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

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

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

The 10 Most Expensive VWs at Barrett-Jackson

Barrett-Jackson just wrapped up its 46th annual Scottsdale auction, which set all kinds of records, including the sale of Kindig-It Design’s 1965 21-Window Deluxe Bus for $302,500 (pictured above and below). Not only did that bus set an auction record, it was the highest priced Volkswagen in Scottsdale that week. While it outdid the next closest VW by quite a margin, it wasn’t the only high priced VW at the show. Here, are the highest priced VWs from the auction: 1. $302,500: 1965 Type II 21-Window Deluxe Bus  Featured on Velocity Channel’s Bitchin’ Rides, this microbus was completely restored by Kindig-it Design and repainted in Mercedes Black and Bentley Magnolia White. With a 1915cc 120 hp flat four out back and a 4-speed transmission, this bus sits on 17″ wheels. 2. $143,000: 1967 21-Window Deluxe Bus Not sure if you noticed a theme here, but we have another 21-window bus in black and white, but this time the colors are flipped and it has a 2,027 cc engine. Comes with a ...
Post a Comment
Read more