The new Bugatti Veyron configurator allows owners to reconfigure, and then rebuild, their car

Bugatti

Time travel has served as a focal point for many popular books, TV shows and movies. But (so far) it hasn’t manifested as a real-world option for even the most wealthy and powerful individuals. Or maybe it has…and we just don’t know about it… Or maybe some of us do know about it… Anyway, Bugatti is now offering the closest thing to time travel for Bugatti Veyron owners looking to relive the new-car purchase process.

The hyper-luxury brand has created a new online vehicle configurator for its upcoming Tourbillon hyper car. This is a common resource for premium brands that want their customers to visualize all of their personalization options. What isn’t so common is creating a new configurator for a model that hasn’t been in production for over a decade. Such a resource would be especially challenging to create if the model in question offered a near infinite number of possibilities when all configuration variables are taken into account.

And what would be the point of creating such a resource for a car long out of production? Of course, the Bugatti Veyron isn’t a typical used car. And Bugatti could add an intriguing twist by offering not just a full-spectrum Veyron configurator, but the option of having existing Veyrons rebuilt to match an updated configuration. And that’s exactly what the company has done.

I recently experienced the new Bugatti Veyron configurator at my local dealer (Bugatti Newport Beach), where I created a Veyron wearing the exact colors, materials and features I’d want in a multi-million-dollar, 16-cylinder, 1,200-horsepower hyper car. You can see “my” Bugatti Veyron in the photos throughout this story. And, in theory, if I either currently owned a Veyron or if I buy one in the future (gonna need that time travel tech…), Bugatti would strip it down to its core elements and rebuild it accoring to my configurator spec seen in these images.

The variations available when configuring a Veyron can be intimidating. With over a dozen primary elements (exterior colors, wheels, interior colors, trim panels, seats, steering wheel, etc.) and a wide range of secondary elements (materials, finish, logo designs, exterior lighting, brake calipers, etc.) the possibilities are truly endless. It took more than 30 minutes for me to work my way through the configuration process, and I was moving quickly to ensure I didn’t waste the my concierge’s time (on a car that wasn’t actually going to be built).

As part of this process, I was offered a short drive in a real Bugatti Veyron along Pacific Coast Highway, between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. My seat time confirmed the Veryon still provides a uniquely distinctive experience, even in one of the most affluent communities on the planet. People stopped, stared, and stuttered as my Veyron, with a dark blue carbon fiber finish contrasted by silver accents, glided along city streets. Would my reconfigured Bugatti Veyron, seen here in Ruby Red with grey carbon accents, been an even bigger hit with the locals?

I think the automaker should rebbuild an existing Bugatti Veyron to my specifications, and then let me drive it around Laguna Beach, just to find out.