Bugatti Chiron Sport tested, the fastest, most powerful and exotic car in the world

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Before leaving for the Autoshow in Frankfurt, I was confirmed an interview with Stefan Ellrot, Bugatti Development Director, the reason, to talk about the new record just set by the brand.

Days before, Bugatti had overcome the barrier of 300 miles per hour (304,773 mph to be precise) or 490,484 km / h in a Chiron Super Sport +, basically it is a Chiron Sport with minor modifications, mainly aerodynamic to reduce drag and so to get those speeds.

At the end of the interview, and in a few seconds of informal talk, the dream had been confirmed. I had an appointment to get to know the headquarters, the artisanal manufacturing and if it wasn't already excellent news, drive a Bugatti Chiron Sport.

That day I was in Munich, so arriving in Molsheim, France meant a journey of at least 4 hours (would have driven twice as necessary). After a couple of wrong indications by the browser almost at the end, we arrived at the place, 10 am o'clock, as we had agreed, it is not that the emotion overflowed me, but rather it was so that it is not said that Mexicans are unpunctual .

When crossing the automated door, an ultramodern building of steel and glass on the right, where each Bugatti is manufactured by hand, and on the left, a completely atypical scene dealing with the offices of a car manufacturer. Old buildings, gardens and downtown the famous classic French style house that we see in all photographs, where Ettore and his family saw his company flourish.

In one of the adjoining buildings, where customers customize every detail of their new Bugatti, the pilot Andy Wallace was waiting for me, the speed record driver who commented previously, to explain the Chiron and then accompany me to handle it.

The Bugatti Chiron Sport

The Chiron debuted in 2016 as the successor of the mythical Veyron, its not easy mission, surpassing its predecessor, whose credentials had come directly from Ferdinand's head, had made him the most powerful, expensive and of course production car; Fast in the world. In 2018, the brand made some improvements in suspension, steering and slightly reduced the weight and the hyper sports car became Chiron Sport.

The name of the model is in honor of Louis Alexandre Chiron, Bugatti pilot during the 1920s and 1930s, and who according to the brand has been the best in its history.

Nothing can be too beautiful, nothing can be too expensive, that is the motto with which Bugatti develops its products. And when you look closely at a Chiron, you can only accept that they fully comply.

For the design of the Chiron, Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic was taken as inspiration, a creation in the 30s of the great Jean, son of Ettore. The shapes are fluid and very harmonious, it is an elegant and well proportioned sports car.

Highlights the ellipse-shaped stroke that is born on post A, and begins to descend beyond the door, to return to the base of the dashboard is a hallmark that Bugatti has used throughout its history.

This form that is also very noticeable inside the car, and works as a division between passengers can even be seen, in the signature of the founder of the brand.

The soft rib born at the top of the grill crosses the awning and is accentuated to become a stylized and huge crossbar that passes over the engine and fades back into the rear wing and is also a clear allusion to the Atlantic that being of aluminum required that large central rib to rivet the body panels, since at the time there was no technology to weld or glue them.

For its part, the horseshoe-shaped grill is a reminder of how fanatical the horses were Ettore and is also a symbol present in all the cars of the brand. Finally, the rear part breaks a bit with the rest of the set, it looks more aggressive because it basically consists of giant air vents sectioned by an elongated LED line that goes from side to side.

1,500 horsepower heart

Behind the seats is an exotic and powerful six-cylinder engine in W of 8.0 liters of displacement that uses an arrangement of four turbos to deliver a whopping 1,500 hp and 1,180 lb-ft of torque that are managed by a very fast Dual clutch transmission and seven speeds. The traction is on all four wheels.

Continuing with the interesting data, the turbos are sequential, that is; that the first two come into action at low speed, while the remaining torque is at the top to guarantee an explosive but very consistent and linear torque delivery throughout the entire speed band.

This gigantic propeller needs 10 radiators and its water pump is capable of sending 757 liters of water per minute when working at maximum capacity.

Otherworldly benefits

According to Bugatti, the Chiron is capable of doing 0 - 100 km / h in 2.4 seconds, 0 - 200 km / h in 6.1 seconds, 0 - 300 km / h in 13.1 seconds and 0 - 400 km / h in 36.2 seconds To finish soon, it is exaggeratedly fast, even when it weighs 1,995 kilos.

And obviously with such acceleration capabilities, it should have a brake system that was up to the needs. Which is why the brand's engineers equipped it with a carbon-ceramic brake system with 420 mm discs with 8-piston calipers in front and 400 mm with 6-piston jaws in the back.

