For twenty years, Veyron owners paid tribute to one of the most absurd running costs in the car world — roughly $42,000 for a single set of Michelin PAX tires. Bugatti has finally put an end to it. New Machiavelli wheels, 20 inches up front and 21 inches at the rear, let the hypercar run modern tires in Chiron sizing. Bugatti confirmed the update itself as part of the La Maison Pur Sang Veyron 20 Years project.
The problem went back to the very beginning. The original Veyron relied on the unusual Michelin PAX system, engineered in part around the car's extreme top speed. It demanded special tires, special wheels and special mounting equipment — and the historical cost of a full set ran to around $42,000. Tire service turned into one of the most talked-about expenses among Veyron owners. It's far from the only surprise buried in this car's upkeep, either: one owner recently showed how a Veyron service bill quoted at $25,000 was trimmed down to about $1,600.
The new factory wheels keep the original Machiavelli pattern but move to 285/30 ZR20 up front and 355/25 ZR21 at the rear. The car Bugatti showed off wears bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires — the same rubber fitted to the Chiron Super Sport and the W16 Mistral.
There's an important caveat to the punchy “$3,600 instead of $42,000” comparison, though. Tire Rack does sell a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires in those exact sizes for $3,595.96 — nearly 11.7 times less than the old PAX estimate. But the Pilot Sport 4S isn't the same as the Bugatti-specific Cup 2 tires actually fitted to the new Veyron, so $3,595.96 shouldn't be treated as the official price of the new factory rubber. Bugatti hasn't disclosed pricing for the new wheels themselves either.
The solution debuted on the Veyron 20 Years during Monterey Car Week. For owners of older Veyrons, this update matters more than any new paint or interior trim: for the first time, the factory offers a way to keep the car's original look while escaping the rare and costly PAX ecosystem. The missing number that's still to come: what the new wheel-and-tire package will actually cost.
