Meet the Bugatti Divo – The Chiron’s Angry Cousin

TopSpeed

By Robert Moore

Published Aug 24, 2018

Aerodynamics like whoa

Buggati has finally revealed the Divo and, as it turns out, it’s basically the Chiron with an attitude problem and an insatiable love for throwing temper tantrums around corners. Seriously – Bugatti took the Chiron, gave it a meaner face, muscular front hood, corner-mounted headlights, and more aggressive side skirts. However, to make room for those side skirts, Bugatti engineers had to reword the side-mounted intakes, which are now smaller than before but have more definition than ever. To compensate for the smaller intakes, the roof has been formed to create a NACA air duct to help keep things cool under the engine’s hood. It’s not all about looks, though is it?

No, it certainly isn’t. See, that muscular body is purpose-built to create some crazy aerodynamic features – 1,005 pounds of downforce if I'm being specific. That’s 198 pounds more than the standard model. The rear spoiler contributes to this as it literally 23-percent wider than that of the standard Chiron. That’s right folks, Bugatti literally added on inches in width. The 8.0-liter W-16 under the hood delivers 1,500 cold-hearted horsepower. That’s some 30 ponies more than the Chiron and, when paired with the crazy aerodynamics, enough to generate a lateral acceleration of 1.6 g when you put the pedal to the floor. Of course, Bugatti built this thing for handling and agility around corners, which is exactly why top speed has been capped at 236 mph. that’s 25-mph slower than the Chiron’s maximum speed of 261 mph. Sorry, no top speed run for you, Divo owners.

Be that as it may, Bugatti claims that the Divo is a total of eight-seconds faster about the Nardo handling circuit – we’re assuming that’s in comparison to the standard Chiron and not the Sport. Then again, this thing was built for handling, so you never know. Stephen Winkelmann, President of Bugatti, hits the nail right on the head:

"To date, a modern Bugatti has represented a perfect balance between high performance, straight-line dynamics and luxurious comfort. Within the possibilities, we have shifted the balance in the case of the Divo further towards lateral acceleration, agility, and cornering. The Divo is made for corners."

As far as the interior goes, Bugatti changed up quite a bit in comparison to the standard model. The base Chiron is layered with extra-soft leather and metal, but that’s not good enough for the Divo. Instead, Bugatti decided to go with a funky, two-tone color scheme that includes a bright colored Alcantara on the driver’s side and a tone-down grey-black Alcantara on the passenger side. Clearly, the driver get’s the “red carpet,” if you will.

Think you’re going to get your hands on one? I wouldn’t hold my breath. Buggati is only building a total of 40 examples, all of which have – naturally – already been spoken for. Each of those 40 people, by the way, are paying out €5 million.

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