The new Bugatti Tourbillon was caught buried in snow during secret winter testing in Croatia

A Bugatti Tourbillon prototype half-buried in snow isn’t something you expect to see while casually scrolling through car-spotting photos.

However, that’s exactly what happened during what appears to be secret winter testing in Croatia.

Instead of carving up alpine roads, the multi-million dollar hypercar looked more like it had lost a snowball fight.

For a machine built to redefine speed and luxury, it was a surprisingly humble sight.

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The Bugatti Tourbillon is the successor to the Chiron

Bugatti officially unveiled the Tourbillon in the summer of 2024.

It features a naturally aspirated 8.3-liter V16 engine paired with three electric motors and a 25 kWh battery pack.

The setup produces a staggering 1,775 horsepower and offers an electric-only range of more than 37 miles.

Remarkably, despite the added hybrid hardware, Bugatti said the Tourbillon weighs less than the outgoing Chiron.

While the most of the automotive world can’t wait, customer deliveries won’t begin until 2026.

That gap gives the company plenty of time to put prototypes through brutal real-world testing, from scorching heat to freezing cold.

Unfortunately for one test car, the cold may have won this round.

Images shared by Car Spotting Croatia show a black Bugatti Tourbillon prototype, reportedly labeled ‘VP1’, sitting off the side of a snowy road surrounded by slush and compacted snow.

In one photo, someone can be seen attacking the snow with a shovel, suggesting the hypercar wasn’t going anywhere under its own power.

Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac also shared a video showing one of the prototypes being tested.

Cars often get stuck during winter testing

A second image appears to show the same prototype in the same location, buried nearly halfway up its wheels.

There’s even a dusting of snow across the entire body, hinting that the car may have been parked overnight and subsequently buried by snowfall or a passing plow.

Whether it slid off the road or was simply left in the wrong place at the wrong time remains unclear.

That said, it’s far from unheard of in the world of automotive development.

Prototypes regularly meet icy fates during winter testing, including luxury SUVs and performance cars that wander a little too far off track.

In fact, it’s better for prototypes to face problems during testing, rather than in the real world, like when winter conditions exposed a major design flaw in Tesla Cybertrucks.

Bugatti Tourbillon: A brief timeline

June 2024: Bugatti unveiled the Tourbillon as the successor to the highly popular Chiron, marking a new era for the brand

Mid to late 2024: Prototype development began behind closed doors in Bugatti’s new cutting edge production facility

2025: Bugatti ramped up real-world testing across multiple environments, including winter testing in Croatia

2026: The first Tourbillons are scheduled to be delivered to customers, with prices starting at €3.8 million ($4.46 million)

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