There are four turbochargers feeding the 16 cylinders to get the Veyron’s successor, the Bugatti Chiron, to 100kmph in less than 2.5 seconds. We also know that it will reach 200kmph in the time a Mini Cooper S JCW (a seriously quick hot hatchback) gets to 100kmph and 200 sets of tyres were used to test the Chiron. The facts don’t end there. The Chiron has 32 injectors, eight exhaust pipes and the ability to hit a higher top speed than the present set of tyres can take. It’s a car full of superlatives, but there is one slow fact. It takes six months to build a Chiron, handcrafted from scratch at the Bugatti Molsheim factory in France.
Twelve Chirons are currently being built simultaneously with deliveries slated for this quarter. At the end of 2017, 70 Chirons will be built by 20 highly skilled employees. Not one Chiron will be identical to another with the long list of customisations available. The exterior can be customised from a choice of 23 topcoat colours and eight carbon variants. For the interior, customers can choose from leather in 31 different colours or Alcantara in eight colours, as well as 30 stitching, 18 carpet and 11 belt colours.
The Bugatti factory does not have an assembly line. Instead, there are work stations like the workshop of a Formula 1 team. “We are building a super sports car. That is quite clear,” says Christophe Piochon, Member of the Bugatti Board of Management responsible for Production and Logistics. “But it is the way we do it, hand-crafting an individual product for each customer in this very special atmosphere that makes us unique. This is ‘Haute Couture de l’Automobile”.
The first station is the preparation of the powertrain. The powertrain is supplied pre-assembled from the Volkswagen Group engine plant in Salzgitter, Germany. The 7-speed dual clutch gearbox is bigger and stronger than the Veyron’s as it has to handle 1600Nm of torque now in the Chiron.There are two chassis building platforms in the second station, where the powertrain is installed into the chassis. This procedure takes a week, and six employees work here to get the Chiron chassis and powertrain together. The chassis weighs 628kg, same as the Veyron, despite more strengthening because of increased use of carbon and other lightweight materials.
The most important assembly is the marriage of the monocoque and the rear end, done by 14 titanium bolts that are extremely strong and weigh just 34 grams each. After the marriage, the Chiron gets its wheels, operating fluids are filled and the W16 engine is started for the first time. It is then taken to the rolling dynamometer, which happens to be the most powerful rolling dynamometer in the world. The electricity produced by running the Chiron here is fed to the local grid in Molsheim.
After passing tests in the rolling dynamometer, the Chiron finally gets its full-carbon body, that has already been pre-assembled before it reaches this station. It takes 3-4 days for all the body parts to be fixed on to the chassis.
The job of fixing the body parts is checked immediately with the water test the Chiron goes through. It is exposed to pressurised water to simulate rain from all directions for 30 minutes. Following the water test, the interior parts are fitted.
Then comes actual road testing. The wheels that go on the car are ones used for the test. Even the underbody isn’t the final production underbody to ensure these aren’t damaged during testing. The Chiron is driven for over 300km and at speeds of up to 250kmph to test all its electronics. After the test driver approves the car, the original underbody and wheels are installed and taken on a final 50km test.
Bugatti then paints the Chiron and sends it to the light tunnel where it is checked meticulously for six hours to find the smallest of blemishes. These are fixed when the car is sent back to the paint booth. After it has been approved in the light tunnel, Christophe Piochon meets the Heads of the Sales, Quality Assurance and Customer Service Departments for approval.
This car is then delivered to its rich and patient owner.