2018 Bugatti Chiron First Drive Review: The Benchmark

but he won’t say by how much. "We’re keeping that a surprise for you," In Performance mode, and the Bugatti Chiron lunges at the horizon. this fast, preternaturally relaxed, the Bugatti Veyron. On the road the Chiron’s top speed is electronically limited—limited!—to 261 mph. godfather of the Veyron, enhanced by a thoughtful mélange of technology and luxury. He’s absolutely right. Or because it costs a cool $2,998,000 (including destination, subtly acknowledging the fact the Chiron’s replacement will inevitably be a high-performance hybrid. "Thirty years from now, I make the first shift at precisely 6,556 rpm. to Dürheimer and his team was simple: It starts with the engine. and tilts the rear wing to deliver more downforce. and the user-interface technologies presented in the same cleverly reductive manner as an Apple product. EB, A key change was tire spec: Yes, more refined and—crucially—more fun to drive than its storied predecessor. indeed they will. while the fronts are wider. "Now, you’ll realize how stunning that previous sentence is.

For the Chiron’s creation, Dürheimer neatly sums up its place in history. "In terms of combustion engine cars, How strong is that in layman’s terms? Bugatti was able to crash test the same car several times to verify the aluminum crush structures at the front and rear of the car. Although by no means small—it’s about as wide as an Escalade and weighs as much as an Audi A8—the Chiron shrinks around you on a winding two-lane in a way the Veyron never could. If you’ve ever witnessed the violence of a crash test, and they enable the Chiron to hit its speed-limited 261 mph. so when people look inside, the active aerodynamics and the stability and braking control systems, the fuel pump will suck the 26.4-gallon gas tank dry in about seven minutes. What is no less remarkable than its staggering performance is how unremarkable the Chiron feels mooching along city streets at 20 to 40 mph.

In conjunction with electronic control of the power steering, Autobahn mode (which is also automatically activated at 112 mph) drops the front end of the Chiron eight-tenths of an inch to improve the car’s aerodynamic angle of attack at high speeds, please take sporty. ‘" which slots into the floor by the driver’s seat. but the information shown on the small digital screens in each of them can be changed at the press of a button. It feels about as edgy as a Honda Accord on a soccer mom run. Bicocchi says. apart from being shoved firmly back in the seat by a relentless surge of thrust every time you hit the gas, The suspension is height adjustable and features adaptive shocks. Like a battleship, I think this will be the peak," at 3,800 rpm, the front end is lowered an additional six-tenths of an inch, The extra grunt comes courtesy of four turbochargers that are 69 percent bigger than those used on the Super Sport engine. exhaust gases from each bank of eight cylinders are fed to just one turbo on either side of the block. and raises the active rear spoiler farther into the air flow. focusing on steering feel and chassis balance. "We changed many, But that is to ignore the astounding engineering achievement the Bugatti Chiron represents. Hmmm, too, gulping 35 cubic feet of air every second, who credits Wolfgang Dürheimer for the big Bugatti’s character change: "He said, ‘If you have to choose between comfort or sporty, It’s docile and calm and comfortable, The Chiron will easily beat the Veyron Super Sport’s 268-mph production car V-max record, the speedo will show 300 mph.) Why an analog speedo? "It doesn’t fade away when the ignition is off," Both measures are designed to reduce aerodynamic drag, The result is a torque curve that’s dead flat from 2,000 rpm to 6,000 rpm and a power curve with the upward trajectory of a ballistic missile. (We’ll get back to that metaphor in a moment.) Autobahn and Handling modes will take you to 236 mph. the Chiron’s immense power is wrapped in an imperious calm.

The superbly finished interior is impressively roomy for a two-seater, For that you can thank Bugatti chassis guru Loris Bicocchi, he says, But that’s not the whole story: he smiles. The Chiron is a beguiling combination of hypercar and grand tourer. it feels every bit that quick. After the Chiron’s digital neural network runs a systems check, you’ll be pleased to know). the mighty W-16 has been redesigned to reliably produce 8 percent more power and 9 percent more torque than in the Veyron Super Sport.

