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Bugatti Chiron gets soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo's seal of approval

The first few Bugatti Chirons are about to hit the street, but before that happens the French automaker allowed soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to get behind the wheel. As Bugatti puts it, the automaker wanted to give "a real champion" the chance to drive and approve of the 1,500-horsepower luxury cruise missile before it officially hits the road. The short video shows that even in a garage full of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, and a Rolls-Royce, the Chiron stands out. The video features a brief glimpse at Ronaldo's impressive collection of cars just before the low rumble of 16-turbocharged cylinders rolls in with test driver Andy Wallace behind the wheel. Wallace won the 24 Hours of Le Mans but is probably most famous for setting the McLaren F1's top speed record in 1998. Few drivers in the world are more qualified to drive what is believed to be the fastest production car ever built. After Ronaldo steps inside, the video cuts to some clips of the Portuguese player blasting around the track. We're not sure if it's really Ronaldo behind the wheel, but it is fun to see the Chiron in action. In the end Wallace tells Ronaldo he must make a call to Bugatti if he wants to keep it. Ronaldo apologizes to his other cars and picks up his phone. Related Video: News Source: YouTube/Bugatti Celebrities Bugatti Coupe Luxury Supercars Videos viral video hypercar Bugatti Chiron top speed

The Bugatti Chiron sounds like an absolute monster

Most of us will never drive, or own, a Bugatti Chiron. Actually, most of us will never even see one. The closest we'll probably get is stuff like this video. So with that in mind, we bring the first of what will probably be many, many videos. This one comes directly from the floor of the Geneva Motor Show and was obtained by the team at Auto Express after they slipped the Chiron's handlers a few euros (probably). The Bug idles, then raises its spoiler and gives an ever-so-brief bark from its quad-turbocharged W16 engine. It sounds good and menacing, but how does it sound next to its older brother, the Veyron? Well, not surprisingly the two cars sound a lot alike. They use broadly identical 8.0-liter, 16-cylinder engines with four turbochargers, but the new Chiron has nearly 300 horsepower more than the Veyron Super Sport shown in the video below. That makes us think that once we finally see the Chiron in motion, it'll be a much faster, but not necessarily much noisier, Veyron. Check out the Chiron giving a bark at the top of the page, and then scroll down to see Shmee150 get a close up with a Veyron Super Sport, for a unofficial comparison of the two noises.

Bugatti 100P airplane reconstructed, will fly again after public debut

Bugatti has been building some of the fastest vehicles in the world since 1909, but its brief history with airplane racing is less well known to many fans. It started in the '30s when founder Ettore Bugatti believed he could build a plane to win the Deutsch de la Merthe Cup Race. He worked on a design called the 100P that never flew. At least, it never flew until a group of Bugatti fanatics called Le Reve Blue decided to build an exact replica of the plane at the Mullin Automotive Museum's Art of Bugatti exhibition. The plane will make its public debut on March 25 in Oxnard, California.
The 100P was on the cutting edge for 1930s aircraft. It used two Bugatti-built 4.9-liter, straight-eight engines with 450 horsepower each to power two counter-rotating props mounted in tandem at the front of the plane. It boasts an estimated top speed of around 500 miles per hour. Other amazing features for the time included the V-shaped tail, forward-pitched wings and a zero-drag cooling system.
Le Reve Blue took on the project in 2009 to create a replica using the same materials and production processes as the original. The group decided to unveil the finished project at the Mullin because of the museum's commitment to Art Deco and machine-age design. It plans to actually fly the plane at some point in the future as well.