BUGATTI CHIRON A $3M BEAST,
1,500-horsepower beast is comfortable on the track and the boulevard
Le Mans-winning driver Andy Wallace issues a quick warning as he wheels the snarling blue Bugatti Chiron to a stop.
“Around the next bend, I’m going to accelerate hard, so hold on,” he says.
From Wallace, this is no idle request. In 1998, the Brit set a production-car speed record when he hit 240.1 miles per hour in a McLaren F1.
Message received. With a decent stretch of rural California highway clear ahead, Wallace mashes the machined pedal of this $3 million, 1,500-horsepower monster, and we’re off.
From a numerical standpoint, the Chiron hits 122 mph about 61⁄ seconds later and is then im2 mediately hauled down to a sane speed thanks to 16-inch disc brakes that are the size of many cars’ entire wheels.
From a physical standpoint, what happens to this passenger is immediate and unforgiving. The G-forces hollow out the stomach area in a way that recalls the Jack-in-the-stomach scene from
Alien, and the eyes involuntarily lock onto a distant point as vision tunnels.
You immediately get the sense the new Chiron, the world’s most expensive production car, doesn’t belong on roads with other socalled automobiles, that it should be sold with an exclusive pass to the best racetracks in the world.
After all, this is a car that has a top speed of 236 mph, unless you use a special key that unlocks a top speed of 261 mph. Which isn’t really the car’s maximum potential. That’s still to be determined.
All that to say taking the wheel of this beast, even temporarily and with some track experience, comes with a healthy dose of trepidation.
Initially, there’s a reluctance, despite Wallace’s urgent plea, to mash the accelerator on an open road. Remember, behind your ear are not one but two V-8 engines churning out a supernatural 1,180 feet-pounds of torque. Think sling shot, and you’re the rock.
But floor it, and you quickly see that the rush is intoxicating, not pure folly. The Chiron exhibits a poise and stability that imbues instant confidence in the driver.
At the heart of the Chiron’s ease of use is preternatural steering feedback that recalls that of the racetrack-ready Porsche GT3.
Next is a new two-stage fourturbo set-up that, as an upgrade from 2005’s revolutionary $1 mil- lion Bugatti Veyron, brings on power seamlessly and virtually eliminates turbo-lag.
Capping the show is a sophisticated suspension system with an adaptive chassis that is mated to a full carbon fiber monocoque that all combine to keep things very civilized inside the two-person, leather-wrapped interior.
What you also realize after a half-hour at the wheel of this automotive masterwork from the fabled French automaker, part of the expansive Volkswagen Group, is that as much as the Chiron seems made for Le Mans’ Mulsanne Straight, it is just as happy to toodle around town.
If you feel comfortable taking a $3 million car to the theater, hat’s off. The Chiron may exhibit a split personality on the road, but parked it’s about as subtle as Lady Gaga. Beyond the pricey carbon fiber weave showing through your color of choice, there’s the fact the car looks menacing in a
Jaws way. It is 14 feet long and 6.5 feet wide, with a body-width spoiler at the rear that could double as an ironing board. Massive 20- and 21-inch wheels anchor the four corners, with ground effects that make the car look like it’s hovering above the pavement (a twist of a dash knob raises the vehicle to avoid nasty and costly scrapes).
But all that pales in comparison to the power plant behind your head. It fires up with the slow roar of a waking lion, and when pressed into aggressive service recalls a Gulfstream G650 charging down the runway.
This is about going both back and forward in time: back to an age when craftsmen labored quietly in workshops over one-off works of vehicular art, and forward to a place where the advancements of 100 years of technology are brought to bear on the art of driving.