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In these days of automakers wringing seemingly effortless power and performance out of vehicular powerplants of all shapes and sizes, from internal combustion to full-electric and everything in between, it takes something truly special to really raise the bar. The Bugatti Chiron is that kind of special.
This is a car with a spec sheet full of world-conquering numbers: nearly 1,500 horsepower, 1,180 pound-feet of torque, top speed somewhere north of 261 miles per hour and a cost of $3 million to name just a few. But, as I would learn after a morning spent behind the wheel, the Bugatti Chiron's numbers don't tell even half the story.
The Bugatti Chiron is a cerulean stunner See full gallery
Surpassing a monster
The Bugatti Veyron, predecessor to the Chiron, was introduced as a concept in 1999 to immediate global acclaim -- and no shortage of skepticism. Disbelief was a common response to the company's claims that it could produce a car with 1,000 horsepower and a top speed in excess of 250 mph.
But that's exactly what it did, with top brass at parent company Volkswagen saying quite candidly that the car was not being sold to raise profits, but to simply push the boundaries of what was considered possible. That it did and, through numerous iterations and special editions over the years, it continued to be the de facto sledgehammer in a world of ever sharper automotive scalpels.
Beneath here lie nearly 1,500 horses.
Andrew Hoyle/CNETBut now the Veyron is gone and its successor is here, and while the Chiron hasn't fallen too far from the family tree, it's more than just an upgrade. But there is more of everything, starting of course with more horsepower. The Veyron got by with a whopping 1,000 hp, while the Chiron raises the bar to a nice, round 1,500 -- if you count in European, metric horses. The equivalent American figure is a somewhat more clunky but no less impressive 1,479 hp.
This pushes the top speed up to something beyond 261 mph. By default, the car will only go a paltry 236 mph, but slot a special key into the floor and the car hunkers down into top-speed mode, now willing to take you on up to the full 261 before cutting the power in the interest of keeping the tires from flinging themselves into countless tiny pieces. The real top speed of the Chiron has not yet been determined, but the Bugatti engineers and test drivers I spoke with are confident that it will absolutely shatter the 268 mph record set by the Veyron Super Sport.
That power comes from a heavily revised version of the W16 motor found in the Veyron. The 8.0-liter unit now has four turbos that are 69 percent bigger and, thanks to an active exhaust manifold with a flap that opens at 3,700 rpm, the Chiron can duct all its exhaust to just two of those turbos at low speeds to ensure optimal low-speed responsiveness. Once things really get going, though, the valve opens and all four turbos are spun at full song. The result? A whopping 26.8 psi of boost.
To deal with the extra power and speed the car has the requisite bigger brakes, carbon ceramics of course caressed by calipers about the size of an NFL-regulation football. Pistons made of titanium do the squeezing, while complex, ducted heat shields help dissipate the massive heat they generate.
Massive brakes work with impressive finesse.
Andrew Hoyle/CNETThe active rear wing is far larger, running nearly the entire width of the car and swinging through a series of positions, from -10 degrees when fully retracted to 49 degrees when standing at attention in the air brake position. For a top speed run, it sets itself at just 3 degrees.
So, yes, the Chiron is more of everything, and that trend doesn't stop with the cost. The car is priced at 2.4 million euros in its home market, but here in the US we'll be looking to spend a rather more dear $2,998,000.
From purposeful to stunning
