2017 Bugatti Chiron is an Aristocratic Rocket Sled

The Bugatti Veyron, despite all its record-shattering, superlative-garnering and mandible-slackening antics, is well and truly old news in 2016 A.D. Yes, even older than the humorous GIFs your mother is constantly badgering you to check out on her MySpace page. Yet how is the alpha dog of the Wolfsburg wolf pack of brands supposed to top four-digit power figures and 250+ mph top ends? By building a supercar that surpasses those (and other) figures with room to spare.

The 2017 Bugatti Chiron (named for the marque’s most prolific between-the-wars grand prix driver, Louis Chiron) is conceptually similar to its predecessor, with a carbon fiber monocoque chassis housing a mid-mounted 8.0L quad-turbo W16 driving all four wheels through a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. However, that fire-spitting freak show of an engine now makes 1,478 horsepower and 1,180 lb.-ft of torque, which Bugatti says is sufficient to dropkick this well-over-two-ton titan to 62 mph in less than 2.5 seconds on its way to an electronically limited (Limited!) top speed of 261 mph.

Interestingly, the Chiron – which will allegedly be limited to 500 units – is priced at almost exactly $10,000 for each of those miles per hour, or $2.6 million total. To put that in perspective, you could buy 72 Ford Focus RSs and have a few grand leftover; of course, the Bugatti is far, far faster and, like the Focus RS, it has a drift mode for the stability control system, because that’s exactly the sort of thing pro stick-and-ball MVPs and 19-year-old BRIC bloc oligarchs should have at their disposal. (That’s sarcasm, by the way.) But, yeah…meet the new boss, loonier than the old boss.

Source: Bugatti