bugatti chiron

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Bugatti has already designed and shown an SUV, awaits green light

Bugatti appears to be backing itself right into the quilted leather seats of a crossover the brand swore would never happen. In January, CEO Stephan Winkelmann announced to the world, “There will be no SUV from Bugatti.” By April, reports said Bugatti was working on a “crossover-influenced sports car,” which is gobbledygook meant to avoid calling an SUV an SUV. Winkelmann also admitted then that as far as what kind of vehicle to build as a second Bugatti, “It’s not me to decide.” At the beginning of this month, Automobile magazine’s intel claimed Bugatti was considering an all-electric SUV using a Rimac platform, limited to around 600 units per year and selling for between $850,000 and $1 million. Closing the circle, when Automobile‘s man recently sat down with Winkelmann, the CEO said this in response to a question about a “three-door, ultra-premium crossover SUV:” “The design is done. Some potential customers have seen it, and they liked it.”

The Italo-German head honcho then seemed to back Automobile‘s previous reportage, saying that a potential crossover “would almost certainly be battery-powered,” and that he envisioned sales volumes between 600 and 800 per year. When “one or two influential people” from the Volkswagen Group mother ship stopped by to check out the design, they “were complimentary about it.” Since overlords haven’t signed off on any such vehicle, “there is no budget and no decision.” But this is like when a dog owner puts on his jacket, shorts, and gym shoes, grabs the leash, then tortures the dog with the pretense that they aren’t going for a walk. So don’t be surprised if [when] Bugatti reveals a crossover.

One truly surprising quote from the boss was when he said, “So far, nobody is doing a high-performance, high-end luxury CUV. Because of the battery situation, it’s too early for an electric hypercar.” To the former claim, that’s a wheelbarrow full of dirt thrown on the Bentley Bentayga Speed, as well as the Lamborghini Urus that Winkelmann shepherded to production. As for the latter, Rimac and Pininfarina would likely, respectfully, disagree.

Another potential walk-back is an open-topped version of the Chiron. When Motor Trend asked Winkelmann last December if the carmaker planned a Chiron Grand Sport, the exec replied, “We decided in the Chiron project not to do an open-top version.” And now? Seems so many owners have pestered the boss about a Grand Sport version that it is at least a possibility, but one that — strangely — requires some re-engineering. We find it odd that a Chiron Grand Sport wasn’t in the plan from day dot. However, “if the roof must come off,” Winkelmann said, “this can only be done properly with a reengineered and much stiffer monocoque. So let’s wait and see.”

As if that weren’t enough, remember the top-speed run that wasn’t a priority? Well, it’s “still a possibility.” Check out the Automobile piece for more on where — and how fast — the ultra-luxury brand might go with its current car and any addition to the lineup.

August 12, 2019 / Comments Off

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Bugatti Should Build This Open-Top Chiron

A Rendering Well Crafted

Bugatti has made some of the most amazing cars of all time recently. From the Veyron to the Divo to the Chiron to the amazing one-off that is the La Voiture Noire. One thing that is missing from its lineup is an open top Chiron. The Instagram profile called Car News Network recently showed off a rendering of just that. Bugatti should make it.

The car in the photo shared by Car News Network was accompanied by a simple “What if?” caption along with the name for the car Chiron Gand Sport. What if, indeed. Honestly, it doesn’t seem all that far fetched. Bugatti could sell these things quite easily, but it’s unclear what cutting the roof off your Bugatti would actually do to the car. There would have to add in additional support to keep the structural integrity of the car. That would likely add a lot of weight.

Still, the rendering shared by the Car News Network is almost exactly what we’d like to see. As Carscoops points out, there isn’t actually much changed, or doesn’t appear to be. It’s just a roofless Chiron. It’s absolutely gorgeous. A Chiron Grand Sport could go for millions of dollars. It wouldn’t rival the high price of the La Voiture Noire, but it would be a pricey machine non-the-less. Bugatti should make this happen.

