“We spoke to customers and realized they wanted a vehicle that is geared even more towards agility and dynamic cornering. A hypersports car that yearns for country roads with as many bends as possible. An unadulterated, uncompromising driving machine,” says Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti. The result of those conversations, the $3.3 million Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport.
The over-arching theory behind the Chiron Pur Sport is similar to that of the Bugatti Divo, the $6 million Chiron-based, track-monster Bugatti showed off last year. Lighter weight, better handling and dynamics, increased grip, and wild aerodynamics are all part of the recipe, with the key difference between the two being the Chiron Pur Sport costs half that of the Divo.
Immediate takeaways from a quick glance at the Chiron Pur Sport are the two-tone paint scheme and the big aerodynamic changes, including that massive fixed rear wing. Spanning 1.9 meters across, which is just over 6-feet, the wing generates more downforce than the standard Chiron, along with the help of a new diffuser, front splitter, air inlets, and its fender vents.
Weight was also addressed, with Bugatti’s engineers reducing the Chiron Pur Sport’s overall weight by 42 pounds. Much of that was through a new wheel design that’s only available on the Chiron Pur Sport. Bugatti also found areas in the Chiron’s brakes and the rear wing, which rids it of the complicated hydraulics required for the standard adaptive wing, to cut weight. The Chiron Pur Sport also gets stiffer front and rear springs and a camber change for better handling.
One of the biggest changes in the Chiron Pur Sport is the reworked transmission. Because of the changed aerodynamics, and greater downforce loads, Bugatti had to rework the transmission as its standard top speed wouldn’t be safe. Reduced to just 217 mph it’s still faster than you’re legally allowed to go anywhere but Ehra-Lessien, El Mirage, or some stretches of the Autobahn. But that decrease shouldn’t be something to bemoan as the space between the Chiron Pur Sport’s gear ratios were also decreased, meaning the trans now fires off shifts sharper and more frequently than before.
As for that quad-turbocharged W-16 engine, nothing has been touched. The 8.0-liter engine still produces 1,500 horsepower and 1,181 pound-feet of torque. However, because of the reworked gear ratios, according to Bugatti, the Chiron Pur Sport will go from 60 kph to 120 kph two seconds quicker than the standard Chiron.
Only 60 Chiron Pur Sports will be made, 20 more than the $5.8 million Divo. “With the Chiron Pur Sport, we are showcasing an outstanding vehicle that makes your heart race shortly after having started the engine to push the limits of driving physics even further to the limit than any vehicle ever has done before. This means we have come full circle, back to the good, old Bugatti tradition”, added Winkelmann.
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