Bugatti 16 C Galibier: latest pics

Bugatti has released new pictures of its 16 C Galibier, a concept that heralds the introduction of a new high-performance saloon due to go on sale in 2013 with a price tag of around £900,000.

Officially the Galibier has been designed to gauge customer reaction to a four-door, four-seat Bugatti, but insiders are keen to make it once Veyron production ends in 2012.

"This is what the Bugatti team wants to do now we have to convince customers and the [VW] group to make it," company boss Franz-Josef Paefgen told Autocar at the car's launch last year.

See more Bugatti Galibier pictures

The company is staying tight-lipped about technical details. But technical boss Wolfgang Schreiber admitted that he wanted the production Galibier to be "the world’s fastest, highest accelerating and powerful four-door" and hinted that maximum power would end up at around 800bhp.

The Galibier is four-wheel drive and power comes from the same W16 engine as the Veyron, albeit with twin mechanical superchargers, rather than the four turbochargers of the mid-engined hypercar.

And unlike the Veyron, the Galibier is thought to have a conventional eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission, rather than a DSG system.

Bugatti’s sales director Alasdair Stewart previously told Autocar that the decision to put the Galibier into production would be taken in the spring after the concept car has toured the world to be put in front of prospective customers. It was most recently on display at the Geneva motor show.

If it does see the light of day, Stewart expects up to 300 to be made at the company’s Molsheim HQ.