2017 Bugatti Chiron

Bugatti celebrates a world premiere at the 2016 Geneva International Motor Show: the French luxury brand is unveiling the Bugatti Chiron, the most powerful, fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive production super sports car in the world. The Bugatti Chiron is the latest generation of the ultimate super sports car and is a completely new development. The sports car manufacturer from Molsheim, with its long tradition, has taken the unique features of a modern Bugatti to a new level and developed a high-performance machine that has become significantly better in every respect. With a power output of 1,500 HP, unprecedented for production vehicles, an exceptionally high torque value of 1,600 Nm between 2,000 and 6,000 rpm and a wide variety of technical innovations, the Chiron sets new standards in every respect. The Bugatti Chiron is therefore very well-positioned to become the next world speed record holder and reach a maximum speed significantly above the record currently held by Bugatti. The manufacturer has limited the maximum speed of the new car to 420 km/h for road use. The Chiron is to be built at the company's headquarters in Molsheim. Only 500 of these exceptional cars are to be produced. The basic price is €2.4 million net. Currently, advance orders have been received for one third of the total production run. The first vehicle is due to be delivered to a customer this autumn.

"It is part of human nature to cross boundaries and set new records - to run 100 m faster than ever before, to fly even further into space and to enter new realms. This striving is also our driving force at Bugatti," said Wolfgang Dürheimer, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S., at the presentation of the Chiron. "The Chiron is the result of our efforts to make the best even better."

With the Bugatti Chiron, the Bugatti President said that Bugatti had left the dimensions which define the operations of all market players and had established new paradigms that had previously not existed. "Bugatti has tested the limits of physics. There is no area where we have not achieved significant improvements."

The Bugatti Chiron is the world's first super sports car to bring 1,500 HP onto the road with a torque of 1.600 Nm at 2,000 to 6,000 rpm with tremendous effectiveness, extremely high safety levels and unprecedented comfort.

This is the result of the legendary and unique eight-litre W16 engine that has been newly developed by Bugatti. In combination with the four new, larger turbochargers that are controlled by the Bugatti two-stage turbocharging, an innovation that Bugatti is introducing, and a large number of other technical refinements and innovations, maximum performance is available constantly and can be easily controlled at all speeds. In its Top Speed mode, the car reaches the maximum speed of 420 km/h, limited for road use - however, this is by no means the end of the road for the Bugatti Chiron.

With the new carbon fibre monocoque, a newly designed adaptive chassis, tyres developed especially for Bugatti and other innovative technologies, the Chiron is not only a champion in terms of maximum acceleration but is, for the first time, also an agile, modern Bugatti with handling that ensures maximum driving pleasure.

The design of the Bugatti Chiron combines significantly more "beast" with a very high level of "beauty". The design language introduced by Bugatti with the Chiron has a significantly more aggressive tone and does justice to the character of the new super sports car. The designers have succeeded in reinterpreting Bugatti's DNA with its distinctive features in a modern manifestation at the same time as adding new features resulting from the technical demands of even higher performance. The Chiron remains unmistakably a 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. "This combination is not offered by any other market player and gives Bugatti its unique market position."

"Our customers form an exclusive group of automobile collectors who are searching for the very best. With the Veyron, they have the best production sports car of the past 10 years," Dürheimer continues. "This is why their demands and expectations for our next step - the Chiron - were so high."

Customers' reactions show that Bugatti has hit the mark. Advance orders have already been received for one third of the production series. "Those who have already considered Bugatti and its unique features in connection with the purchase of a Veyron will find there is no way they can ignore the Chiron," according to Wolfgang Dürheimer.

"With the Chiron we will not only be providing a key emotional element for the image of the Volkswagen Group but will also be making a positive contribution to Group results," says Wolfgang Dürheimer.

Newly developed W16 engine

1,500 HP was the power target for the Bugatti Chiron. To achieve this objective, the eight-litre W16 engine which is already well-known to customers and fans was completely redesigned. To achieve a power boost of 25 percent compared with the predecessor, almost every component of the engine was considered and redesigned. To compensate for the weight increase caused by the high power output, greater use is made of lightweight materials such as titanium and carbon fibre. For example, the intake tube, the charge air system and the chain housing are all made of carbon fibre. The weight of the new crankshaft has also been optimised.

The key factors in the increased power output are higher-performance turbochargers and duplex fuel injection with 32 injectors. In addition, the charge air cooling system has been improved. As a result, more than 60,000 litres of air per minute are pumped through the engine. The coolant pump is also a very high-performance unit. In one minute, it circulates 800 litres of water through the entire engine.

Two-stage turbocharging is the outstanding technical feature of the powertrain

The engine is fitted with four larger, higher-performance turbochargers. They are operated in a two-stage configuration. The two-stage turbocharging system developed by Bugatti especially for this car is the outstanding technical feature of the Chiron powertrain. To ensure maximum acceleration from a standstill without the "turbo lag" feared by sports car drivers, the Chiron moves off the mark with only two turbochargers in operation. The other two units are only activated at about 3,800 rpm. As a result, the two-stage turbocharging delivers an absolutely linear power curve from 2,000 rpm, huge torque in the low engine speed range and a power output that can be controlled and dosed rather well.

New titanium exhaust system / the main catalytic converters are about six times as large as the unit fitted to a medium-sized car

Another feature that boosts the power output is the new titanium exhaust system with reduced exhaust gas back pressure. The system is fully insulated and equipped with four pre-converters and two main catalytic converters which are considerably larger than their predecessors. The main converters are about six times as large as the unit fitted to a medium-sized car. The total active surface of the six converters used for exhaust gas treatment is about 230,266 m², corresponding to the area of more than 30 soccer fields. From the catalytic converters, the exhaust gas is fed to a silencer which is extremely light compared with similar units, weighing only 20 kg. While other manufacturers use stainless steel, the silencer of the Bugatti Chiron is made from titanium. The exhaust system is rounded off by six tailpipes, with four routed to the rear and two pointing downwards.