AutoDriving the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport is a fitting finale to internal combustionThe last of its breed goes out with a bangWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
AutoDriving the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport is a fitting finale to internal combustionThe last of its breed goes out with a bangWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The last of its breed goes out with a bang
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Bugatti)
(Image credit: Bugatti)
Forty-five minutes behind the wheel of a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport is scarcely enough time to scratch the surface. But that’s all I had to work with, so I’ll give it my best shot.
The eight-litre, 16-cylinder, quad-turbocharged engine of a Chiron Super Sport weighs more than aCaterhamand produces 1,600 horsepower. It accelerates the car from rest to 62 mph (100km/h) in 2.4 seconds and to 186 mph (300km/h) in 12.1 seconds. The top speed is electronically limited to 273 mph, and at that speed the 100-litre fuel tank is emptied in nine minutes. At maximum power, the engine is gulping in 70,000 litres of air per minute, while cooling water is pumped through at a rate of almost 17 litres per second. Remove the limiter and it’ll do 304 mph.
And yet, all of that is completely hidden when driving through a sleepy French town at 30 mph. That’s where my time with the Chiron Super Sport began, demonstrating its ability to work like a normal car, navigating junctions and roundabouts while its power steering, air conditioning and automatic gearbox fail to offer even a hint of what lies beneath.
(Image credit: Alistair Charlton)
(Image credit: Alistair Charlton)
To say the big Bugatti feels like a Volkswagen Golf would be to do it a disservice, but it feels entirely like a Bentley. The leather is as soft and supple, the controls have the same beautiful weight and tactility, the cabin is almost as quiet and the ride, while as firm as you’d expect from a near-two-tonne supercar, is perfectly comfortable. I’m sure you could drive the length of France without really noticing, just so long as you close your eyes at the petrol stations.
Although it has a Porsche 911’s worth of extra power, the Chiron quietly rumbles along, fulfilling Bugatti’s original brief for its predecessor, the Veyron, that it must be a 250+mph car capable of driving to the opera.
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This is also, Bugatti points out, a car that has already been sold to a customer. Bugatti doesn’t have a press fleet of cars for journalists to try out; once retired from media duties, this one will be dismantled and rebuilt to the buyer’s specification. I’m also told the average buyer adds around €300,000 of optional extras to personalise their Chiron.
(Image credit: Bugatti)
(Image credit: Bugatti)
Back to the driving, and all it takes is a prod of the accelerator to switch from well-mannered Dr Jekyll to monstrous Mr Hyde. Take control of the eight-speed gearbox with paddles behind the steering wheel, or leave it to do its own thing. Either way, pushing the accelerator to the carpet is to unleash otherworldly performance. The Chiron catapults towards the horizon with the same intensity as the most potent electric cars, but where their assault is over just as quickly as it began, air resistance overcoming power, the Bugatti’s acceleration is seemingly endless.
(Image credit: Bugatti Rimac)
(Image credit: Bugatti Rimac)
On that note, it is perhaps a fitting curtain call for the internally-combusted motorcar. Bugatti has just announced the Mistral, pictured above, a Chiron-based roadster limited to 99 examples (all sold, before you reach for your Amex) and to be the final outing of the company’s W16 engine.
As Mate Rimac takes the helm of the newly named Bugatti Rimac – and with former owner Volkswagen relinquishing control to Porsche and Mate’s Croatian EV startup Rimac Automobili – the company’s next engine will be a hybrid. Eventually, just like everyone else, Bugatti will likely become a manufacturer of all-electric cars. They will undoubtedly be fast, and surely even quicker than the Chiron Super Sport, but they will be more closely related to theRimac Neveraof today than the Veyron of the past.
This article is part ofThe T3 Edit, a collaboration between T3 and Wallpaper* which explores the very best blends of design, craft, and technology. Wallpaper* magazine is the world’s leading authority on contemporary design and The T3 Edit is your essential guide to what’s new and what’s next.
This article is part ofThe T3 Edit, a collaboration between T3 and Wallpaper* which explores the very best blends of design, craft, and technology. Wallpaper* magazine is the world’s leading authority on contemporary design and The T3 Edit is your essential guide to what’s new and what’s next.
This article is part ofThe T3 Edit, a collaboration between T3 and Wallpaper* which explores the very best blends of design, craft, and technology. Wallpaper* magazine is the world’s leading authority on contemporary design and The T3 Edit is your essential guide to what’s new and what’s next.
This article is part ofThe T3 Edit, a collaboration between T3 and Wallpaper* which explores the very best blends of design, craft, and technology. Wallpaper* magazine is the world’s leading authority on contemporary design and The T3 Edit is your essential guide to what’s new and what’s next.
This article is part ofThe T3 Edit, a collaboration between T3 and Wallpaper* which explores the very best blends of design, craft, and technology. Wallpaper* magazine is the world’s leading authority on contemporary design and The T3 Edit is your essential guide to what’s new and what’s next.
This article is part ofThe T3 Edit, a collaboration between T3 and Wallpaper* which explores the very best blends of design, craft, and technology. Wallpaper* magazine is the world’s leading authority on contemporary design and The T3 Edit is your essential guide to what’s new and what’s next.
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