May 2, 2019 / Comments Off

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Bugatti said to bring an $18M one-off to Geneva

Bugatti already has the limited-edition Chiron Sport “110 Ans Bugatti” on the Geneva Motor Show playlist. The matte-blue coupe celebrates 110 years since Ettore Bugatti’s first car, the Type 10. According to several rumors, Bugatti could have something else just as noteworthy alongside. The Supercar Blog reported that the French carmaker will show a one-off model reported to cost 16 million euros, about $18 million at current exchange rates. The buyer has already been chosen, that being one Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and ex-chairman of the Volkswagen Group.

The rumor couldn’t be ignored once Kris Singh — managing director of a U.S. investment firm, Lamborghini Veneno owner, and supercar collector — made a post on Instagram the same day as the Supercar Blog post. Next to an image of the 110 Ans Bugatti, Singh wrote, “it will be fun to see this alongside the Divo and the top secret 16 million euro Bugatti one-off that was made exclusively for Dr. Piech.”

As chairman of the VW Group, Piëch fathered the Veyron when he demanded his engineers turn the 2001 Geneva Motor Show concept into a proper production car. After a roaring 14 years, Piëch’s tenure ended with a whimper when he was ousted in 2015 in an internal battle with Group CEO Martin Winterkorn. A few months after Piëch hit the bricks, dieselgate broke. Last year, U.S. prosecutors charged Winterkorn — who remains in Germany — with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States in connection with the emissions scandal. Piëch, on the other hand, had different pursuers: Volkswagen said in 2017 it might go after the family scion for reportedly leaking about potential cheating on the emissions tests six months before the situation went public. The same year, Piëch sold his 14.7 percent stake in the the VW Group’s holding company, netting him a billion.

So what could the now-81-year-old ex-Caesar be doing with Bugatti now? The easy money is on some kind of Chiron-based coupe, but for a reputed $18 million, this would need to be a massive departure from the Chiron. Assuming the price is accurate, this would outdo the most expensive new car yet, the Rolls-Royce Sweptail of 2017, said to cost $13 million. The English custom kept “30 to 40 designers, engineers, craftspeople, and testers” busy for four years. With that kind of timeline, It’s possible Piëch started this project before he left the company, told Bugatti to keep working on it as he was walking out the door, and said to send him a bill.

No matter that, what if this is something more wild than a rebodied Chiron — like, say, a do-over of the 2009 Galibier sedan concept? The silver-sided bullet looked incredible, but it was said Piëch didn’t like the design compromises involved in stuffing the Veyron’s 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 under a hood out front. Last August, a Bugatti customer posted a picture on Twitter of a stretched Bugatti under a tarp, on a loading ramp behind the Bugatti design center in Wolfsburg. It had a Chiron-like nose, but room for more than just two doors between the wheels, and a much longer rear overhang.

Curiouser and curiouser is all we can say for now. But this might be the most interesting Geneva tease so far.

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February 12, 2019 / Comments Off

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New Bugatti Chiron Sport “110 ans Bugatti” Celebrates 110th Anniversary

Bugatti have released a special edition version of the Bugatti Chiron named the Bugatti Chiron Sport “110 ans Bugatti”. Commemorating the company’s 110th anniversary, the special edition also pays tribute to the country where Bugatti was born, France.

The Bugatti Chiron Sport “110 ans Bugatti” is a special edition of the Chiron Sport limited to 20 cars. Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. said: “Molsheim in the Alsace region of France is an essential element in Bugatti’s brand history and this is also where we are planning our future.”

Bugatti Chiron Sport “110 ans Bugatti”

The special edition models use the colour scheme of the French tricolour “Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge”, with its colours of blue, white and red. The theme can be seen across the Chiron from the bodywork right through to the interior.

The body of this Chiron is predominantly blue carbon fibre. Matt Steel Blue paintwork is used at the rear of the car using a complex painting process for a unique finish. The wheels are painted in “Nocturne” matt black and hide French Racing Blue brake callipers.

It is some of the small touches which make this Chiron Sport special though. The diffuser and bumper are finished in glossy Steel Blue Carbon. The matt black exhaust system sits in contrast. The underside of the rear spoiler is painted with the French flag. The 110 ans Bugatti even gets the Sky View roof as standard.

