Bugatti Chiron

Bugatti Chiron at a glance

From Veyron to Chiron

Bugatti, part of the Volkswagen Group since 1998, ended the Veyron after 450 cars in 2015. Bugatti presented the Chiron in Geneva on 1 March 2016. The new car kept the Veyron's basic recipe of a W16 engine behind the cabin and four-wheel drive but changed almost everything else, from the carbon structure to the turbo system. The car is named after Louis Chiron, the Monégasque driver who won the 1931 French Grand Prix in a Bugatti.

Buyers paid a €200,000 deposit, and 200 orders were already taken before any customer car was delivered. Achim Anscheidt led the design team, with Frank Heyl as head of exterior design. The car it replaced is described on our Bugatti Veyron page.

Engine and engineering

The W16 has a displacement of 7,993 cc and four turbochargers. The old version of this page described their sequential operation: two turbos work from low engine speed, and the other two join at about 3,800 rpm. Peak torque of 1,600 Nm is available from 2,000 rpm, so the engine pulls hard well before its 1,103 kW peak at 6,700 rpm.

Drive goes to both axles via a Ricardo seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and a Haldex all-wheel-drive system. The body structure is carbon fibre with a torsional stiffness of 50,000 Nm per degree. The old page also listed carbon-ceramic brakes of 420 mm at the front and 400 mm at the rear and Michelin tyres of 285/30 R20 and 355/25 R21. It named five driving modes: Lift, Auto, Autobahn, Handling and Top Speed. We found these details in one source family only.

By our calculation, which you can repeat in our power-to-weight calculator, the standard Chiron carries 1.81 kg per kW and produces about 138 kW per litre. The Super Sport, with 1,177 kW, raises the specific output to about 147 kW per litre.

Chiron versions and production numbers

The table adds up to exactly 500 cars. The largest single group, the 200 standard Chirons, accounts for 40 % of production; all limited versions together make up the other 60 %, by our calculation. The one-off La Voiture Noire has its own page.

Performance figures by version

Without the separate top-speed key, the standard car is limited to about 375–380 km/h. Owners must insert the key to unlock the full 420 km/h mode.

Two records: 41.96 seconds and 490.484 km/h

In August 2017 Juan Pablo Montoya accelerated a Chiron to 400 km/h and braked it to a standstill in 41.96 seconds at the Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany. The acceleration took 32.6 seconds and the braking 9.4 seconds. Bugatti announced the result at the Frankfurt motor show that September.

On 2 August 2019 Andy Wallace reached 490.484 km/h (304.773 mph) at Ehra-Lessien in a pre-production Chiron Super Sport 300+, with the speed verified by TÜV. It was the first time a car from a series manufacturer passed 300 mph. The 30 customer cars of the 300+ were limited to 440 km/h, and Bugatti said afterwards that it would stop chasing top-speed records.

Divo, Centodieci and other cars on the Chiron base

The Chiron's chassis and engine also carried several separate models, sold in very small numbers:

• Bugatti Divo: revealed in August 2018 at The Quail in Monterey, a handling-focused coupé limited to 40 cars.
• Bugatti Centodieci: a 2019 homage to the EB110 with ten cars delivered in 2022.
• Bolide: a track-only car, first a concept in 2020 and then a production version of 40 cars.
• W16 Mistral: the roadster revealed in August 2022, 99 cars at €5 million each, the last new body for the W16.

End of production and the Tourbillon

In October 2021 Bugatti said that about 40 Chirons remained to be built and that orders for the standard car were closed. The same year Bugatti became part of Bugatti Rimac. The last standard-specification car was finished in September 2023, and in May 2024 the 500th Chiron, L'Ultime, left the Molsheim workshop.

The successor, the Bugatti Tourbillon, was revealed on 20 June 2024. It drops the W16 and the turbos for a naturally aspirated 8.3-litre V16 developed with Cosworth and three electric motors, with a combined 1,324 kW. Bugatti plans 250 cars from 2026.

Chiron compared with Veyron and Tourbillon

The Chiron has about 25 % more power than the most powerful Veyron, and the Tourbillon adds another 12 % or so over the Chiron Super Sport. You can convert these figures with our power converter or see where the Chiron stands in our car rankings.

Buying a Chiron today

A Chiron is bought from a short list of specialist dealers and auctions, and the version matters more than the mileage. The standard car is the most common, the Pur Sport is the sharpest to drive, and the Super Sport and 300+ have the most power and the highest values. Important points are a complete service history with Bugatti, the age of the tyres and wheels, and whether the original top-speed key and all documents are present.