Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is handling-focused hypercar
Stiffer suspension and weight-saving measures give Bugatti's high-speed flagship a dynamic edge
Bugatti isn’t finished with the Chiron just yet, as it reveals a new handling-focused special variant called the Pur Sport.
Featuring a number of visual and mechanical revisions, the Pur Sport is designed to offer “extraordinary, tangible performance throughout the entire range of speeds”, contrasting with the ultra high-speed focus of the Chiron Super Sport 300.
“We spoke to customers and realised they wanted a vehicle that is geared even more towards agility and dynamic cornering” Bugatti President Stephan Winklemann said of the new car, described as an “unadulterated, uncompromising driving machine”.
The Chiron’s exterior has been redesigned to reflect this, with a large front splitter and widened air inlets, a new 1.9m fixed rear spoiler said to generate “serious amounts” of downforce, and a more extreme diffuser design all feature. The Pur Sport can also be optioned with a split-paintwork design leaving exposed carbon fibre for the bottom third of the car. The exhaust tailpipe is made of 3D printed titanium to save weight, too.
That’s not the only weight-shedding measure Bugatti has taken with the Pur Sport. Lighter Alcantara is used throughout most of the interior, which is described as “deliberately sporty and raw”, with controls trimmed in black, anodised aluminium or titanium.
Removing the hydraulic system from the rear wing saves 10kg on its own, while a new magnesium wheel design (wrapped in exclusively developed Michelin Cup 2 R tyres that are said to boost lateral acceleration by 10%) drops a further 16kg, crucially in unsprung weight. Further use of titanium in the braking system, among other detail changes, contributes to an overall weight reduction of 50kg over the standard Chiron.
Further work under the skin includes substantial chassis tuning, with a new set featuring 65% firmer springs at the front and 33% firmer springs at the rear - although Bugatti claims comfort hasn’t been affected - along with a retuned adaptive damping system and modified camber settings. New carbon-fibre stabilisers also minimise roll further, it is claimed. A new Sport + drive mode is added which slackens the ESP in certain scenarios, and is said to be aimed at “more skilled cornering experts”.
The W16 engine’s massive 1479bhp output is unchanged for the Pur Sport - instead, engineers have focused on a heavily revised transmission Primarily, the gear ratios are 15% closer to improve acceleration out of bends, which along with the increased downforce reduces the top speed substantially to 217mph. Along with a raising of the redline by 200rpm to 6,900rpm, this means the Pur Sport is capable of acceleration from 37-75mph nearly two seconds faster than the standard Chiron.
The Chiron Pur Sport will enter production in the second half of 2020. 60 units will be produced, with each costing just over £2.6m excluding taxes.
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