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.

Watch a Bugatti Chiron arrive in style to Monaco dealership

Monaco is known as a playground for the world's ultra-wealthy, so there's no better place to draw the eye of the Bugatti Chiron's potential customers than at a dealer in the tiny city. This clip shows a shining black example of the new hypercar arriving at the showroom. While the 8.0-liter, quad-turbo W16 never gets much above an idle, the growl from the exhausts suggests great things at higher revs. The dark color stands out well on the showroom's white floor. The chrome trim around the doors and intakes also adds a little bit of bling, and the light blue brake calipers provide a nice flash of color. The same turquoise shade appears inside on the center console and seatbelts. It's hard to spot many other details inside because the seats and steering wheel have protective coverings. Even the driver wears white gloves to keep the interior immaculate. Bugatti plans to make just 500 examples of the Chiron for about $2.6 million each, so seeing one is a rare treat, especially this early. They are starting to pop up, though, like this blue one in Manhattan. If you want to hear the Chiron throw a few more revs, this clip from March offers another tease of the upgraded engine's sound.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport [w/video]

Getting Intimate With The Supercar On A 479-Mile Road Trip
It's nearly impossible to secure seat time in a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport. Not only are they hard to find (production volume in the low hundreds makes the supercar as rare as active members of the Right Said Fred fan club), but the $2 million sticker price dissuades most owners from handing over their sacred keys. When an opportunity to drive one of the world's fastest vehicles does present itself, it is most often a short jaunt on a restricted route, as each mile on the odometer is understandably very precious.
But some of us do win the lottery.