The Bugatti Veyron is a car made up of superlatives. More than one-thousand horsepower, a top speed in excess of two-hundred and fifty miles per hour, sixteen cylinders and four turbochargers, a million-dollar pricetag way before that was the norm — and those are just the standout figures. Then there’s all of the absurd little engineering miracles that made its performance possible, all of the small design details that made a big difference.
But one aspect of the Veyron that’s brought up more than maybe anything else is the maintenance requirements. When your supercar is this advanced, and has things like 10 radiators, it’s understandably a big undertaking for even a minor service. By far the most talked-about aspect are the tires. The Veyron launched with specialized Michelin PAX tires that helped the car achieve its 253-mph top speed, while also providing comfort and dailyability. Because the tires are so advanced and bespoke, though, they’re also extremely expensive. Like, more than $40,000 for a set expensive, even now, 20 years later.
So there’s a lot of Veyron owners out there who, despite being rich enough to afford the PAX tires because they own a multi-million-dollar supercar, don’t want to spend that much on tires and thus fit their Veyrons with Chiron wheels (that wear normal tires) or, even worse, ugly replicas or aftermarket wheels. I shudder every time I see a Veyron with bad wheels, which is far too often. Obviously, Bugatti doesn’t like that either, so in time for the car’s 20th anniversary the automaker has developed new OEM wheels for the Veyron that use regular tires instead of the PAX ones, as part of its program that lets owners respec their cars. Finally!
Spec it however you want, again
Full disclosure: Bugatti invited me to its house during Monterey Car Week so I could see a bunch of things it brought, including this Veyron, and a few months ago I got to do my own virtual recommission spec that you’ll hear about soon.
The new wheels were developed by Bugatti’s La Maison Pur Sang division that was started in 2020. In addition to certifying model authenticity and offering mechanical refreshes and restorations, this division will also completely rework your Veyron’s spec, whether you’re an original owner who wishes you went bolder 20 years ago, or you bought one used two months ago and had to settle for a color scheme you don’t like.
Bugatti has done a couple of Veyron respecs since La Maison Pur Sang launched, but the Veyron you see here is the first recommission that was created using Bugatti’s new customer configurator for the program. The automaker offers a lot more options beyond just changing the spec of the car, including a bunch of newly developed options that weren’t previously available. This particular car is called La Maison Pur Sang Veyron 20 Years, and it was presented to its owner in Monterey.
An upgrade 20 years in the making
OK, the wheels, I know you’re here to learn about the wheels! The design is identical to the original Veyron’s Machiavelli style, but the size has been increased to 20 inches up front and 21 inches in the rear. (Regular Veyron wheels are a strange size, so there’s not a direct comparison, but these new ones are about an inch bigger.) I’ve seen Veyrons with replica wheels that have been similarly scaled up, but they never look quite right in terms of offset or design. With these new OEM ones, though, if you didn’t already know, you’d think this is how the car looked from the factory 20 years ago.
The tires fitted are still Michelins, but they’re a Bugatti-specific Pilot Sport Cup 2, the same type of tire worn by the Chiron Super Sport and W16 Mistral. They’re the exact same size, too: 285/30ZR-20 up front, 355/25ZR-21 in the rear. Tire Rack doesn’t have the Cup 2s listed, but a set of Pilot Sport 4S rubber for a Mistral will currently run you about $3,600. That’s definitely a lot easier to swallow than $42,000. Another big issue with the PAX tires is that they require a special mounting machine, and only two dealerships in the U.S. have one. Not a problem with these regular ‘ol Michelins.
Daniel Golson/Jalopnik
Though Bugatti is only showing off these Machiavelli wheels right now, I’m sure it’s working on making new versions of all the other Veyron wheel designs — hopefully including the rare Hermès ones. Also present at Car Week was lead designer Frank Heyl’s personal Veyron, which is also fresh off a recommission. In addition to all sorts of cool details like corduroy upholstery and his own sketches drawn on the leather headliner, Heyl’s Veyron has a completely new wheel design (above) that’s similar to the ones on the Chiron Profilée prototype from a few years ago.
Make you do a double take
But what else is new on this Veyron? More than you might expect at first glance, actually. The paint scheme is Rouge Rembrandt, a color developed for the Tourbillon, paired with Petrol Blue, a shade from the Chiron. It’s quite the classy combination, especially with the brightwork and shiny wheels. Some new options you can spec (but that this owner didn’t) include a painted diffuser and more color tints for carbon-fiber pieces, and of course you can go really wild and come up with custom liveries and graphics, and really anything else your heart desires.
Daniel Golson/Jalopnik
Bugatti came up with a new three-dimensional mesh patten in the front grilles, side intakes and rear vents that looks similar to the motif used on the Tourbillon. Even the roof intakes use the new design. I was not expecting something like this at all, and I think the new mesh looks great, doing a nice job of slightly modernizing the car while looking as if it was how the car came from the factory all along. One of my favorite Veyron options is the chromed grille mesh, so I hope this new 3D design can be had in chrome too.
New features inside, too
On the inside, the owner went for full Magnolia cream leather, including on the dashboard — too many of these cars, and cars in general, have a light or colored interior but then a black or very dark dashboard. Windshield glare be damned, I want my interior to look good. The center console has a new Côte de Genève finish instead of the traditional engine-turned aluminum, and the stitching on the seats, steering wheel and shifter has a new Mocassin design. One option that will surely be popular is the ability to remove personalization that the original owner had done, such as their initials in headrest stitching or the engraved dedication plate in the frunk.
Daniel Golson/Jalopnik
Hopefully with these new OEM wheel offerings and Bugatti’s maintenance packages, more Veyron owners will be encouraged to really drive their cars. That’s what they were built for, after all. And it’ll be very cool to see more of these cars popping back up, refreshed with specs that never existed before or weren’t even possible before. The number of badly modified examples dwindling to extinction is an added bonus.
