Bugatti's "Updated" Chiron is Going to Turn Some Heads in Geneva

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Mar 5, 2018

The wait is over, folks. The new Chiron is upon us

Sometimes, even the smallest of updates can make the biggest of differences. Bugatti is banking on that happening when it unveils an updated version of the Bugatti Chiron at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. Bugatti has been coy on what these updates are, but it did release a 16-second teaser of the hypercar, complete with a promise to further shape “our category.” Could we be a few days away from seeing a hotter version of the Chiron?

We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but this is the kind of news that you want to wake up to in the week of the Geneva Motor Show. The teaser itself doesn’t reveal much in the way of any concrete details. It did give us shadowy glimpses of what looks like a different exhaust system with circular end tips instead of the angular ones that the current Chiron has. There are also shots of the hypercar’s retractable rear spoiler in action. The headlight and the taillight strips also appear in the teaser, though it’s unclear exactly what changes were made as far as those elements are concerned.

So, what does the teaser point to? It’s hard to say at this point, but we are two years removed from the Chiron blowing the roof off the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. That’s enough time for a hotter variant to enter the picture and elevate the model’s status in the eyes of everyone. Bugatti did the same with the Veyron in the last decade. The supercar was introduced in 2005, and though it took four years, the automaker followed that up with the release of the Veyron Grand Sport in 2009. A year later, Bugatti pulled the covers off of the Veyron Super Sport, the same car that owned the top speed record for production cars until the Koenigsegg Agera wrestled it away last year.

It’s hard to predict what Bugatti has under the sheets, but my money’s on a hotter version of the Chiron. We already know that the company isn’t planning on building a Grand Sport version. The company’s former marketing chief, Dr. Stefan Brungs made that remark to Autocar back in 2016. Granted, the company’s position could have changed in the time since, but we’d still be surprised to see a convertible Chiron debut in Geneva. That leaves us with the possibility of seeing a hotter version of the Chiron. It may not necessarily take the name of the Chiron Super Sport, but the shots of those circular exhaust tips on the teaser video are good signs that we’re dealing with more than just cosmetic upgrades here.

There’s also the matter of Bugatti’s plans to organize a top speed run this year to reclaim the top speed record for a production car. If the French automaker is going to do it, it’s probably going to be with a faster version of the Chiron. Count the days until the Geneva Motor Show, folks. Bugatti could have a serious surprise in store for us.