Let’s start the week with some posh. Very posh. And expensive. Very, very expensive. It’s the mid-engine, two-seater sports car developed by Bugatti and is the successor to the Veyron.

Bugatti is based in the French town of Molsheim but is part of the VW Group.

The car is named after the race car driver Louis Chiron, and fittingly has a top speed of a staggering 420km/h. 

The Chiron is categorised as a hypercar with only 500 to be made, and it has a “starting” price from NZ$4.5milion up to $5.85m. Yup, for that price you could buy a French village with a chateau. 

I’ve only been lucky enough to look at Chiron at the Geneva motor show, with only potential buyers allowed to sit in one.

But a few motoring writers have driven the Chiron, though under supervision, because as Bugatti test pilot and former F1 and GT racer, Pierre-Henri Raphanel, said to one jouro, “Just remember, it has 500bhp (375kW) more than a current F1 car, but it drives very nicely at slow speeds.” 

Top Gear

“The Chiron is not a hybrid. Unlike its closest competitors – the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 – it relies solely on fossil fuels. Its engine is a development of the Veyron’s 8-litre quad-turbo W16 [producing 1118kW/1600Nm], its gearbox a strengthened version of the Veyron’s seven-speed twin-clutch, and like the Veyron it deploys its immense power through all four wheels.

“If we went with hybrid we would have added additional weight. We would have experienced package constraints, too, because this car doesn’t have any areas where you can put additional stuff, so the styling would need to change,” Bugatti explained.

“We will dramatically raise the bar in terms of top speed, we will dramatically increase the power by 25 per cent, the aerodynamics are better, the road holding is better. We didn’t need a hybrid.”

Clearly this is a game of very senior numbers, so here’s some more. It will accelerate from 0-100km/h in less than 2.5 seconds, 0-200km in less than 6.5 and 0-300km/h in under 13.6. Take a moment to let that last one sink in. That’s 2.9 seconds faster than a P1.”

Autocar UK

“Among the materials there is leather, obviously, and metal, obviously, and not a lot else inside the Chiron. It feels beautifully assembled because it will be, but the leather covering is firm, not soft, because you’re aware that with weight to save – hey, we’ve 275mph to do – adding tens of kilos of insulation is a premium one cannot afford. 

But there are reminders that this is a £2.5m car, as you’d hope. Stitching is lovely and the gaps between materials are nanometre perfect. The world’s longest automotive lighting bar, it says here, swoops around behind you, enhancing a feeling of separation between driver and passenger while splitting the view rearwards in two and making you wonder how they’ll do a convertible and how much floppier it’ll be. 

The seats are supportive, not broad, and electrically adjusted, but the cabin feels wide. The steering wheel gets manual adjustment, a start button, a drive mode selector and shift paddles. The handbrake is electronic, the centre console ultra-slim (hence the swoopy bar, to add perceived width and strength down the car’s centre) and covered in a piece of beautifully machined and satin-polished metal, adorned with knobs that turn with the oiliness of those on a top-end hi-fi. There’s still a special key if you want to unlock the full 420km/h top speed.”

Car Advice

The Aussie journo headed to Dubai to test it with Bugatti test pilot Raphanel next to him.

“‘Did you remember your flight wings?’ Raphanel joked as I shifted the lever across to sport in preparation for a full-on acceleration assault. With a 500km/h calibrated speedo, the needle barely lifted and I was already doing 60km/h in what seemed like the instant I lifted my foot off the brake.

As it shifted into second gear, we brushed past 100km/h scarcely a second later, which was when I heard the giant whoosh from the second pair of turbos engaging behind me that kicked it through 160km/h as the needle pointed to the 10 o’clock position.

Two seconds later, the needle was sitting upright in the middle facing north indicating 250km/h, just over six seconds after I had released the handbrake.

By now only my peripheral vision was registering the speedo, which showed the needle at one o’clock and with plenty to go. I kept my foot buried, not realising that the one o’clock mark signalled 300km/h.

After 16 seconds of full throttle in a Bugatti Chiron Sport, I decided enough was enough and rolled out of it, having touched 315km/h but scarily it was still pulling like a train, urging me on to 400.

However, this was in the middle of a typical Dubai sandstorm, so visibility was reduced and grip levels were akin to black ice with sand drifts sweeping the road, but never once did it put a foot wrong.”

Motor magazine

Georg Kacher had it for 24 hours, leaving central Munich with a full tank of gas.

“The Chiron is a sexy and stylish piece of automotive art. It’s dripping in presence, both inside and out. However, it’s surprisingly useful and bigger internally than the broad-shouldered, ground-hugging stance suggests.

It’s lunchtime and the Maccas drive-thru isn’t quite wide enough for this valuable and vulnerable icon. The ancient parking structure near the Dome is littered with potentially crippling ramp angles. Anxiety levels must be managed when driving A$3.6m worth of hypercar.

The Chiron’s appetite is ravenous and, unlike me, requires something more highbrow than a Big Mac. While filling up, the petrol-station attendant refuses to believe that eleven minutes at maximum speed is all it takes to suck the 100-litre tank bone dry.

For safety, it’s paramount to always keep an eye on the tyre-pressure monitor and temps when flexing your right foot, ensuring maximum grip for spirited stints. Anything outside the optimal operating window is asking for trouble.

There’s oddities, too, with the steering offering a hopeless 12.5m turning circle, yet flicks from lock to lock in an ultra-quick 1.25 turns. However, as you’d expect, there’s also much to marvel. Check out the massive AP Racing brakes boasting cooling apertures twice as large as the Veyron and a massive heat shield to prevent the Michelins from melting.

Cards on the table, the fastest I drove the Chiron (on an Autobahn, of course) was 365km/h. This kind of velocity calls on all seven senses and ultimate concentration. Beyond 320km/h even minute changes of direction become noticeable inputs and braking distances are calculated by the kilometre. You need to be so far ahead of the game that if you’re reacting to something in plain sight, it’s already too late. Thrills don’t get much bigger than this.”