The interior is just as special. The high-quality embroidery applied to the headrest and the seat back feature the French flag in a vertical position. The sports steering wheel comes finished with a matt carbon fibre with a blue leather cover. The surfaces are either soft Deep Blue leather, Alcantara or blue carbon fibre. Finally, each car will get a specially crafted medallion in the central console stowage space, made of solid silver with enamel inserts.

Having taken a look at the photos, you are probably now wondering why the colours of the French flag are shown as a mirror image on the right-hand side of the vehicle. Bugatti explain that this is the arrangement adopted on French official vehicles, where the standard has the colour of liberty (blue) to the fore on both sides.

Pricing for the Bugatti Chiron Sport “110 ans Bugatti” has not been revealed. As for the availability of the 20 examples, Bugatti have not revealed how many have been sold.

February 8, 2019 / Comments Off

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110 ans Bugatti Chiron is a red, white and blue anniversary special

Few cars on the planet are as exclusive at the Bugatti Chiron. The multi-million-dollar price tag is part of it, but there’s also the simple fact that so few are made. The French automaker, currently owned by Volkswagen, was founded 110 years ago by Ettore Bugatti. To celebrate both the company’s anniversary and its French heritage, Bugatti revealed a limited-edition version of last year’s Chiron Sport, a more capable version of the Veyron’s successor.

The Chiron Sport simply refined an already bonkers model, cutting weight thanks to lightweight wheels, thinner glass and even more carbon fiber. The suspension and steering were re-tuned, too, though the 1,479-horsepower quad-turbocharged W16 engine was left untouched. The 110 ans Bugatti doesn’t add any more performance, though it doesn’t really need it anyway. For those discerning customers that want a Bugatti that corners, look no further than the Divo.

110 ans Bugatti Chiron

The 110 ans Bugatti will be limited to just 20 examples. Though Bugatti doesn’t mention it, all are likely spoken for. The car looks so French it’s liable to play “La Marseillaise” every single time you open the door. The entire exterior has been painted a deep matte blue. The brake calipers are a brighter shade, reminiscent of French racing blue. The brightest and arguably best exterior touches are the French flag’s red, white and blue tricolor bars on the mirrors, fuel door and rear wing. The latter is only visible when the movable wing is in it’s up position.

The leather interior is done up in the same shade as the exterior. Deep blue leather covers nearly every surface, though the seats and seatbelts are done in the same blue as the brake calipers. The seats themselves feature a tricolor stripe along the center, split in the headrest by a “110 ans Bugatti” logo. The steering wheel, too, gets a French flag in the top center of the rim.

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February 7, 2019 / Comments Off

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The First Bugatti Chiron Sport Delivered Is Beautiful in Blue and Black

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February 6, 2019 / Comments Off

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Bugatti says an emphatic ‘no’ to SUVs

Last we heard from Bugatti President, Stephen Winkelmann, the French supercar company had plans for a Bugatti SUV in the future. Today Winkelmann is dashing any such notion emphatically. In a report issued by the company discussing its 2018 performance, Winkelmann declared, “There will be no SUV from Bugatti. An SUV would not do justice to the brand or its history.”

That sounds pretty clear cut and definitive to us, so consider Bugatti the second supercar manufacturer to disavow the high-riding body style. McLaren is the only other dog in this fight opposing the proliferation of crossovers and SUVs — and for that we salute you, McLaren. The Lamborghini Urus is out and about, and Ferrari’s version of an SUV is hot on its heels. Now that the Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan exist, they can cater to the luxury crowd, too.

We can be glad Bugatti isn’t going down the same path as all these other companies. However, Winkelmann didn’t rule out any kind of a luxury sedan body style for a future vehicle. The brand has firmly cemented itself in the performance arena with the Veyron, Chiron and more recent Divo variant, but these cars are still only produced in extremely small quantities. For reference, Bugatti says it produced all of 76 Chirons in 2018. A total of 500 are planned through 2021. This appears to be fine for now, as Bugatti hasn’t hinted that is is trying to expand.

Bugatti happens to be celebrating its 110th anniversary in 2019, and it promises a few surprises in the form of “the presentation of further models.” Bugatti has a tendency to come out with even faster versions of cars some years after debuting a car that’s ridiculously fast already, so we could be looking at further derivations of the Chiron. That said, we can always hope for even more models and be content knowing that none of them will be a utility vehicle.

