Bugatti unleashes four-door Veyron

Royale shares coupé’s vast W16 engine, whilst mixing huge pace with more space and luxury

It's the Veyron for all the family! This is our best look yet at the stunning Bugatti Royale – a four-door four-seater that’s set to take the famous firm into a new market.

With the £900,000, 253mph Veyron 16.4 already crowned the world’s most expensive and fastest supercar, Bugatti is seeking to go a step further: it will celebrate its 100th anniversary by unveiling this hyper-saloon at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

Inspired by the legendary 1927 Type 41 Royale, the new model would be as expensive as its brother and be available in a very limited production run for the company’s most loyal customers. As you can see, the exterior echoes the Veyron’s, while inside the cabin will offer unparalleled luxury, with the finest leather, suede and metal trim in addition to seating for four people and a luggage compartment at the rear.

Bugatti won’t be embarking on the project alone, though. It’s rumoured that the firm will team up with fellow VW Group luxury manufacturer Bentley in developing a new front-engined limousine platform. As well as underpinning the Royale, the chassis would be used on the next Arnage. However, the new Bugatti will keep much of the technology seen on the Veyron, such as its four-wheel-drive set-up and 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 engine, although this will be mounted at the front.

With the same 987bhp and 1,250Nm of torque, the Royale should cover 0-60mph in three seconds and hit a 250mph top speed, making it the fastest four-seater in the world. It will also feature the same seven-speed twin-clutch transmission – developed by UK firm Ricardo – along with that Haldex clutch-equipped all-wheel drive. There will be active aerodynamics, a Veyron-style hydraulic rear wing that rises at speed, huge carbon composite brake discs and adaptive dampers, too.

The current economic downturn means the Royale is still some way off. But with McLaren Automotive boss Ron Dennis predicting a return to growth in 2011, just in time for the launch of his company’s P11 supercar (see Issue 1,060), expect the four-door to go on sale in three years’ time.

In further celebration of its 100th birthday, Bugattiis also planning to launch a 1,350bhp ‘super’ Veyron later this year, along with additional special editions.

GM prepares to announce Pontiac closure next week

General Motors is preparing to announce early next week that the Pontiac brand will be eliminated, said a source familiar with the company's plans.

The announcement will be made as part of an updated viability report to the U.S. auto task force, the source said. A second source indicated earlier this week that GM, surviving with $15.4 billion in U.S. bailout funds, was considering phasing out Pontiac instead of sticking with a plan to have it continue as a niche brand.

In its proposal to the U.S. Treasury on Feb. 17, GM said Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC would be its four core U.S. brands. On March 31, the task force told GM that its restructuring plan wasn't aggressive enough and denied a request for $16.6 billion in additional aid.

Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson declined to comment on Pontiac's future.

"I can't speculate what next week is going to hold," he said. "When we were asked to go back and look at the viability plan, everything went back on the table. We're reviewing everything. Nothing is sacred. We're still under the original viability plan until told otherwise."

The U.S. today granted $2 billion to keep GM operating while it prepares for a new, June 1 restructuring deadline. GM has been staying afloat with $13.4 billion in U.S. loans granted in December by President George W. Bush.

Bloomberg News said GM is expected to tell the government that it will stick with plans to keep GMC, Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac.

Saab, Hummer and Saturn are for sale.

Muscle-car icon

Pontiac, which launched the 1960s U.S. muscle-car era with the GTO, sold 267,348 vehicles in the United States last year, less than a third of its 1978 peak of 896,980. This year's volume dropped 43.5 percent through March as industrywide demand fell 38.4 percent.

"Pontiac is one of my favorites -- I especially like the G8," said John Pitre, general manager of Motor City Auto Center in Bakersfield, Calif., which sells Buick-Pontiac-GMC and Saturn. "I would be sad to see it phased out. However, if some of those products became part of the Buick brand, I could understand GM's logic."

Chris Haydocy, who owns a Buick-Pontiac-GMC store in Columbus, Ohio, said Pontiac isn't essential as long as the revamped sales channel provides most of what customers are looking for.

Said Haydocy: "I think you need 10 or 12 models to do that."

Killing Pontiac would make sense, said George Peterson, president of marketing and product consulting firm AutoPacific Inc.

"It's sort of a shadow of itself," he said. "All of the Pontiacs, except for the G8, are copies of Chevrolets or GMCs, so there really isn't any reason to keep Pontiac around.''

GM introduced Pontiac in 1926. GM decided to kill Oldsmobile in 2000, three years after its 100th anniversary.

Tokyo go, go for storming Lexus supercar

V10-engined LFA will be star of Japanese expo.

It's the news every supercar fan was desperate to hear: the Lexus LFA is going into production! Although Honda has canned plans for a new NSX, the wrap,s will be taken off the LFA at October’s Tokyo Motor Show.

The two-seater flagship will feature a 600bhp V10, giving 0-60mph in less than four seconds and a 200mph-plus top speed. Expect a light carbon fibre body with a pop-up wing, rear-wheel drive and an F1-style paddleshift box.

A replacement for the Celica will also be revealed at Tokyo. This rear-driven coupé is the result of a joint project by Toyota and Subaru, and features an Impreza platform and drivetrain. But the show could be short on launches from other makers. Ford, GM, Chrysler, Mercedes, Renault, Volkswagen and Lamborghini have all pulled out of the expo, blaming the economic downturn. This follows news that the British Motor Show has been cancelled for similar reasons.