugatti to feature what may yet prove to be the greatest engine of all time. A new V16 was quickly agreed, to replace the old quad-turbo W16.

Cosworth was the obvious choice as engine supplier. Recognised as the world's finest maker of high-performance engines, the Northampton company is also responsible for the most successful engine in Formula 1 history, the Ford Cosworth DFV. Recent celebrated projects have included the Aston Valkyrie's V12 and the completely different V12 for Gordon Murray Automotive, which revs to an astonishing 12,100rpm. Like those other units, the Bugatti is as much artistic sculpture as engine - an exquisite piece of engineering art.

The Bugatti engine is totally different [than the Valkyrie and GMA V12s]: bigger, more powerful and more complex. The V16 revs to 9000rpm and produces 1000hp. At maximum revs, the timing chain is moving at more than 100mph.The crankshaft is an astonishing 925mm in length. It starts as a solid billet of steel weighing 164kg. It's then machined down to 22.6kg to tolerances of 0.02mm, half the width of a human hair. The V16 noise is sublime… Bugatti needed something spectacular to follow the Veyron and Chiron. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is it."

Cosworth’s Managing Director of Powertrain, Bruce Wood commented: “It’s so pleasing to be recognised as a leading Powertrain producer in the industry, especially for such a complex engineering challenge. I think we all got goosebumps the first time we heard the roar of the Bugatti’s incredible V16 engine; it is a truly unique piece of machinery and a testament to all the experience, ingenuity and passion of the incredible team at Cosworth.”