2016 Geneva Preview: The 261 MPH Bugatti Chiron is here to succeed the legendary Veyron

Humans as a species love pushing boundaries, whether it’s for the sake of advancing technology for the betterment of society, or just producing engineering marvels and showcases, just to prove to the world what we are truly capable of when we come together.

One of the very definitions of trying to break barriers is the continuous push to travel faster than we ever have before–a competition extraordinarily relevant to the automobile. And one of the very poster children of this competition has been the Bugatti Veyron, which was fairly recently, one of the world’s fastest production vehicles, ever, and was the fastest at one point.

But this was a couple of years ago and it’s been over a decade since the Veyron was originally revealed–yes, it was that long ago. Not to fret however, as its highly-touted successor, the Chiron, is finally here.

Years in the making, following countless teasers, spy photos, and causing a stir in the industry, simply because it was already hard to imagine what Bugatti could accomplish further after setting the bar in the first place. But some how, they one-upped themselves.

Just by glancing over the specs really quickly, it’s obvious the Chiron is better than the Veyron in every single way. Although it uses the same W16 as the Veyron, quad-turbochargers and all, it’s been slightly reworked to produce around 1,500PS, or 1,479hp and 1,181lb-ft of twist, which is about enough power to stop the Earth’s rotation. All that grunt is handled by a beefed-up seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and standard all-wheel drive. There’s no way a car with this much power and heft could deal with power going to just one axle.

As you could imagine, this results in blistering performance. 0-200 kph, or 124 mph, for instance, takes about as long as an Acura ILX  does to hit 60, at about 6.5 seconds. Oh, 62 already blew by at this point in less than 2.5 seconds. Find the longest stretch you can, and Bugatti says it’ll crack 261 MPH.

Around 150 Chirons have been ordered already, but production’s capped at 500 units in total worldwide, for a cool equivalent to around $2.61 million per piece.

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– By: Chris Chin

Chris Chin

Chris Chin is the Editor-In-Chief of egmCarTech and is a regular contributor to Automobile Magazine.

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