Bugatti Chiron
2017 Bugatti Chiron shown
Rank In Hypercars
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Price:
$402,995 - $533,570
Official Photos and Info
2017 Bugatti Chiron: The $2.6-Million, 1500-hp, 261-mph Image Booster
Power baller.
With
the Bugatti Veyron’s
top-speed records, a price tag over $1 million, and distinctive
melted-scoop-of-ice-cream styling, it was an instant rolling superlative
when it debuted in 2005. Its successor,
the new Chiron,
is even more of a record- and headline-grabbing show pony. Is it
faster? A 310-mph (500 km/h) speedometer and Bugatti’s claim that it’ll
do 261 mph say it is.
Never mind that there are few places in the world where anyone could
achieve 261 mph, and even fewer owners who will ever attempt the feat,
what could hypercars such as
the Ferrari LaFerrari,
Porsche 918 Spyder, or
McLaren P1 offer in retort? That their top speeds are lower, they’re less comfortable, or, critically, that they’re—gulp—
cheaper? The Chiron’s game is to be so unattainable, so unimaginable, so magical as to reestablish Bugatti as the
ultimate automotive accouterment for those who measure their cash reserves not by face value but with a yardstick.
Make Bugatti Great Again
Bugatti says the 4400-pound Chiron is “the world’s first production
sports car with 1500 hp.” It’s best to simply shelve any expectations of
modesty on Bugatti’s part. After all, when
the car you’re replacing
produced 1200 horsepower, hit 258 mph, and cost more than $2 million,
adding an extra 300 horsepower, 3 mph of governed top speed, and half a
million to the window sticker matters. Oh, and just 500 will be made,
because nobody wants a mass-produced $2.6-million car.
Between Bugatti’s braggadocio and posturing, there are real improvements
to the Veyron’s formula. Does it matter that, if every strand of carbon
fiber in its new central tub were laid end to end, they’d “stretch nine
times the distance between the earth and the moon”? No, and we pity the
Bugatti employee charged with checking the arithmetic on that factoid.
But it is indicative of a real effort to reduce—or at least hold the
line on—the Chiron’s weight relative to that of the somewhat pudgy
Veyron. All of that carbon fiber—the body panels also are made of the
stuff—helps keep the Chiron right around the same weight as
the 4486-pound Veyron,
despite being 3.2 inches longer, 1.6 inches wider, and 0.3 inch taller.
Bugatti further claims that the Chiron’s structure is as stiff as those
underpinning LMP1 racing prototypes.
At the risk of sounding beguiled, the styling of the Chiron is notably
more fetching than that of the Veyron. The C-shaped curve carved into
each side of the body recalls Bugatti’s 1930s-era art-deco masterpieces,
the Type 57 Atlantic and Atalante, as does the spear running down the
car’s spine. The all-mesh tail appears to belong to a different car, but
the surfaces bending and flowing beyond it are nearly beautiful. Up
front, Bugatti’s horseshoe-shaped grille remains—stamped with a badge
rendered from five ounces of silver—and is flanked by quad-LED
headlights. Moving aerodynamic elements range from a hydraulically
operated diffuser, front splitters, and a four-position rear
spoiler/wing that can sit flush with the rear bodywork, extend slightly
(the setting for top-speed runs), fully extend, or fully extend and tilt
in its air-brake setting. The underbody is totally smooth save for NACA
ducts that gulp air for cooling the engine, the transaxle, and the rear
brakes.
What’s an Extra 3 mph?
When chasing top-speed honors, horsepower matters. Even so, there are
diminishing returns in the fight against the atmosphere at higher
speeds. The Chiron’s redesigned 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged W-16 engine
produces 1500 horsepower, 300 more than
the outgoing Veyron Super Sport—and yet it tacks only another 3 mph onto that car’s top speed, and only eight more atop
the 1001-hp Veyron 16.4’s
253-mph max. Bugatti has tuned the Chiron’s four turbochargers to work
sequentially, with two operating at low engine speeds for better
response before the other two take over above roughly 3800 rpm for
maximum power. Down the line, there no doubt will be additional
variations on the Chiron theme that add precious miles per hour to the
top speed.
Exhaust is routed from the turbos to a new titanium exhaust that Bugatti
claims weighs 44 pounds, which is “extremely light compared with
similar [16-cylinder] units.” Perhaps the automaker is referring to the
chrome stacks on semi trucks, because it also proudly describes two of
the catalytic converters as being “six times as large as [those] fitted
to a medium-sized car” and boasts that the total exhaust-scrubbing area
of all six catalytic converters is greater than that of 30 soccer
fields. This should give you some idea of the level of emissions
produced by an 8.0-liter 16-cylinder engine.
