2017 Tesla Model X P100d on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The Bugatti Chiron is reported to top 290 mph

The Bugatti Chiron will have quite an act to follow, considering that the Veyron was one of the fastest automobiles ever made. We may have to wait until the Geneva Motor Show for its unveiling, but a magazine out of the Czech Republic claims to have some preliminary details, which it ran on Facebook with the holiday greetings the company distributed via email. It does not look like the Chiron will disappoint. Citing information it claims to have received from a customer presentation, ProDriver magazine reports that the Chiron will top out at 467 kilometers per hour – that's over 290 miles per hour, hitting 62 along the way in just 2.2 seconds. Its speedometer is said to run all the way up to 500 km/h (311 mph). Finding another 22 miles at those speeds is no mean feat. And to get there, the engineers in Molsheim are tipped to have squeezed 1,500 horsepower and an equal number of newton-meters of torque (1,106 lb-ft by our standards) into the two-seat supercar. Those figures are expected to come in part thanks to a pair of electric turbochargers (and another couple of conventional ones) bolted to the 8.0-liter W16 engine. Of course none of that will come cheap, with a price tag said to start at a cool 2 million euros ($2.17m at current exchange rates). Bugatti is tipped to make only 100 examples every year for the next five. Of those, 130 units have reportedly already been spoken for, sight unseen. Related Video:

No expense spared: Bugatti explains how it 3D-prints exotic metal parts

Bugatti deputy design director Frank Heyl told Autoblog his team doesn't balk at using the most expensive materials available, and he meant it. The company described how it 3D-prints titanium and alloy parts to save weight. Look closely at the back end of the 304-mph Chiron Super Sport 300+ or the agile Chiron Pur Sport and you'll spot 3D-printed titanium components. They're the intricately-designed covers installed over the exhaust pipes; they stick out from the carbon fiber diffuser. Each part weighs four pounds, which makes it 2.6 pounds lighter than the one fitted to the standard Chiron. It's one of the weight-saving measures Bugatti took to create both cars. Manufacturing the part requires firing up four 400-watt lasers that stack 4,200 individual layers of metal powder on top of each other while fusing them. The part is extremely thin in places but remarkably solid thanks to what Bugatti refers to as a "bionic honeycomb" structure, and it's capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. That might sound like overkill, but keep in mind the cover is on the receiving end of a 1,500-horsepower, 16-cylinder engine. The exhaust system gets really hot, really quickly under heavy acceleration. Bugatti began using 3D printing in 2018, and now the Chiron Sport, the Divo, the one-off La Voiture Noire, and the Centodieci all use components made with 3D-printed metals. The part that covers the Sport's four visible exhaust tips (there are six in total) is notably manufactured using Inconel 718, a nickel-chrome alloy whose audial resemblance to a mid-engined model is purely coincidental; it's not a blend of molten Porsches. It's a material normally used in gas turbines, the blades attached to airplane engines, space ships, and even rocket engines. Making the cover takes several days. Engineers scan every part they produce with a computer tomograph to detect air bubbles that can get trapped between the layers during the printing process. If there are none, the part is blasted with a material named corundum, painted, and sent to the Bugatti Atelier in Molsheim, France, where it's checked yet again before it's installed on the car. Few exhaust tips have such a fascinating story to tell. "The advantage of the 3D printing process lies in the geometric shapes that are possible," said Nils Weimann, Bugatti's head of body development.

Bugatti shows how its Vision Gran Turismo became reality

Plenty of automakers have taken part in the Vision Gran Turismo program. But few have foretold the future quite as clearly or as enticingly as Bugatti's. And now it's showing us what went into the process of creating the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo. Unveiled last month at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Molsheim's creation isn't just a stand-alone design that exists only in cyber-space. Even if it isn't actually drivable, the Alsatian automaker is one of just a handful of participating automakers that actually built its design into a full-scale mockup, all curves, sinew, aggressive aero, and purposeful intent done up in French Racing Blue. The concept shows us what the successor to the legendary Veyron could look like. Picture it without all the racetrack-specific appendages - from the proliferate winglets to the various decals - and this could be what the hypercar tipped to be called Chiron will look like. And it looks a lot meaner than the rounded-off Veyron ever did. Related Video: