Bugatti goes track and field with it's Chiron Pur Sport
By Brent vd Schyff
With COVID restrictions being lifted, Bugatti isn’t wasting any time getting back to work on fine-tuning their track and field all-star in the team under the Chiron Pur Sport Monark. We may need to dust off the drug test for this athlete.
The Chiron Pur Sport gets ready for Summer by trimming down 50kg, adding 50 kg of downforce, the softer compound Michelin Cup Sport 2R tyres, a flash to the gearbox enabling it to achieve 15% quicker shifts and suspension modifications to enhance camber setup. The result is that the Chiron Pur Sport will accelerate from 60km/h to 120km/h, in 6th gear, almost 2 seconds faster than the existing Chiron. This standard go-to-recipe for better handling is an age-old technique in the race car box of tools but will mean that the trade-off is in the unseating of the top end speed ability of the existing Chiron from 420 km/h to 351km/h. Sarcasm, right? Bear in mind that the purpose of the Chiron Pur Sport is that it’s an overall package in track performance and not a top-end speed hunter. Think Usain Bolt in the 100 meters sprint vs the 400 meters.
What’s important to note is that despite the complexity of the technology used, the role of the performance driver is now more vital than ever. Understanding vehicle dynamics, what makes a good performing vehicle and providing that critical data back to the engineers that will inevitably be refined into the production car is now more important than ever and something that any AI machine can not quite match at this point. (Robots 0: Humans 1)
But take nothing away from the technology, the Chiron Pur Sport is every bit the bold move from Bugatti, who have until now, been a brand that hasn’t quite focused on the track capabilities of their motor vehicles.
And for the Green Hell fans, testing will move to the Nurburgring next. Bugatti is only making 60 of these which will be delivered in the second half of 2020 at a cost of 3 million Euro (R60 million) so get that credit card ready.
