Now that it’s the undisputed king of speed, Bugatti says it’s going to shift its focus to other performance metrics.
Since the introduction of the Veyron, Bugatti has been best-known for one thing—all-out speed. The Veyron Super Sport, with its 1,200 horsepower, quad-turbocharged W-12, was the fastest road-legal car of its time, with a Guinness World Records-verified top speed of 267 mph. The follow-up Chiron only solidified Bugatti’s position as the preeminent maker of land missiles, with a Super Sport variant of the hypercar recently becoming the first production vehicle to cross the 300 mph barrier. But fearful of being labeled a one-trick pony, Bugatti is looking to diversify its catalog of performance metrics.
"We wanted to be the first ones to break the 300-mph barrier and we did it, but now we need to focus on other things,” Bugatti head Stephan Winkelmann told Roadshow by CNET on the sidelines of the Frankfurt Motor Show.
In order to achieve its other performance goals, Bugatti is planning several different versions of the Chiron. Eventually there will be a lightweight version of the Chiron, and another model variant that will focus on improving overall handling.
“You have to do different cars to highlight different peaks,” Winkelmann said. “It's so complex and so over the edge that you cannot cover it with one car.”
Those Chiron offshoots should be coming relatively soon. Bugatti plans to build just 500 units of the Chiron, with production expected to wrap up in 2025.
And what comes after 2025 for Bugatti? Even more diversity. In addition to a Chiron successor, Bugatti is also considering a second model that's described as “a different type of car” that could arrive with seating for four and some type of electric power.