The boys over at Carfection were lucky enough to get their hands on a Chiron to show off to the world. And we’re happy they did, since we’ve been waiting to see what the new hypercar could offer to those wealthy enough to foot its $2.6 million price tag.
Under the hood of the Chiron sits an 8-liter, 16-cylinder engine that’s arranged in Volkswagen’s familiar “W” configuration. This gigantic engine produces 1500 horsepower and 1180 lb-ft torque, which is 300 horsepower more than the Veyron offered. But unlike the Veyron, the exhaust sounds just right—not too restrained and not too loud. If you like German V8s, you’ll love how these 16 cylinders sound. And in case you’re wondering how fast it can drink fuel, the EPA rated the Chiron at only 10 miles-per-gallon for combined highway and city driving. No surprise there.
Aside from displacement, power also comes from the hybrid quad-turbo setup. While this is nothing too new—the Veyron had the same quad configuration—the interesting part is how the turbos deliver their power. In the low-rev range, only two of the four turbos are doing the work. After the W-16 reaches 3800 rpm, the two additional turbochargers lend their additional capacity to the engine. Bugatti accomplishes this by using a valved-exhaust manifold that opens up at the aforementioned engine speed. During lower RPMs, each bank of eight cylinders provide exhaust gasses to a single turbo until the 3,800 RPM figure is met. The engine then modulates the bank’s exhaust valve and allows exhaust gasses to spin the turbine of the remaining turbocharger. This keeps the torque curve remaining fairly flat between 2,000 RPM and its 6,800 RPM redline.
The power is sent to an 8-speed automatic dual-clutch gearbox, which is something Volkswagen group is quite good at making throughout its product offerings, and a modern all-wheel-drive system is used to ensure that launches feel perfect and power is kept on the road. Torque vectoring is made use of by allowing the car to be put in several modes that dynamically control power delivery, including the overplayed “Drift Mode.” This system allows for the car to reach its sub-2.5 second 0-60 time in first gear and triple digits in second. As for top speed, the Chiron is limited to 261 mph for “safety reasons,” however, by some estimates, the car will be mechanically able to reach at least 288 mph.
