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Watch the first Bugatti Chiron media ride-along

Bugatti has been ramping appearances for its new Chiron hypercar since it debuted earlier this year at Geneva. Last weekend, during the Nurburgring 24, that meant giving out the very first media ride-along. Our friends at CarThrottle got to go for a spin around the Nurburgring in the 1,500-horsepower Chiron, and their chauffeur was none other than Bugatti CEO Wolfgang Durheimer. The 13-minute video covers plenty about the new car before climbing into the cabin with Durheimer, who talks through the start procedure and the detailed controls on the steering wheel. He also talks top speed, telling CarThrottle that the Chiron's Guinness World Record attempt won't come until 2018. We're going to be waiting a bit. After a lengthy chat, the pair set out on the track, escorted by a Bentley Bentayga. But at Bergwerk, Durheimer opens a gap and proceeds to punch it. Hard. It's difficult to comprehend the acceleration from watching a video, but hearing the angry whistle of the four turbochargers and the brutal upshifts give a sense of how much power is being deployed. Needless to say, he has no trouble catching up to the Bentley. Later on, Durheimer runs the Chiron up to around 200 miles per hour on the Dottinger Hohe straight. Related Video:

Wolfgang D?rheimer retakes the reins at Bentley and Bugatti

Wolfgang Dürheimer is still in play, with Bentley Motors announcing that he will return to the Chairman and CEO slot of the English company and French division Bugatti on June 1, 2014. He'll probably remember those chairs from the last time he filled them, since he was promoted to both positions in 2010 and remained there until September 2012, when he was installed as the head of R&D at Audi. That job only lasted until June of 2013, his nine-month tenure reported to be full of corporate drama that lead to his dismissal from the position.
But as if on gardening leave, he's been in the low-profile position of General Representative of the Volkswagen Group responsible for motorsport. Once back at Bentley, he will take over as the company works on getting its SUV to market and expanding its range. Both of those briefs Dürheimer will know well, having proved his ability at Porsche in the first decade of the new millennium. And even though no longer at Audi, his hybrid days don't appear to be over, as Bentley recently announced that it will hybridize of 90 percent of its lineup.
Dürheimer will also take on a third position, joining a VW Group committee focused on the US and Chinese markets. His successor at Bentley and Bugatti, Wolfgang Schreiber, has been promoted to "a leading position within the Volkswagen Group." There's a brief press release below with the official words.

Bugatti enters the car-branded hookah market

Ever look at the price of a new Veyron and wonder what they're smoking over in Molsheim? Heck, that latest special edition Vitesse costs nearly $3 million, and that's before taxes and delivery. Well, we've got the answer right here. It's a shisha pipe - the kind smoked in bedouin tents and cafés frequented by Middle Eastern gentlemen the world over - and it's branded by Bugatti.
The pipe is hand-crafted from titanium and carbon fiber (instead of the usual glass and steel) and stands about two and a half feet tall. It's made by a company called Desvall, which contrary to what you might think, is located not on the eastern or southern shores of the Mediterranean or along the Persian Gulf, but in Stockholm, Sweden.
And the price? A suitably Bugatti-like $100,000. That's a heck of a lot more than the already-outrageous $1,950 that Porsche Design gets for its shisha, which, let's face it, is basically a beautifully-crafted but overpriced water bong, to say nothing of what an average shisha would cost you in the bazaar. But we're sure there are some customers somewhere in the world who'd gladly pony up that amount to smoke a Bugatti pipe next to their Veyron in their lavishly appointed garage at the end of a sand-swept driveway. And Desvall only needs 150 of them, because that's all they're making.