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Bugatti Chiron Roars Into Singapore

by Robert Stedman
02 May 2019

Bugatti has named a hypercar after one of its former champion race car drivers of the 1930s, Louis Chiron

Southeast Asia’s first Bugatti Chiron was delivered to a Singaporean private collector just before the Lunar New Year this year. The hypercar is stored in a climate-controlled facility for its owner by Wearnes Automotive, the agent for Bugatti in Singapore. This new and impressively expensive motorcar marks the first of 20 motorcars that will be delivered to customers in Asia between now and 2020.

The Singaporean owner went with a dual color paint finish of Atlantic Blue and French Racing Blue, which pays homage to the original Bugatti Chiron unveiled at the 2016 Geneva International Motor Show. To complement the two-color exterior, the owner opted for a full leather interior in the tan-and-brown Terre d’Or color scheme.

The Chiron is one of the world’s fastest, most luxurious, exclusive, and arguably most expensive hypercars ever built. To retain its exclusivity, Bugatti has declared that only 500 of these cars will ever be produced. Customers around the world have already purchased three quarters of the planned production.

Unlike its closest competitors — the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 — the Chiron is not a hybrid. Its engine is a development of the legendary Bugatti Veyron’s 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16, while the car’s gearbox is a strengthened version of the Veyron’s seven-speed twin-clutch transmission. The Chiron, it seems, was made to challenge the very limits of materials and physics.

Bugatti CEO Mr. Wolfgang Durheimer explains, “If we went with hybrid, we would have added additional weight. We would have experienced package constraints, too, because this car doesn’t have any areas where you can put additional stuff, so the styling would need to change. We will dramatically raise the bar in terms of top speed, increase the power by 25 percent, with both aerodynamics and road holding better.”

What makes the Chiron special, besides its 2.5 million euro price tag (not including taxes and options)? According to Bugatti’s official figures, the Chiron is able to do a jaw-dropping 420kmh, or 261mph. How does it go so fast? Raw power. The new Chiron has a whopping 1479bhp coursing through its veins, an incredible amount of horsepower almost inconceivable in a luxury motorcar. In comparison, the highest horsepower rating for a thoroughbred F1 race car comes in only at around a paltry 949bhp. The Chiron adds more than 500bhp to that figure. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever see the Chiron pass you up on the expressway at 400kph because at those speeds, besides being illegal, the tires would explode from the friction.

“We recognize a growing appetite for hypercars in Asia. Our customers form an exclusive group of automobile collectors in search of the very best,” says Mr. Victor Kwan, Managing Director of the Prestige Division of Wearnes Automotive. “Besides enjoying the exclusivity and power of the Bugatti, customers also consider its investment value. The Bugatti Chiron is one of the few cars that actually appreciates in value.” Since the launch of the Bugatti Chiron in 2016, the Singapore-based automotive dealer has sold 20 units of the sports car, with ten cars sold in 2018 alone.