In order to replace the mighty Bugatti Veyron, the French manufacturer had to do some out of of the world engineering to come up with the Veyron successor. Ladies and Gentlemen, Meet Bugatti Chiron- The 1,478hp, Bugatti’s new flagship.
When automakers are shrinking the cylinders size for making their cars more green and efficient, Bugatti is bold enough to stick with the 8.0-liter, quad-turbo W16 motor. If that’s unimpressive, the W16 with bigger turbos tortures its seven-speed dual-clutch transmission with 1,180 pound-feet of torque, too. That torque peaks at 2,000 rpm, and stays strong until full horsepower is delivered at 6,700 rpm.
The top speed of Chiron is electronically limited — limited! — to 261 miles per hour. According to Bugatti the Chiron will crunch through to 62 mph in less than 2.5 seconds, though the 0-62-mph sprint is less relevant to hypercars than it used to be. Perhaps more mind boggling fact is that it will burst from 0-124 mph in less than 6.5 seconds. Or that it rips from 0-186 mph in 13.5 seconds, a full three seconds quicker than the original Veyron. The Chiron sucks in more than 2,000 cubic feet of air per minute; at the same time it moves 211 gallons of coolant.
This new Bugatti still uses the aerodynamic tricks of having separate top-speed and handling modes, the Chiron has a coefficient of drag of 0.38 in its Auto mode, 0.40 in its Handling mode, and just 0.35 in its Top Speed mode, though that screams up to 0.59 when it deploys the Air Brake.
The Chiron comes with bigger brakes and tires that have been specially developed by a Bugatti-Michelin partnership. In order to cope with the top speed Bugatti ensures the rigidity of the vehicle’s structure. Bugatti says it has 50,000 newton-meters per degree of torsional rigidity, which in simple terms, is up there with the Porsche and Audi LMP1 Le Mans racers, even though the Chiron needs a much bigger space inside for owners and their wallets to sit in.
Bugatti claims that they will produce 500 units of Chiron, and each will cost $2.6 million.
Founder of Auto Rebellion | Guest writer for zerotohundred.com