This system allows you to brake the 100 km / h in just 31.4 meters, the 200 km / h in 114 meters, the 300 km / h in 247 meters and the 400 km / h in 491 meters.

Minimalist and luxurious
Doors inside, everything is lined in superb quality leather by the way, or it is made of an aluminum that seems to have been sculpted and not machined, there are few decorations and buttons, even at a first impression it might seem austere. But nevertheless; The idea is precisely that it be minimalist and timeless.

The forms are dramatic and the interior creates an atmosphere of extravagance that suggests that the idea was to create art or a sculpture, rather than the interior of a car.

Even if you don't pay attention to the fact that the four large circular buttons on the board have a center display, or; that the instrument cluster has screens on each side of the speedometer, it might well look like the inside of a 1930s or 1940s car.

There is no central screen on the dashboard, these technologies get old quickly and a Bugatti has to remain in force for much longer than a conventional car.

Obviously it has a browser, a hi-end audio system, air conditioning, and other amenities that every luxury car should offer.

By the way, it is much more spacious and comfortable than you think when talking about very performance sports cars.

Handling that never fails to impress
After Andy took the Chiron Sport for several minutes to explain general operational details, it was finally my turn to get behind the wheel.

It is a combination of emotions, on the one hand; joy, curiosity and enthusiasm, on the other; Respect and fear, and that is to drive a car whose price starts at 2.5 million euros of course intimidating. An oversight, miscalculation or something even out of your control, a flat tire of another car, a dog, could end up in a big money incident. And I think that even pawning my kidneys and corneas could I pay for a Bugatti repair.

We start with some low-speed secondary roads, the purr of the engine is quiet, at low speed it does not seem to be the beast that it is, it lets you have conversations without raising your voice, the suspension is relatively smooth, it is not a Rolls Royce Phantom, but it is far from being as fast and hard as that of a Porsche 911 GT3

Turbolag? what is that? The Chiron responds to the slightest hint of the accelerator pedal, there is always torque, and when I say always, it's because true, you can drop the tachometer two thousand turns in seventh and when you press the accelerator, the reaction is instantaneous and forceful.

On leaving the highway, we were still in France, that is; It was not the German autobahns with no speed limit and second problem, there was more traffic than convenient to accelerate too much, even so, any space however small it seems is enough for the Chiron to exceed 200 km / h.

When accelerating, the roar of the engine becomes present, but it never becomes even annoying, on the contrary, it is addictive and the note is serious. On the other hand, when you stop accelerating there is a sharp sound caused by the relief valves, that symphony that you control when you press and release the accelerator pedal gradually envelops and hypnotizes you. Long live high performance combustion engines like this!

When leaving the highway, we returned to a route of secondary roads back and forth, there Andy that dominates the vicinity of the headquarters of Bugatti told me on which roads I could accelerate thoroughly and thus check the brutal accelerations that he is able to achieve the chiron.

He lowered the changes so that I only looked at the road and pressed the accelerator, in a dynamic that we made about four or five times, the spaces were small straight lines in which I could verify the bestial power of this hyper sports.

The first sensation is very similar to that produced by a Tesla Model P100D, which pushes brutally, but as we go from the first 100 km / h it gradually decays. On the contrary, in the Bugatti Chiron Sport that feeling remains the same regardless of whether it is 100 to 200, 300 km / h or more, it never stops accelerating in such an impressive way that you feel that your stomach stayed several kilometers behind.

But even more impressive than the acceleration capacity, it is the mechanical grip that the car has, even lowering at first and stopping at the accelerator, it is not necessary that the traction control is activated, the tires so wide, the efficiency of the permanent AWD and even the mass of the Chiron do the job so well that it puts 1,180 lb of torque with total efficiency on the floor.

In the small displays that are at the center of the four circular buttons on the board, the Chiron shows up, the maximum amount of power you have used on that path, below, the maximum speed you have achieved, the next, the rotation speed maximum that the engine has reached and finally, the forces G.

In my case, I used 1,366 hp, the maximum speed I achieved was 270 km / h and the maximum speed was 6,596 rpm.

I did not have much opportunity to check the curving capacity of the Chiron, in the few that I could take at a more or less representative speed, the direction was very fast and precise and the car enters as if it were on rails, it is incredibly agile considering that Approaches two tons.

Finally, the brakes are also impressive, a good braking is enough to fill you with confidence, it would not matter to go to the 420 km / h that the Chiron can go, you know that you will always stop efficiently, again and again.