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January 23, 2019 / Comments Off

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Off-Road Bugatti Chiron Concept

Here at Men’s Gear, we love writing about all kinds of cars. Heck, most of what we publish here are often fictional ones, or in other words, concept cars. This one, from an incredible Estonian artist called Rain Prisk, reimagines the Bugatti Chiron as an off-road beast. The result is nothing short of breathtaking.

Seriously, just look at the photo above. Believe us, we’re just as vehemently wishing it’s actually a real car as you are.

Impressive as the Bugatti Chiron may already be, the supercar isn’t meant for off-road adventures. Which is why Prisk applied some enhancements on the million-dollar vehicle for it to be able to chart the harshest terrain and come out unscathed.

Notional as these enhancements may be, Prisk’s handiwork is still quite fascinating. In fact, it’s on par with most of the artist’s renderings, which are usually monster versions of production cars, complete with beefed-up wheels and suspensions. For this particular project, Prisk gave the Bugatti Chiron a winch and roof rack, and it looks stunning.

We hope Bugatti’s research and development team stumbles upon this work by Prisk, because it’s too gorgeous to pass up. This being a concept, it’s hard to ascertain whether the design is feasible. And we can only imagine how hard it will be to engineer a car that’s as slick and curvaceous as this one.

The rear details in black are particularly interesting to ponder construction-wise, and suppose Bugatti does take up the challenge and attempts to produce a car just like this one, it would be interesting how they’ll approach the tiny little details that make this design a punch above other off-roaders.

SEE MORE HERE

January 7, 2019 / Comments Off

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Bugatti speeds up testing on its 3D-printed titanium brake caliper

There are only a few manufacturers on that planet that are so important and so specialized that their production of a brake caliper would warrant any amount of attention. Bugatti is one of those few. After premiering a 3D-printed titanium caliper early in 2018, Volkswagen Group released a video of engineers putting the new design to extreme speed and heat testing. Spoiler alert: flames and sparks are involved.

Bugatti had a lot of claims and planted a lot of flags when it first showed this caliper. “World’s first brake caliper to be produced by a 3D printer. Largest brake caliper in the automotive industry as a whole. First series manufacturer to use titanium. Largest titanium functional component produced by 3D printing in the world.” Long story short, it’s a big deal, but it is not yet stamped as ready for production. That’s what the testing seen here is for.

The video, which was brought to our attention by Motor1, shows the brake caliper in action, not on a car but in a lab. VW claims it’s one of the most powerful brake test benches on the market, which we’re inclined to believe considering the groundbreaking technology that has come from its Veyron, Chiron and Divo supercars.

The test is exactly what you’d expect. They put the caliper onto a rotor, which is attached to a machine that spins the rotor and has all sorts of sensors that show the engineers the specs of the test. The video shows it spinning up to speeds in excess of 230 mph multiple times. The disc temperature skyrockets to 1,877 degrees Fahrenheit on the third spin, which elicits a light show of thermal heat, sparks, and flames. The engineers then take off the caliper and show the camera that everything is still in place and intact.

The video does not clear the caliper for production, but it certainly looks like its getting close to that point. The package will likely debut for the Chiron, the Divo, or both and will most definitely cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

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December 21, 2018 / Comments Off

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Bugatti Chiron Made Of LEGOs

Here’s something you don’t see everyday — a Bugatti Chiron. But here’s something even rarer than that — a LEGO Bugatti Chiron, and yes, you can drive it like a regular car.

The toy brick company built a life-sized working replica of a Bugatti Chiron (standard price $2.6 million). The LEGO Bugatti Chiron, while functional, boasts some pretty ridiculous specs. Like its LEGO-made motor, which generates only 5.3 horsepower. Or its top speed of 12mph (theoretical top speed is at 18mph). Or even its total weight, which maxes at 3,000 pounds compared to the standard Chiron’s kerb weight of 4,000 pounds.

The car took more or less six months to complete. However, unlike the real Chiron, which only has 1,800 pieces, the LEGO Chiron is comprised of 1 million Lego Technic pieces. We’re talking 2,304 Power Function motors, 4,032 gear wheels, and 2,016 axles.

