New Bugatti Chiron Sport makes Geneva 2018 debut with sharper set-up

Bugatti’s incredible Chiron hypercar has upped its game with a new Bugatti Chiron Sport derivative unveiled at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. The new car retains the mighty 1,479bhp W16 powertrain from the standard Chiron, but a series of lightweight components cuts the kerbweight by 18kg and there’s a new hardcore suspension set-up within the car’s ‘Handling Mode’ designed to give it a more extreme focus for track use.

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The new Bugatti Chiron Sport can be picked out from its less athletic stablemates by the new four-pipe exhaust deflector mounted centrally at the rear of the car. There are also new lightweight wheels, a redesigned window over the carbon fibre intercooler in the engine bay and, in a world first for a production car, carbon fibre windscreen wipers. These components combined deliver the Sport’s 18kg weight saving but that’s shaved from the hefty 1,996kg kerb weight of the standard Chiron so, it’s still no featherweight.

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The driving experience of the Sport has tailored to match that of the standard Chiron until you twist the drive mode selector to its sportiest ‘Handling Mode’ setting. That unleashes the Chiron Sport’s revised damper control strategy and rear differential settings which are designed to make the best use of the quad-turbo engine’s huge power output when the road, or track, starts to twist. Also to this end, there’s an all new dynamic torque vectoring function that further assists the all-wheel drive transmission in deploying its epic grunt.

Bugatti Chirons are largely delivered with interiors fashioned around the tastes of their buyers but the Chiron Sport is available with special features to mark it out. There are adonised black finishes for the interior switchgear, and the exterior rear light clusters, plus Chiron Sport stitching for the leather and Alcantara trim. All of the above comes at a price of £2.36m plus local taxes, quite an increase on the £2.1m standard car.

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