If an all-new model claims to add hardly 3 miles to the top speed of its predecessor, there aren’t many options we would consider before naming it conclusively. If almost every design feature in the front, back or sides happens to be coolers for the too-hot-to-handle turbines or brakes, we are greeted with a double affirmative. If all they could shave off an already mind blowing ascend to 100 kmph were a couple of deciseconds, we have to be talking about the world’s fastest street-legal production car.
It’s the Chiron. The newest Bugatti.
“The Chiron is the quintessential ultimate super sports car: ultra-modern, incredibly fast, agile and powerful with a stylistically demanding design and the highest possible levels of comfort,” says Wolfgang Dürheimer, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.
How much faster is fastest
The new car can touch the 100 km mark in 2.5 seconds, an improvement from the 2.7 seconds of its forerunner. Well, the Veyron Super Sport already had 1200 horses blazing a trail. The Chiron targeted 25% more and this demanded a total relook at every component of the 8-litre W 16 engine last seen in the departing Bugatti.
The Veyron Super Sport has a world record under its hood with a 431 kmph or 267.7 miles per hour. Even ‘Captain Slow’ has recorded 259 miles per hour in it. The maximum speed of the new Chiron is limited at 420 kmph! (I need one of those new reaction icons on Fb with popping eyes and gaping mouths!) As if there is a place on earth where you could turn that into a practical cruise! Once the barriers are crossed, how fast does the Chiron really go and how long do the new tyres stick to their rims are figures for the upcoming edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
The remarkable achievement about the new drive train is the two-stage activation of turbochargers. In order to kill the lag dreaded in sports cars, the Chiron rolls off with just two turbo chargers on, while the second set are set to fire around 3800 rpm. This maintains enormous power delivered straight, from 2000 rpm onwards with a measured output all along.
What you see of the extraordinary exhaust are the six tailpipes, four of them routed to the rear and two turned downwards! However, the exhaust system plays an important role in achieving the amazing feats this car gets to do. The silencer is made of Titanium instead of stainless steel and therefore weighs only 20 kg. It reduces the back pressure of the exhaust gas and helps boost the output. The main converters are about six times the size of the units fitted to a medium-sized car. The two main ones and the four pre-converters add up to an active surface of about 230,266 m2 used for exhaust gas treatment – that’s the area of more than 30 soccer fields!
Built for super safe super performance
The Chiron is the first ever Bugatti to be built on an adaptive chassis – the driver can choose from five programs for vastly improved agility (so James May might not even get to complain about the slight twitching as the car approaches lightning speeds!) and driving comfort.
The Bugatti Chiron is flanked by high-performance tyres and brakes – the former tested at aerospace facilities (where else?) and the latter coming with Formula One technical modules. Its highly sophisticated monocoque body in carbon fibre is the new benchmark of craftsmanship and strength. Yet, the Chiron is also the first ever car to be fitted with an airbag that can shoot through a carbon fibre housing.
Now all this makes the Bugatti Chiron – definitions please – the world’s first street legal super sports car with 1,500 hp and a torque of 1,600 Nm at 2,000 to 6,000 rpm yet flanked by extremely high safety levels and unprecedented comfort. With just 500 tipped to be produced, one-third of them have already been booked for billionaire garages across the world. Each one compelling them to part with 2.4 million Euros – in hitherlands, 168,000 dirhams short of a full ten million!
The name Chiron has been inspired by the charming man who was one of Bugatti’s greatest racing drivers. If you ask Koenigsegg, Chiron the car is, to say the least, a compelling inspiration or even a worthy rival. Look what they have got under their sleeve – something that won’t remain hidden for long!