In case you’re wondering, yes, everything is made of LEGO. From the speedometer to the active rear spoiler to the doors to the headlights to the taillights to the steering wheel. Amazingly, they all work. LEGO and Bugatti did not use a single drop of glue to connect all the parts; it’s all just a matter of incredibly detailed construction.

The LEGO Chiron is a super complex DIY project, and it showcases the versatility of LEGO’s Technic series of building blocks and motors. There’s a steel tube-frame chassis for the base support, cradling the body and serving as mounting points for the motors, wheels, and the functional steering system.

And ff you’d like a smaller version of this car, LEGO is selling one on its online store.

Miniature Bugatti Chiron

Photos courtesy of LEGO Group

November 12, 2018 / Comments Off

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Bugatti Divo: Built For The Corners

New Bugatti Hypercar Emphasizes Agility, Handling Performance

The new Bugatti Divo concept was recently unveiled on August 24, 2018, at ‘The Quail – a Motorsport Gathering’ event taking place in Monterey, California. Three very important things to note about the car: purchasing one will cost $5.8 Million USD, only 40 are being produced, and they’re already sold out.

Unless you’re one of those hopefuls still waiting in line with your chequebook open, the rest of the details are perhaps just semantics, which I’m happy to get into. For starters, the Bugatti Divo is based on the Bugatti Chiron, and is certainly no less over-the-top. The Divo shares most of the important mechanical features with the Chiron; most notably the same quad-turbocharged 8.0L W16 engine which produces an extravagant 1,500 horsepower.

According to Bugatti President, Stephan Winkelmann, the goal of the Divo is to be “the most agile and dynamic car Bugatti has ever created – a perfect homage for the 110th anniversary, which will be held in 2019”. In order to achieve this, many changes to the Chiron were made to its bodywork and chassis to amp up its aerodynamic efficiency and handling.

Such drastic changes ensured that the Divo and Chiron are easily distinguishable, visually. Functional air inlets were added to the front bonnet, along with a NACA duct on the roof, and a larger adjustable rear spoiler. The headlights and tail lights were reimagined for further effect, while its lower stance suggests added performance purpose. The interior is mostly unchanged, with some finishing touches added to make it distinctive.

Overall the Divo also has sharper angles and more aggressive looking body lines, with the horseshoe shaped grill, centre line running over the top of the car, and scoop-shaped doors being the only truly pronounced Bugatti features. The remaining design elements seem fairly reminiscent of present day Lamborghinis – and the fact that Mr. Winkelmann is the former Automobili Lamborghini CEO, leads me to believe this may not be much of a coincidence.

In performance metrics, the changes allow the Divo to produce 198 additional pounds of downforce, and lap the Nardò circuit in Italy a significant eight seconds faster thanks to the improved chassis redesign.

“Happiness Isn’t Just Around The Corner. It Is The Corner.” – The Bugatti Divo

September 4, 2018 / Comments Off

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Lego builds life-size, driving Bugatti Chiron out of Technic pieces

Lego recently introduced a Technic model of the 2018 Bugatti Chiron supercar. It’s impressive on its own with a functioning gearbox and a little 16-cylinder facsimile of the real thing. But Lego decided it wanted to go even farther in creating a Technic Bugatti. It wanted to build a life-size one that actually worked and drove using just Lego parts. And it did.

The final product is on display up above. It is a full-size replica of the 1,500-horsepower supercar from Bugatti, and about the only parts that aren’t made from Lego pieces are the wheels, tires and the front badge. It consists of over 1 million pieces in total, weighs in at about 3,300 pounds and took over 13,000 work hours to finish. For reference, this model weighs about 1,100 pounds less than the real car. Most impressive is that even the functional parts of the car are constructed from Lego Technic components. It’s powered by 2,304 Lego Power Function motors that together produce about 5 horsepower and 68 pound-feet of torque. Lego says it can go up to 12 mph.

It goes beyond just Lego motors, though. All of the lights, the speedometer and even the rising rear wing use actual Lego Technic parts. Even the brakes, yes, the brakes, are made of plastic Technic bits and are fully functional. Lego also says that significant structural and load-bearing parts of this model are fully made from Technic parts without any reinforcements or gluing of parts.

