Bugatti took the Centodieci and Chiron Super Sport 300+ around the Nürburgring!
The French automaker reached the Green Hell in Germany for its usual annual trip to test its fleet. Boy do I wish I was there!
When you are a premium automotive brand like Bugatti, having a fleet of over 20 million euros is just not enough. You constantly need to push the boundaries. As they say, “There’s always room for improvement“.
The French marque has recently been spotted testing the gorgeous and insanely fast Centodieci hypercar and Chiron Super Sport 300+ on the Nurburgring.
“We want to achieve the best possible chassis setup for our customers, so we perform test-drives under extreme conditions as well as in day-to-day situations,” said Lars Fischer, Head of Chassis Testing and Setup at Bugatti. Well if your least expensive offering exceeds two million euros, nothing should be left to chance, right!
The development engineers at Bugatti are currently trying to study the handling characteristics from the current Divo and Chiron Sport to benchmark new models such as the Centodieci. The Chiron Super Sport 300+ for example is designed in a way not just to handle straight line speeds of up to 440 kmph even with the its extra long dimensions, but to also handle the tight corners with precession at those speeds. And what better place to test and develop those skills than the Nurburgring! With 33 left-hand, and 40 right-hand bends, the 21 km long circuit is the perfect playground for the world’s most exotic hypercars.
“The Chiron Super Sport 300+ naturally has to likewise deliver a very high-performance drive on narrow tracks,” explains Jachin Schwalbe, Bugatti’s vehicle development director. Once track testing is done, the cars are taken on ordinary public roads to further optimize the handling characteristics and driving behaviour.
Bugatti’s trip to the “Green Hell” in Germany is an annual ritual. Every year the French automaker comes to the Nürburgring circuit with a handful of hypercars as part of its development program for its current and future models. This year’s fleet includes four of the most powerful surface-to-surface missiles (disguised as cars) – the Centodieci, the Divo, the Chiron Super Sport 300+ and the Chiron Pur Sport.
Talking of the Pur Sport, with its chassis optimized for dynamic driving on winding tracks, this model offers 1,500 hp and 1,600 Nm of torque. Its cornering speed is optimized by firmer springs, optimized electronic traction control, a gearbox with 15% shorter ratios. Siting over four magnesium and carbon fiber rims shod with Michelin Cup Sport 2R tires, the Pur Sport comes out like a bullet from the corners of the Green Hell.
Coming to the most expensive duo of the French fleet, the Divo and Centodieci, priced respectively at 5 million euros and 8 million euros per unit. “We are putting in as much development and testing effort for the small Centodieci series as for the Chiron,” said Schwalbe. The dynamic behavior certainly remarkable is coupled with a particularly demonstrative and spectacular bodywork on the Centodieci. In addition to being efficient on the road and on the track, these models are breathing example of Bugatti’s true work of art on wheels.