As in the Veyron, torque is routed to all four wheels via a seven-speed
dual-clutch automatic transmission. Bugatti claims the clutches are the
“largest, highest-performing” such components ever fitted to a car.
They’d better be if they’re going to stand up to the 8.0-liter’s 1180
lb-ft of torque during sub-2.5-second rips to 62 mph. Also like the
Veyron, the Chiron is a rolling heat-exchanger farm, with more than 13
gallons of coolant circulating through two separate cooling loops. The
first loop holds 3.2 gallons of liquid and cools the turbochargers’
intercoolers; the larger loop services the engine and pumps 9.8 gallons
of coolant through its veins into three radiators. There also are heat
exchangers for the engine, transmission, rear-differential, and
hydraulic oils, as well as those needed for cabin heat and air
conditioning.
Bugatti has expanded the number of drive modes to five. There is a
standard “EB” automatic mode, as well as Lift (for speed bumps and
driveway entrances), Autobahn, Handling, and Top Speed. Moving among the
settings alters the dampers, the ride-height actuators, the
electrically assisted power-steering calibration, the electronically
controlled rear differential, the active aerodynamics, and the stability
control. The driver can select Lift, EB, Autobahn, and Handling modes
using a dial on the steering wheel, but, as on the Veyron, Top Speed
requires a separate “Speed Key” and unlocks the Chiron’s Vmax potential.
The other drive modes limit top speed to 236 mph (Lift mode cancels out
at 31 mph), still more than enough to get valet attendants in trouble.
Anything past 112 mph automatically activates Autobahn mode, while in
the Handling setting, the Chiron lowers itself, raises its rear wing to
its highest position, and stiffens the dampers.
Bugatti claims the Chiron can pull 1.50 g’s in lateral acceleration;
this probably has more to do with the car’s massive 20-inch 285/30 front
and 21-inch 355/25 rear bespoke Michelin tires than outstanding chassis
tuning or light weight. Those tires, by the way, also are said to boast
a larger contact patch than the Veyron’s and will apparently be “easier
to install and allow lower operating expenses.” Considering how the
Veyron Super Sport’s tires cost $42,000 per set and required the
replacement of all four wheels after three tire swaps ($69K), the change
is welcome. Because the rear air brake alone won’t quickly shave big
speed, the Chiron uses carbon-ceramic brake rotors that are all 0.8-inch
larger in diameter and 0.1-inch thicker; the front rotors are 16.5
inches across and the rears are 15.7. The front brake calipers employ
eight pistons, while the rears have six.
Inside Thoughts
The Chiron’s interior has been completely redesigned and seems to have
been given nearly as much thought as figuring out how to make a
4400-pound chunk of carbon fiber and metal hurtle through the atmosphere
at more than 200 mph. The aesthetic is spare yet clearly upscale. A
glowing rib echoing the external “spine” sweeps down the middle of the
cabin and is said to be “the longest light conductor used in the
automobile industry.” A waterfall of simple aluminum dials for the
climate system pours down a gleaming aluminum strip supported by
carbon-fiber ribbing, while infotainment and navigation duties are
handled by a pair of screens flanking the analog speedometer. The entire
gauge pod, in fact, is an incredible piece of sculpture that is milled
from billet aluminum.
Whatever isn’t slathered in leather or hewn from aluminum is covered in
carbon fiber. The audio system is provided by Accuton, and it can be
tuned to account for any of the 31 different leather choices and eight
microsuede options for the interior. (Have you ever
heard the
reverb produced by soft Corinthian leather? Ask Ricardo Montalban.) And
whether or not Bugatti is lobbing a pun when it says that the one-carat
diamond membrane in each of the four tweeters deliver “crystal-clear
sound,” we’re pretty sure the point is that there are diamonds in the
speakers. For Chiron customers with Louis Vuitton–brand tinfoil hats,
Bugatti says the car has “an extremely high level of electromagnetic
compatibility” borne out by tests of an unspecified military standard.
Awestruck yet? There’s little doubt that the Chiron trumps even the
mighty Veyron in the jaw-slackening department. The Chiron is
undoubtedly an engineering triumph and the pinnacle of immoderation; the
masses should be properly enthralled. Most critically, so should those
with the considerable means to purchase one.