This is quite possibly the most impressive Lego creation of all time. It would be quite cool if Lego decided to sell such a kit, though it will likely never happen. The issue would probably be size more than anything. A ton and a half of plastic isn’t the easiest thing to transport or sell. The price of the kit might not be as bad as you would expect, though. Lego has very consistent pricing, and looking at the scale model kit of the Chiron, Lego appears to charge roughly 10 cents a piece. That would put the price of this model at a bit over $100,000. That’s not cheap, but it is just a tenth the cost of a real Chiron, and in some ways it’s cooler.

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August 30, 2018 / Comments Off

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2018 Bugatti Chiron gets the one thing (two, actually) it didn’t have

If you thought there couldn’t be anything missing on the multi-million-dollar, 1,500-horsepower, 250-mph Bugatti Chiron hypercar, we wouldn’t blame you. But you would also be wrong. Apparently this massively fast tribute to capitalism didn’t have an option for a sunroof. Can you believe it? The 2018 Bugatti Chiron couldn’t be had with a feature you can get on a Hyundai Accent. Well, Bugatti Chiron buyers no longer have to suffer this indignity thanks to a new option called “Sky View.”

What Sky View amounts to are two glass panels, one over each seat, affixed to the roof of the hypercar. Each panel is laminated for a total of four layers and is designed to provide both UV protection for occupants and to be stiff and strong both to keep the car rigid and provide protection in a crash. Another upside to the option is that it adds 2.7 centimeters, or about an inch, of headroom.

There do appear to be a couple of downsides, though. Bugatti mentions that the panels are tinted to keep the incoming light from being too overbearing, but it says nothing about any sort of sunshade if you find the tinting to not be sufficient. Not only that, but the panels are fixed, so you won’t be able to get much of an open-air feeling. We should say the aforementioned Hyundai Accent has both of these features, but hey, you’re making progress Bugatti, and that should be lauded. Maybe you’ll get those details next time.

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July 25, 2018 / Comments Off

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Bugatti Divo will be a $5.8 million hypercar with an appetite for corners

Too much is never enough, especially when you’re talking about Bugatti supercars. The Divo is the next step in Bugatti’s continuing history of building the most covetable vehicles on the planet. Based on the existing 1,479 horsepower Chiron, the Divo is intended to be lighter in weight and significantly quicker around corners. Oh yes, and it’s almost massively expensive, with a starting price of approximately $5.8 million. If you want one, hurry up, because only 40 will be produced.

“Happiness is not around the corner. It is the corner. The Divo is made for corners,” says Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. “With the Divo, we want to thrill people throughout the world. With this project, the Bugatti team has an opportunity to interpret the brand DNA in terms of agile, nimble handling in a significantly more performance-oriented way.”

Little to no details have been released about the Divo ahead of its official introduction this August at Monterey Car Week. The powertrain will likely be carryover from the Chiron, which means the quad-turbocharged W12 will be there in all its decadent glory. The body could be significantly different, however, in keeping with Bugatti’s promise that the car has been honed to go around corners at physics-defying speed.

As for the name, it might conjure up images of a certain 1970s-80s band, but the Divo is named after Albert Divo, a French racing driver who twice won the Targa Florio while piloting a Bugatti race machine.

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July 10, 2018 / Comments Off

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2018 Bugatti Chiron Lego Technic kit is amazingly detailed

Lego has finally followed up its amazing Porsche 911 GT3 Technic kit with a kit that’s arguably more amazing, and certainly has more pieces. It’s the 2018 Bugatti Chiron, and the 1/8 scale kit features 3,599 pieces, which is nearly 1,000 more than the 911.

Those pieces make up an impressively detailed model just on looks alone. The blocky LED lights up front, the wide light bar at the rear and the trademark horseshoe design elements all translate surprisingly well to the Lego format. The interior has detailed seats and instruments, and there’s even some Chiron luggage that fits under the trunk where there exists a unique serial number.

