Meet the Bugatti Chiron, the 1,500 HP successor to the Veyron

Shawn Knight

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For years, the Bugatti Veyron has sat atop the production supercar mountain as a vehicle that most can only dream of owning. The Veyron's staying power, both as a high-end production car and an icon in modern pop culture, is quite impressive considering it launched more than a decade ago.

Father Time is constant and despite multiple variations, the Veyron's time in the spotlight is nearly up. That's just fine with Bugatti as its successor somehow manages to up the ante in virtually every key category.

The Bugatti Chiron is the pinnacle of performance, luxury and exclusivity. It's powered by a redesigned version of the Veyron's 8-liter W16 engine that's mated to four sequentially-configured turbos. The combination is good for a staggering 1,500 horsepower and 1,180 lb-ft of torque that propel the car from 0-60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds en route to a governed top speed of 261 mph.

I've taken a ride in a twin turbo Dodge Viper putting down over 1,000 horsepower, an experience I can only describe as absolutely terrifying. I can only imagine how scary / awesome something with 1,500 ponies on tap would be.

Inside, you'll find leather-everything and even a storage compartment large enough to hold a decent-sized piece of luggage. The driver is in perfect view of three high-resolution displays and has total control over an audio system that Bugatti says could be considered "the world's fastest concert hall." With a one-carat diamond membrane in each of the system's four tweeters, it's as over-the-top as you'd expect from the Veyron's successor.

Bugatti is only planning to produce 500 Chiron, a third of which have already been spoken for. Even if you could afford the $2.62 million price tag, this level of exclusivity means most people will never even come across one in person.

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that propel the car from 0-60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds en route to a governed top speed of 261 mph.
Not quite. The official numbers from Bugatti: 0-60 in 2.3 seconds, maximum speed - 288 mph. Even 1200bhp Veyron Super Sport was maxed at 267 mph.

Also, I don't know where all these images come from, but the mufflers on that car looks somewhat different, uglier, I would say:
2017-bugatti-chiron-rear1.jpg


2017-bugatti-chiron-rear2.jpg
 
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Back it up to someones horse trailer. That will be the only practical reason (aka: pulling) for needing 1500 horse power. Anything else would be for showmanship.
 
Back it up to someones horse trailer. That will be the only practical reason (aka: pulling) for needing 1500 horse power. Anything else would be for showmanship.

You are missing the point. Everything about this car is for showmanship, that's its entire purpose. Even Bugatti officially spoke of it, to break all the barriers of the reason, create pure excess.
 
Back it up to someones horse trailer. That will be the only practical reason (aka: pulling) for needing 1500 horse power. Anything else would be for showmanship.

You are missing the point. Everything about this car is for showmanship, that's its entire purpose. Even Bugatti officially spoke of it, to break all the barriers of the reason, create pure excess.
Precisely the reason that even if I could afford it, I would not buy one.
 
And no more Top Gear to properly review it lol...
Wasn't it Clarkson who said something to the effect that such a car as the Veyron would be a once in a lifetime due to a global economy downturn, and once they were all sold we wouldn't see anything like that car in a long time? I'm quite surprised that Bugatti made this car because it shows that there's still people in Dubai who are driving sub-par Italian supercars and that this market is alive and well.
 
Had the bugatti veyron at the chicago auto show to edit this post. Didn't have any autonomous cars tho. Had electric, the chevy volt and the chevy bolt.
 
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Most people miss the point of an auto like this. you cannot just throw a shitload of ponies at four wheels and go ta-da. getting a car to remain stable at the better part of 300mph is an engineering feat of epic proportions. Getting to move through the mass air has at 300 mph is amazing. Getting that much power effectively to the asphalt is an engineering marvel in itself. Not to mention engineering a car that is the epitome of luxury to corner flat and inherently stable is remarkable. Most car makers (Lamborghini) comes to mind gut their cars to a mere shell including a thin plastic window to get it to perform in lesser fashion than the Veyron or the Chiron. The Veyron was estimated by Volkswagen to be capable of 253mph and ended up doing 271mph. I will bet when the governor is keyed off it will push 300mph.
and remember this is a car with a dozen speakers, heated seats, leather everything and every luxury feature known to man, and does this despite weighing 4466 lbs (or almost half the weight of the Pagani Zonda) Designing a drivetrain that will handle that amount of torque for 20 years is nothing short of astonishing on its own. Volkswagen has done this before with the Phaeton to demonstrate what could be technically done.....and they done did it...again.
 
Awesome car, but those VW mileage claims are likely to be suspect. I would bet most Dubai ponce's.... sorry, prince's will be put off by the exaggerated claims of fuel economy. ;-)
 
Their numbers are probably pretty darn close... why bother to make them up?!? They're only selling 500, and I'm pretty sure that they're getting sold no matter what...

Got a friend who works in "this world" and when he gets his hand on a supercar, he's always crowing about how it does this, that, and whatever.... Even he's impressed by this car, however, so I can hardly wait till he gets one and lets me have a ride :)
 
They ruined the look of it with the lights, both front and rear. They turned what could have been classy into silly. I'll stick with Bentley for classy.
Bugatti is owned by Volkswagen anyways so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
 
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And no more Top Gear to properly review it lol...
Wasn't it Clarkson who said something to the effect that such a car as the Veyron would be a once in a lifetime due to a global economy downturn, and once they were all sold we wouldn't see anything like that car in a long time? I'm quite surprised that Bugatti made this car because it shows that there's still people in Dubai who are driving sub-par Italian supercars and that this market is alive and well.

In Dubai super cars can end up like this:
http://coolmaterial.com/rides/cars/abandoned-luxury-cars-of-dubai/

I guess one can say not a very happy ending for these expensive toys!
 
From what I understand and I'm not sure if this has changed, it was the tires that were always in question when it came to top side on the Veyron. They were never REALLY sure if they last at the kind of speeds that people wanted to go. I guess the people that did go those speeds were sort of guinea pigs. Now if this new car can go even faster than the original I will be absolutely astonished. Not just because of the aerodynamics and they other hundred things that were meticulously thought out to let it do so but because of, you guess it, the tires. They have to be real rubber.
 
I may be wrong, but I think I've heard or read somewhere that Veyron's tires could last only 40 minutes or so on full speed, so I wouldn't be surprised Chiron's tires too have some similar limit (perhaps same or bit less considering it can go faster).
 
Pssssshhhh. What about gas mileage on this thing? They didn't make a hybrid version? Sure gas prices are cheap nowadays...but who knows how things will be next year?
 
I may be wrong, but I think I've heard or read somewhere that Veyron's tires could last only 40 minutes or so on full speed, so I wouldn't be surprised Chiron's tires too have some similar limit (perhaps same or bit less considering it can go faster).
Well, veyron empied its fuel tank in 12 minutes at top speed. This can do that in 9 mins.
 
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