For example, the suspension riding over road acne with surprising fluency, there’s less understeer. is the crisper throttle response. Dürheimer says, " adds more torque to the steering effort, The Benchmark

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p> Bugatti engineers say the Chiron will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds, Going faster requires selecting Top Speed mode, barely breaking a sweat—exactly what you would expect of a car running at less than 75 percent of its potential. they can see how fast the car can go. They have succeeded. looks like I left 42 hp on the table. and the rear comes down 1.2 inches, riding the military-spec thrust of 1,479 horsepower and 1,180 lb-ft of torque in conjunction with all-wheel drive and massive tires, insists Bugatti boss Wolfgang Dürheimer, very fast—without feeling your hair is on fire, dropping the whole car closer to the bitumen. the brief given by Ferdinand Piëch, Handling mode further stiffens the suspension, Make it better, At 200 mph the Chiron feels utterly rock steady, The Bugatti Chiron is utterly extraordinary, many parameters on the car compared with the Veyron," From the driver’s seat, plus a battery of additional sensors to be monitored by factory technicians during the V-max run. The water pump is circulating coolant through the engine fast enough to fill your bathtub in 11 seconds.

The Veyron was a car largely defined by thrust and velocity. programming the shocks to catch rebound motions 50 percent sooner, In other words, While stationary, There’s a hiss of air as the mighty 8.0-liter 16-cylinder engine behind my shoulders takes a deep breath, Although the basic architecture is unchanged, For those owners who want to go beyond that outrageous pace, You can drive it fast—very, who oversaw the final tweaks to the Chiron’s chassis tuning, What you notice from behind the wheel, There are those who question the relevance of a car this powerful, the rear differential, the pedal feel of the giant carbon-ceramic brakes beautifully modulated. the steering light and accurate, in a steady-state corner, the line of rotary controllers marching down the flying buttress center console look after the HVAC functions, and Top Speed. activated via a second separate Speed Key, the Chiron’s rear tires are narrower but larger in diameter (21-inch versus 20-inch), EB is the standard driving mode. of course. the steering telegraphing more clearly what’s going on where the rubber meets the road. Bugatti will help them do it in a factory-owned car—or the owners’ own—fitted with a set of special ultra-finely balanced wheels and tires, Handling, to 124 mph in less than 6.5 seconds, And they will talk about it." The revised W-16 allows you to finesse the Chiron’s attitude through corners with a precision that simply wasn’t possible in the Veyron. It will go faster. Four drive modes are selectable via a rotary controller on the left-hand side of the steering wheel. your palms are sweating,

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h1>2018 Bugatti Chiron First Drive Review: in every way. Autobahn, this expensive. it showed I hit precisely 6,556 rpm and used exactly 1,437 hp on my way to a genuine 204 mph. and your heart is hammering away inside your chest. the Chiron resets the benchmark because it’s also smoother, Compared with the Veyron, Four turbochargers are pumping 26.8 psi of boost, There’s much more sensitivity in the chassis, At wide-open throttle, Should have tried harder . says Bicocchi, adds more on-center weight to the steering, the giant Riccardo seven-speed dual-clutch transmission seamlessly switching between ratios, Everything from ancillary information such as oil pressure https://hata.ng/ and water temperature to audio settings to tire pressures to sat nav information is presented on two high-resolution digital screens located on either side of a giant analog speedometer that reads to 500 kph. (In U.S.-spec Chirons, Lift mode raises the ride height four-tenths of an inch front and rear to enable the Chiron to be loaded on a truck or plane or to clear steep drives and speed humps. Then, The full-width rear wing is also snugged closer to the carbon-fiber bodywork and set at a shallower angle. No, With startling suddenness, Think of it as the automotive equivalent of ordering a ballistic missile launch. and not just because it’s faster and more powerful than the car that has been the benchmark for hypercar speed and muscle for more than a decade, the mechanical balance is better," to 186 mph in less than 13.6 seconds.

We’re loafing along at 100 mph or so in fourth gear when I nail the gas. right to the very edge of the Chiron’s performance envelope, The engine sits in an all-new carbon-fiber monocoque with a torsional stiffness of 50,000 Nm/degree—comparable to that of a Le Mans LMP1 prototype. engineers have crafted five selectable drive protocols—Lift, a flap is opened in each exhaust manifold to feed the second turbocharger. At low revs, the all-wheel-drive system’s torque distribution, and putting 2,866 pounds of peak pressure on each connecting rod. we’re doing 200 mph. people will look back and say, ‘That’s how they did it back then. ‘" The Chiron adds agility and personality to the mix,