2012 Bugatti Veyron on 2040-cars

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Bugatti Chiron storms Geneva with 1,500 horsepower

The LaFerrari, McLaren P1, and Porsche 918 Spyder have all come and gone, yet people the world over still put one hypercar on a pedestal above them all. It might not have had the hybrid electric power that the last wave of contenders used, but the Bugatti Veyron supplanted that with sheer animal brutality. Don't expect the Chiron to be any different. The Veyron had 1,000 horsepower when Bugatti launched it in 2005. The Chiron will have almost 500 more than that. Five. Hundred. Time will tell if Bugatti has rewritten the rulebook, like it did with the Veyron, but the Chiron's numbers are truly frightening. The 8.0-liter, quad-turbo W16 motor still sits behind the two-seat cabin, only now it thumps out – wait for it – 1,478 hp. It's the most powerful production street car the world has ever seen. If that's unimpressive, the W16 tortures its seven-speed dual-clutch transmission with 1,180 pound-feet of torque, too. That torque peaks at 2,000 rpm, and stays strong until full horsepower is delivered at 6,700 rpm. The turbos themselves are larger, capable of cramming in more air at higher pressures and the entire breathing and cooling system is all new. There's a new carbon-fiber inlet manifold, six catalytic converters and a titanium exhaust system that reduces the back pressure. The Chiron is about 340 pounds heavier than the Veyron, too, with Bugatti claiming 4,400 pounds, and that's a dry weight, without 26 gallons of gasoline licking the top of the tank. And it has a drift mode. For the demonstrably insane. A freaking drift mode. View 16 Photos Bugatti has once again limited the Chiron to a production run of just 500 cars and, before you ask, it'll take $2.6 million in spare change to secure one. Bugatti says it already has an order bank of 150 cars, or $390 million in fresh cashflow. The Chiron runs up to a limited top speed of 261 miles per hour. With the Veyron already at the limits of longitudinal acceleration, Bugatti says only that the Chiron will crunch through to 62 mph in less than 2.5 seconds, though the 0-62-mph sprint is less relevant to hypercars than it used to be. Perhaps more frightening is that it will burst from 0-124 mph in less than 6.5 seconds. Or that it rips from 0-186 mph in 13.5 seconds, a full three seconds quicker than the original Veyron.

Bugatti brings 5 of its most storied classic models back home

The average Bugatti buyer already has dozens of cars and likely owns one of the brand’s eye-popping cars before adding another to the stable. The automaker met with one of its most storied collectors in recent years, but it wasnÂ’t hoping to sell him another car. Bugatti wanted to keep and preserve his vehicles, several of which were deeply involved in its growth as a motorsport and luxury icon. The automaker succeeded and now has brought a sizable chunk of its history home.  Hans Matti is the Registrar of the Bugatti Club Suisse and has amassed one of the world's most impressive collections of classic Bugatti cars. His stable held a Bugatti Type 51, a Type 37A, a Type 49 Faux cabriolet, a Type 35B, and a Type 35A. The cars each feature incredible stories, including the Type 51 with its Grand Prix racing history and a Type 49 that was Jean BugattiÂ’s personal car. The vehicle is thought to be the only one in the world with the Faux Cabriolet bodywork done at the Bugatti factory. The Type 51 was a factory race car driven by Louis Chiron. Bugatti says the Type 35A carries the engine, gearbox, and rear axle from one of its Type 36 race cars, both of which were destroyed. The Type 37A dates back to 1929 and still races today. It features a supercharger on its four-cylinder engine, which gave it a 120-mph top speed. Bugatti notes that only 76 cars were supercharged. The five cars have now made their way to Bugatti, where they rest in the Chateau Saint Jean, which Ettore Bugatti purchased to entertain customers. TheyÂ’ll be kept exactly as they are, with original paint, rivets, and other components.

Volkswagen building budget car family planned for China in 2018

Volkswagen has publicly pondered a low-cost car for China, something akin to Nissan's Datsun revival in Southeast Asia, for at least three years. In 2013 it tapped Chinese partner FAW to help develop an entire budget brand, with plans to have something on the market in 2016 in the 6,000- to 8,000-euro range. About a year ago, VW said it couldn't figure out how to engineer an inexpensive car that didn't run counter to the brand's values, then three weeks later said it had overcome the issues. Reuters now reports that VW CEO Martin Winterkorn told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, "We will bring a budget-car family to market in 2018, with an SUV, saloon and hatchback." Winterkorn didn't offer any other details like who VW would work with to build it - VW has partnerships with both FAW and SAIC, but the announcement will be welcomed by the brand's Chinese outpost. When this adventure started, VW said it was working to create a model that would cost 6,000 to 8,000 euro. That estimate has increased. Winterkorn is now saying the 2018 offerings will come in between 8,000 and 11,000 euro. In a straight euro-to-yuan conversion, that would equate to Chinese pricing of 56,000 to 77,000 yuan. For comparison, the New Polo with a 1.4-liter engine and a manual transmission starts at 85,900 yuan. Perhaps with an eye on the success of the Nissan-Renault sub-brand Dacia in Europe and emerging markets, Winterkorn told Bild, "We will see if this is something of interest for other markets as well." On the opposite end of the price/performance spectrum, Winterkorn also said that VW is working on two new models for Bugatti, one powered by a traditional gasoline engine and another with some sort of hybrid setup. The latter model would reportedly be the higher-performing of the two, though it's not clear whether there would be two vehicle lines or two versions of the same vehicle. As ever, as soon as we know more, so will you.