At “The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering” on Friday, Bugatti unveiled its new $5.8 million hypercar, named the Divo after two-time Targa Florio winner Albert Divo.
Bugatti makes clear that the Chiron-based Divo escalates the already-outrageous performance of the car from which it is derived, ratcheting the Chiron’s superlatives further skyward. Downforce increases by 198 pounds courtesy of a rear wing 23 percent wider than that of the Chiron, and totals 1,005 pounds versus the Chiron’s 807.
Because of a carbon fiber intercooler shroud, lightened wheels, fixed front diffuser flaps, thinner insulation and a lighter sound system, weight dips by 77 pounds. This, with the added downforce, allows the Divo to generate 1.6 G of lateral acceleration. Though drag is added by the amplified downforce, top speed is electronically limited to 236 miles per hour. It’ll reach that speed pretty damn quickly, too, as the Divo’s eight-liter, quad-turbo W-16 engine will flatten the tarmac before it with 1,478 horsepower (1,500 ps).
These performance augmentations and some undisclosed tweaks to the chassis and suspension make the Divo eight seconds per lap faster around the handling circuit of the Nardò Ring test track than the Chiron. Despite its racetrack-focused development, the Divo isn’t just some track toy confined to the safety of smooth tarmac; it’s a fully-fledged road car, and can be driven as such.
But not by you or me, because despite costing €5 million ($5.8 million USD) apiece—almost twice what the Chiron costs—Bugatti sold all 40 Divos before the car was even known to the public.
“When I took up my position at Bugatti at the beginning of the year, I soon learnt that our customers and fans were waiting for a special vehicle which would tell a further story for the brand in addition to the Chiron,” stated Stephan Winkelmann, Bugatti’s CEO, in the automaker’s press release. “The Bugatti team was also very eager to implement a project like this.”
“The feedback from our customers was overwhelming,” Winkelmann continued. “We showed the Divo to a small group of selected Chiron customers. All 40 cars were sold immediately—this was fantastic confirmation for the Bugatti team which had put so much dedication and passion into the project.”
“The modern interpretation of coachbuilding gave us engineers new freedom,” added Stefan Ellrott, head of technical development at Bugatti. “The step that we have taken with the Divo interms of agility and high-performance cornering dynamics can be compared with the overall development from the Veyron to the Chiron.”