But the really impressive stuff is under the plastic skin. Moving piston engines aren’t new to Technic, but it is cool to see that Lego managed to create a tiny version of the W16 engine. You can clearly see each bank of narrow angle V8s and watch all the pistons dance. The engine is even hooked up to a real 8-speed sequential transmission. The transmission can be shifted via paddles in the driver’s side footwell. The rear wing moves up and down, too, and is lowered for high-speed mode with a key you build out of Lego pieces.

You’ll want to make sure you have plenty of space on your table top for the finished product, since it’s nearly two feet long. And budget plenty of time for assembling those thousands of pieces. But once you’re finished, you’ll have your own Bugatti Chiron with many of the same functioning features for so much less money.

On that topic, the Chiron kit will cost $349.99, which isn’t entirely cheap, but it is coming with a lot of parts and functionality. It’s available through Lego stores both physical and online right now, and hits other stores on August 1.

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June 1, 2018 / Comments Off

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2019 Bugatti Chiron Sport is more hardcore with better handling

Bugatti has created a hotter version of the Chiron called the Chiron Sport. How does Bugatti make the monstrously powerful Chiron even more extreme? Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with greater power or speed. The car has the same 1,479 horsepower. Instead, Bugatti focused on improving handling by upgrading the chassis and making it lighter.

It’s not much lighter, mind you. Bugatti only shed about 40 pounds from the standard Chiron. This was done with lighter wheels, glass and more carbon fiber components. Bugatti seems to be most proud of the car’s carbon fiber windshield wipers, which Bugatti claims is a first for production cars. They are actually fairly impressive, weighing 77 percent less than the standard ones. They also use 3D-printed aluminum in the tips. They should go nicely with Bugatti’s 3D-printed titanium brake calipers.

In the handling department, Bugatti addressed the suspension and drivetrain. The shocks are now stiffer, and the steering has been retuned. The all-wheel-drive system now features torque vectoring to direct power to either side. Between the weight savings and new suspension, Bugatti claims the Chiron Sport lapped the Nardo handling track 5 seconds faster than the standard model.

The Chiron Sport also brings along visual changes to make it completely clear that this is not some run-of-the-mill Chiron. It’s available in a limited selection of colors for the front end including red, blue, silver and dark grey. These are coupled with an exposed carbon fiber finish for the tail of the car. The front color is then carried over to the big “C” design element that is finished in aluminum on normal Chirons, and to other elements such as the bottom of the rear wing and the contrasting “16” in the grille mesh (which, we must add, makes it look like it’s suiting up for a basketball team). The wheels are unique to the Sport, as are the quartet of round exhaust outlets. The interior is made darker and more serious thanks to a liberal use of black anodized aluminum switchgear, and black leather and Alcantara.

If the harder-core Chiron Sport is exactly what you’ve been looking for in a hypercar, you’d better have some serious bank, specifically $3.26 million. There won’t be too long of a wait for it, though, since Bugatti expects to deliver the first ones at the end of the year.

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March 6, 2018 / Comments Off

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Bugatti Chiron, Ram Power Wagon, Kia Stinger GT come to Forza Motorsport 7

Forza Motorsport 7‘s expansive car list is expanding yet again with the Dell Gaming car pack. The pack is available today as part of the game’s “Car Pass” which includes current and upcoming downloadable car packs. This pack also features a number of cars we quite enjoy.

The headliner is the Bugatti Chiron, which is understandable; 1,500-horsepower, $3 million cars tend to do that. But there are more common cars here that we like in real life that are finally making an appearance. The Kia Stinger GT, Kia’s super stylish sports sedan that we’ve had a blast with, even in the middle of a Michigan winter, should be a good match to many German rivals in the game. The comfy, quick and rumbling Durango SRT also shows up as a counterpart to the Grand Cherokee SRT. And for off-roading, the ultra-capable Ram 2500 Power Wagon is available, and it should allow for some interesting competition against the Ford Raptor.

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The rest of the pack is a little more obscure. There’s a 1968 Holden Monaro that included a Chevy 327 V8 when it was new. And for racing enthusiasts, the car pack adds a GT3-class Aston Martin Vantage and a Pikes Peak Audi TT RS.

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February 15, 2018 / Comments Off

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Hennessey’s Venom F5 hypercar teased for Nov. 1 reveal at SEMA

Hennessey has announced plans to reveal the production version of its long-awaited Venom F5 supercar Nov. 1 at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, and released new images and a video of the hypercar expected to boast a top speed of nearly 300 mph. The F5 is the performance shop’s bid to be the fastest road car in the world, taking direct aim at the Bugatti Chiron.

To be built and sold under new company Hennessey Special Vehicles, the F5 promises cutting-edge technology in design, engine development and chassis, with an all-new, original chassis and body. It will build the car at its headquarters in Sealy, Texas, near Houston.

Hennessey first revealed renderings for the F5 three years ago. It released updated teaser images in June and announced plans to put the car into production, with founder and CEO John Hennessey describing the project as “sophisticated aggression on wheels.”

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The F5 name derives from the rating assigned to tornadoes boasting wind speeds of between 261 and 318 miles per hour, the top rating on the Fujita scale. It replaces the Venom GT, a supercar powered by a 1,451-horsepower, twin-turbo 7.0-liter V8 engine with a top speed of 270.4 mph and a 0-60 time of 2.4 seconds. Just 12 models were ever produced, with the final version selling for a cool $1.2 million.

The F5, Hennessey says, will surpass the GT’s horsepower, have a top speed exceeding 290 mph, plus improved aerodynamics and ultra-light weight to boost performance.

The new images show a wing-shaped rear spoiler and a tri-exhaust tailpipe configuration that evokes a honeycomb or Olympic rings. The company plans to livestream the unveiling, which takes place at 11 a.m. PST Nov. 1, on its Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channels.

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October 20, 2017 / Comments Off

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This 1:4 scale Bugatti Chiron engine costs $10,000

Is $10,000 too much for a non-functioning powertrain? Amalgam, a company that specializes in high-end scale models of everything from cars to steering wheels has meticulously crafted a 1:4 scale replica of the 8.0-liter, 16-cylinder, 1,500-horsepower behemoth that powers the Bugatti Chiron. The model is so detailed that at first glance you’d swear it was the real thing, provided a banana isn’t used for scale.

According to Amalgam, this is the first model engine the company has built since the early 2000s. It worked closely with the engineers at Bugatti to make sure everything is exactly how it appears on the real car. Look close and you’ll find all of the parts numbers, barcodes and hose clamps are exactly the same, just smaller. Like the real engine, this W16 features four scale turbochargers. All in, there was roughly 2,500 hours or more than three months of development time. Each model takes 220 hours to assemble, hence the $9,365 price tag.

The engine is constructed mainly of pewter and stainless steel. The entire model is 18 inches long and 9 inches high. Pre-orders are open, though first deliveries aren’t expected until January.

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October 18, 2017 / Comments Off

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Bugatti Chiron and Juan Pablo Montoya set 0-249-0 speed record

Bugatti has a penchant for recalibrating our notion of speed. Quickest, fastest, most powerful, world record — just words. Mere descriptors. To really get a sense of how quick a car like the Chiron is, you need to witness its ferocity in person. Since that’s not possible for most of us, seeing it on video is the next best thing. So here’s a quick video of a Bugatti Chiron, driven by Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, accelerating from 0 to 249 miles per hour (400 kilometers per hour) in just 32.6 seconds.

But Bugatti wasn’t done. Equally as impressive, Montoya stomped the brakes at 249 mph hard enough to bring the Chiron back down to a halt in just 9.3 additional seconds, aided by the rear spoiler’s airbrake functionality. Yep, that’s 0-249-0 in 41.96 seconds. From start to finish, Montoya covered 1.93 miles in the Chiron, and it apparently didn’t take much effort from the driver.

“You didn’t need the complex preparations we have to make in racing for the 0-400-0 drive,” said Montoya. “With the Chiron, it was all quite easy. Just get in and drive off. Incredible.”

Incredible is a good word for it. But Bugatti isn’t finished setting records with the Chiron. The company has stated its goal of proving the Chiron is the fastest production vehicle ever by beating the Veyron’s top-speed record of 267.855 mph. That’s planned for 2018, so there’s plenty more time for records to fall and would-be challengers to arise. Stay tuned.

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September 11, 2017 / Comments Off

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