Movers, Moving Company on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Short-tailed Bugatti Chiron Super Sport spied testing

One of our spy photographers has caught a rather odd Bugatti Chiron prototype out testing. It features no camouflage, which reveals that it seems to fuse a regular Chiron with the Chiron Super Sport 300+. And that begs the question, what is this? The front of the car is all Super Sport 300+. It has the revised air intakes, clusters of round vents in the hood, and big vents in the fenders. But unlike that top speed challenger, this has a normal, truncated tail from the regular Chiron. In fact, everything from the front fenders back appears to be regular Chiron. The one difference is the exhaust, which consists of two oval tips that most resemble the tailpipes of the Chiron Pur Sport. But the rear fascia is definitely regular Chiron, not the revised design of the Pur Sport. So what is it? It could simply be a mash-up of leftover Chiron parts for some kind of test mule. It could also be shortened Chiron Super Sport 300+ that will share the same 1,600-horsepower engine as the high-speed car, but without the cost of the extra aerodynamics. Whatever it is, Bugatti's testers evidently weren't happy about the spy photographer catching the car, as he reports the car was hurried into a trailer and security sent to confront the photographer and stop him from sharing the photos. So it seems Bugatti has something interesting coming, whether it looks exactly like this or just has this car's underpinnings. Related Video    

Bugatti Bolide's Le Mans-ready underpinnings highlighted

The limited-edition, track-only Bugatti Bolide uses the familiar 8.0-liter W16 engine, but writing it off as merely a rebodied Chiron would be a cruel understatement. The French company is highlighting the new monocoque it developed for the model to show some of the differences. While nothing suggests that Bugatti will enter the Bolide in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the model's carbon fiber monocoque is capable of withstanding such an arduous race because it was designed to the meet the same requirements that apply to LMDh cars. Starting with a blank slate allowed engineers to move the quad-turbocharged engine forward by about 2.4 inches to better integrate it into the monocoque.  Bugatti then turned its attention to what it calls one of the most difficult requirements to meet: rollover protection. LMDh regulations require a car to withstand a 7.5-metric-ton load on each A-pillar without bending more than approximately two inches. Additionally, the car fails this test if the A-pillar breaks within about four inches of the impact point. The upcoming Bolide passed this test as well as two other roll-over tests. There's more to safety than the ability to withstand one hell of an impact. Bugatti installed an automatic, military-grade fire extinguisher system and integrated the outer section of the headrests into the doors to facilitate the task of getting in and out of the cockpit. It also added six-point harnesses for the two passengers but it didn't forget about comfort: a high-performance climate control system comes standard. Running the air conditioning at full blast shouldn't have a noticeable effect on performance, as power comes from an 8.0-liter W16 engine that's quad-turbocharged to develop 1,578 horsepower. The Bolide weighs under 3,200 pounds and develops 6,600 pounds of downforce.  Bugatti will continue testing the Bolide in the coming months, and deliveries are scheduled to start in 2024. Production is limited to 40 units, and pricing starts at approximately ˆ4 million (about $4.29 million at the current conversion rate). Every example is already spoken for. Related video: Featured Gallery Bugatti Bolide monocoque Bugatti Coupe Racing Vehicles Performance

Mate Rimac dishes on Bugatti engines and a canceled Bugatti EV CUV

Bugatti Rimac CEO Mate Rimac gave Auto Express a look behind the scenes of his short time as head of the combined hypercar companies, as well as a peep into the CEO's crystal ball. The interview deserves a read because Rimac is the latest, closest thing we have to "garage car guy catapults himself into industry bigwig" — the hugely successful corporate antipode to Christian von Koenigsegg's hugely successful indie label. In 2007, at 19 years old, Rimac began converting his BMW 3 Series to an electric powertrain. Four years later, he showed the Rimac Concept One at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Ten years after that, he took the lead at Bugatti. He told Auto Express that as soon as he agreed with VW to lead the Molsheim luxury brand, which was two years before being installed as CEO, he and his team began working on a new internal combustion engine for a future Bugatti. Rimac said he'd already been working on a Bugatti project, ex-CEO Stephan Winkelmann having sought assistance on "an electric CUV similar to what the Ferrari Purosange turned out to be." We're told the idea was to rework the Rimac Nevera powertrain for the purpose. Once Rimac knew he was going to take over the joint venture company, the crossover was dead. Rimac said, "I knew exactly what I wanted the next car [after the Chiron] to be, and we started developing a combustion engine on our own." We will get a concept view of that powerplant next year, described as a "totally bonkers" hybrid in a car that doesn't share any parts with an existing Bugatti or Rimac. We'll probably be waiting until the last Chirons and Mistrals are produced before it hits the road, though.    As for the canceled Bugatti crossover, Rimac says that's not coming back. We've heard that from every supercar and hypercar maker that now has or will soon have an SUV, haven't we? Here's where we reach the gray area: Rimac isn't opposed to a four-seater car, he's opposed to an SUV. Regarding a car, he told AE, "I will never say we'll never do this sort of thing," but he hasn't found a "technical concept" that combines the proportions needed to make four people comfortable with what he expects from a hypercar. The SUV, on the other hand, received an unequivocal, "No. ... It was something we immediately stopped for Bugatti, and we will go in a slightly different direction. That is a direction we will never take." Keep an eye on that line in the sand.