Bugatti has revealed the new 2017 Bugatti Chiron, the successor to the speed record holder model Veyron. With improved performances, it will be available for 500 customers only. They will pay at least 2.5 million US dollars.

Will Bugatti Chiron, beside records, manage to make profits?

The new fastest car in the world is born. This is a new Bugatti Chiron, the successor to the legendary Bugatti Veyron. Like its predecessor, Chiron is the absolute peak of the automotive engineering. Volkswagen Group, the owner of the Bugatti, hope that beside speed record it will also bring profits to their treasury. This fact was not the case in the Veyron story, because with each Veyron sold, the Volkswagen Group lost around 6 million US dollars (estimated value).

New Bugatti Chiron performance: sixteen cylinder engine, four-wheel drive, top speed limited to 420 kilometers per hour (for now)

For the purpose of Chiron, Bugatti upgraded eight-liter W16 engine from Veyron. This is now capable of 1.500 horsepower and 1,600 Newton meter of torque. Chiron accelerates  from zero to 100 kilometers per hour acceleration in less than 2.5 seconds (0,1 second faster than recently presented Rimac Concept One electric supercar), maximum speed is electronically limited to 420 kilometers per hour. Chiron has 300 horsepower more than the Veyron Super Sport, the basic version top speed is for now slightly lower than the Veyron’s record at 430.9 kilometers per hour.

At Bugatti they guarantee that Chiron will get faster version. Based on the total power output and on the fact that the speedometer has numbers up to 500 kilometers per hour, we have no choice but to believe them.

The power is transmitted to all four wheels. For effective cooling the engine needs 60 thousand liters of air and 800 liters of water every minute.

For the increased performance the engineers used larger turbochargers, a more powerful clutch, the exhaust system made of titanium, adaptive chassis. Bugatti Chiron will also use special tires, produced specially for this car model (presumably 20-inch 285/30 front and 21-inch 355/25 rear, Michelin). More about the technical details of the new Chiron in the coming days.

One third of the planned 500 examples have already been sold

Bugatti will produce 500 examples. They will begin to deliver cars to customers this autumn. According to the representatives of the French brand, they have already sold a third of the planned vehicles. Base price for Bugatti Chiron is 2.5 million USD. Bugatti intends to collect a total of 1.25 billion dollars to its account.

Some potential buyers could be unsatisfied. Why?

Is Chiron really the most exclusive car at the moment? If you had 2.5 million available for the car, would you give it to Bugatti? One third of the limited series of 500 vehicles has already been sold, which means that the argument of the (numerical) exclusivity flew through the window.

Pagani, Koenigsegg and similar sell their mega athletes in much smaller numbers. Technically, they often use a hybrid approach (do not forget the McLaren P1, Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder) and even more technically adventurous active aerodynamics.

We also heard the rumors that some potential buyers, mostly Veyron owners, are largely unsatisfied. When the image of the Bugatti Chiron, including its otherwise impressive technical data, circled the world, the word “facelift” has been repeatedly used.

Successor is not as revolutionary as the original

Four new and larger turbochargers, an optimized electronic support, namely a completely new fuel injection system with 32 individual injectors, titanium exhaust and six catalytic converters, five driving programs, including one that allows “drifting” are interesting. But not as revolutionary as it was the original Veyron. A decade ago Veyron turned upside down everything we knew and expected from a super sport car.

Image credit: Bugatti