And so this week, we finally got to see the Bugatti Chiron, the $2.6-million supersonic follow-up to the Veyron. The press release that accompanied the reveal was plenty revealing itself. It included a classic Bugatti sequence of superlatives, offering up the Chiron as the "most powerful, fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive" super sports car, like, ever.
And that was just the first line. The second: "Bugatti has made the best even better." Modest chaps, aren't they?
Forgive me if my reception is reserved, my excitement muted. Because when it comes to Bugatti and hyperbolic modifiers, this one sticks out in my mind: The Veyron was the most boring hypercar ever produced.
The Veyron wasn't a car for drivers. It wasn't meant for the racetrack, and it didn't excel on windy roads. It was the ultimate valet car, the braggart's shiny jewel. Sheiks filled their garages with them. Floyd Mayweather reportedly owned four of them. Bieber posted about one in his Instagram account, hinting that it was a pricy gift from a music producer. The Veyron wowed not by its beautiful design (it simply wasn't very good looking), but by force of its numbers. The price of its tires, how quickly it would empty its tank at full blast, the amount of air its turbos sucked in per second, the number of fuel pumps and radiators, and of course, the price. The car simply had to be amazing, right? The best of the best, because the numbers said so. The ultimate enthusiast clickbait.
And then along came a regular ol' guy, John Hennessey, in his shop in Houston, who took a customized car to 270 mph and broke the Veyron's record. In a heavily modified Lotus Exige, of all the damn things. You can get caught up in the byzantine arguments about what is or isn't a production car, or what is or isn't an official run. But by that point, David was sitting a whole lot prettier than Goliath, and at a fraction of the development costs. The VW minions must have been steamed.
Attack the curves, and the cars tended to understeer (though later versions the handling improved).
The car was heavy and not that lively and not nearly as fun as, say, a Corvette Z06. The steering was rather dull and the engine only sounded good while under attack and . . . Well, there were better ways to spend a million or two.One can't help but wonder if members of the VW Group aren't experiencing some trepidation over the Chiron's release. The company reportedly lost money on every single Veyron, and since the diesel scandal, money is tight. So is environmental credibility. I'd be curious to talk to a pissed-off VW TDI owner about the Chiron and the VW Group's current priorities.
More on:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a28360/bugattis-are-boring/Americans...what do they now...right?
