Skip to main content

How the Bugatti Chiron Gets to 260 MPH Safely

Making cars go fast really isn’t that difficult. Drop it from a great height and even the Beetle can outrun a Porsche. But doing so that everything ends in smiles instead of tears isn’t quite so easy.

It takes a lot of planning and the sort of attention to detail that Freud would have a lot to say about. In Carfection’s latest video, Henry Catchpole speaks to the fastest driver on earth, Andy Wallace, about the fastest production car on earth, the Bugatti Chiron.

The top speed of the Chiron is something of a mystery because Bugatti won’t actually let it off the leash completely. That may be annoying, but Wallace gives you an idea of the forces being applied to the car that make achieving more speed so difficult.

Rumor has it that tire technology is what’s preventing the Chiron from hitting 300 mph right now. That sounds odd until you consider the fact that despite only weighing 2.5 grams, the dust cap at the edge of the rim spins up to 3,000 G at the car’s limited top speed of 420 kph (260 mph). That means that at speed, the 2.5 g (0.08 ounces) dust cap ends up weighing more like 5 kg (11 lbs).

At speed, the car’s diffuser also flattens at the back to reduce drag and ease the car’s progress. Even still, though, the car has enough downforce to keep locked in its lane, unlike the 250 mph McLaren F1, whose small skips, Wallace reports, were enough to stop your heart.

And it’s not just in the pursuit of straight-line speed that Bugatti has been clever. Around a track, too, the Chiron uses the air intelligently, not just deploying a rising spoiler at the back, but increase rake (making the lower at the front) to help increase front downforce, too—ensuring that the handling is still balanced front to rear.

Speaking of air, at 260 mph, the engine consumes 1,000 liters of air per second, which is why the Chiron’s 16 cylinder engine now has four turbochargers. Chugging along up to 4,000 rpm, two turbos is enough to feed the massive engine’s appetites, but 6,700 rpm, the volume of air required to make 1,500 hp means that the third and fourth turbos are essential.

The video covers a whole lot more besides. It really helps you understand why the Chiron isn’t just a hot rod, but a carefully crafted machine that functions with an incredible harmony.

The post How the Bugatti Chiron Gets to 260 MPH Safely appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2xuSU0p
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

2025 VW Taos gets styling tweaks, power bump

Filed under: Volkswagen , Crossover Continue reading 2025 VW Taos gets styling tweaks, power bump 2025 VW Taos gets styling tweaks, power bump originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 12 Sep 2024 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments from Autoblog https://ift.tt/5syqkoQ
Post a Comment
Read more

Novitec, Unsatisfied with Aventador SV, Adds More Veloce

The Lamborghini Aventador SV is no slouch, but if you’re into Lamborghinis, chances are you’re into big numbers. Whether it’s in the bank or under the hood, a big number could, and perhaps should, always be bigger, which is where Novitec steps in. Novitec has been modifying Italian cars for years, and their Torado line is dedicated to making ridiculous Lamborghinis even more ridiculous. Their latest effort takes the Aventador SV and remaps the engine to give it 786hp and 544 lb-ft of toque. They’ve also fitted the car with a new exhaust system that cuts 50 lbs off the car. Other mods include a carbon fiber aero package, spoiler, front splitter and air intake, all of which helps it shed even more weight. The Aventador also sits on 21 (back) and 20 (front) inch Vossen wheels. So if you think that a regular Aventador is just a little too pedestrian, give Novitec a call and they’ll hook you up. The post Novitec, Unsatisfied with Aventador SV, Adds More Veloce appeared first on VWVor...
Post a Comment
Read more