Tuesday 6th March 2018

Bugatti Chiron Sport: Geneva 2018

The ultimate Top Trumps car adds another string to its considerable bow for Geneva...

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There are more super, hyper and track cars being unveiled at this year's Geneva show than you can shake a selfie stick at, and Bugatti isn't missing out on the party. It's unveiled the new Chiron Sport to the assembled masses, and claimed a small piece of motoring history in the process.

We'll get to that in a second, but first, the numbers. The Chiron Sport's 8.0-litre, quad-turbo, W16 puts out 1,500hp, propelling it from 0-62mph in under 2.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 261mph. Which is... exactly the same as a standard Chiron. Hmm.

Obviously speed and power aren't lacking in that car though, which explains why the focus with the Sport wasn't on straight line performance but instead on handling the twisty stuff a little better. To help in that regard this car now features Dynamic Torque Vectoring, shock absorbers 10 per cent stiffer than standard, the steering has been tweaked and the rear diff 'optimised'.

A total of 18kg has been hewn from the standard Chiron thanks to new lightweight alloy wheels, lighter glass for the rear window and a lighter exhaust deflector, plus the use of carbon fibre for the stabiliser, intercooler cover and windscreen wipers. There's your history right there, they're the first ever on a production car. Saving 1.4kg (77 per cent) over the standard wipers, they utlise 3D-printed aluminium tips, although there's no mention of the crazy 3D-printed brake calipers we saw earlier this year.

Individually some of these changes may sound negligible, but combined they're said to equal a five second reduction in the Chiron's lap time at Nardo's handling circuit.

Visually the Sport can be identified by its rounded quad tailpipes and a smattering of logos on the sills and centre console, while inside its black leather and alcantara interior and anodised black engine start button and drive selector set it apart. That selector is key here, the idea behind the Sport being that it should drive like a regular Chiron the majority of the time, but offer "an even sportier driving experience... with improved lateral dynamics on winding roads" when placed into its 'handling' mode.

"What was important for us was to leave unchanged the unique character of the Chiron, its combination of ultimate performance, longitudinal acceleration and maximum speed with luxury, comfort and everyday usability." says Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti. And the price for all this? Well, it's €2.65 million.

[Macboy]

Lightweight windscreen wipers. 400kg engine. Not sure what this achieves other than PR.

[Fetchez la vache]

Macboy said:

Lightweight windscreen wipers. 400kg engine. Not sure what this achieves other than PR.

More sales and revenue, at a guess.

[WCZ]

Macboy said:

Lightweight windscreen wipers. 400kg engine. Not sure what this achieves other than PR.

5 second reduction of time around nardo

I suppose with 1500bhp any weight save massively increases the bhp/tonne

[Vitorio]

WCZ said:

5 second reduction of time around nardo

I suppose with 1500bhp any weight save massively increases the bhp/tonne

The nardo time will be 99% down to the stiffer shocks, tweaked steering/rear diff and most importantly the torque vectoring, the power/weight goes from 751.5 to 758 bhp/ton, slightly less then 1%

[thatguy11]

Tinker with a couple of tiny things, make no significant changes at all, give it a fancier name and then release as an uprated model. This philosophy of releasing car models really annoys me.

We all know why they couldn't have just implemented these new details on the regular Chiron in the first place, and released the car as the best version of itself right off the bat; because now owners of the "older" Chiron will most likely have to buy this one too, because they couldn't possibly not own the absolute newest, shiniest one.

[JoshMay]

A vital time-saving tool for the busy exec!

Totally pointless, but that not the motivation here I guess. It’s another toy for the well endowed (financially) middle-aged lethario.

Give me the house and 911 that this could buy instead - ANY DAY!

[Dynamic Space Wizard]

If it's no more powerful than an ordinary Chiron I'm not buying one.

[WCZ]

thatguy11 said:

Tinker with a couple of tiny things, make no significant changes at all, give it a fancier name and then release as an uprated model. This philosophy of releasing car models really annoys me.

We all know why they couldn't have just implemented these new details on the regular Chiron in the first place, and released the car as the best version of itself right off the bat; because now owners of the "older" Chiron will most likely have to buy this one too, because they couldn't possibly not own the absolute newest, shiniest one.

different suspension and -20kg

it has more changes than the 911 T and many people on here have bought one...

the supersport version will be the big change and have the new fancy breaks, more power and even less weight, everyone knows its coming and most existing owners will wait for that instead of changing for this

[FN2TypeR]

Fetchez la vache said:

Macboy said:

Lightweight windscreen wipers. 400kg engine. Not sure what this achieves other than PR.

More sales and revenue, at a guess.

True; had it not been for the windscreen wipers I wouldn't have placed my order.

[Loyly]

Bugatti are continuing their previous model strategy of countless limited editions with minor tweaks.

[DuckAvenger]

Loyly said:

Bugatti are continuing their previous model strategy of countless limited editions with minor tweaks.

So they are doing what every carmaker is doing? Well done.

[LuS1fer]

Chitty Bang Bang, Chitty Chitty bang bang...

[Twoshoe]

Technological tour de force it may be, but it still looks bloody hideous imho.

[DooM_II]

I remember seeing carbon windscreen wipers on a Diablo SV (which means a long time ago) ?

[soad]

DooM_II said:

I remember seeing carbon windscreen wipers on a Diablo SV (which means a long time ago) ?

1995-1998?