Bugatti Chiron Coloring Page: Free Printable PDF Sheet

Bugatti Chiron: Speed Records and W16 Engineering

The Chiron's Origins and Launch in 2016

Bugatti unveiled the Chiron at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2016, positioning it as the successor to the Veyron, which had held the production car speed record from 2005 to 2010. The Chiron was named after Louis Chiron, a Monegasque racing driver who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 1931 while driving for Bugatti. Louis Chiron also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans seven times and raced during the golden era of European grand prix racing in the 1920s and 1930s.

The production run for the Chiron was capped at exactly 500 cars. By 2021 Bugatti had confirmed that all 500 build slots had been sold, at a base price starting around $3 million. Buyers could spend considerably more on customization through the La Maison Bugatti bespoke program, which offered hand-stitched leather, exposed carbon fiber, custom paint matched to any Pantone swatch, and personalized embroidery on headrests.

The W16 Engine — Four Turbos in a Single Block

The heart of the Chiron is a quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W16 engine. A W16 is formed by combining two narrow-angle VR8 engine banks — each itself a compact V-configuration of eight cylinders — on a shared crankshaft. This arrangement produces 16 cylinders in a footprint only slightly larger than a conventional V12. At full throttle, the four turbochargers work in two sequential stages: at lower speeds, only two turbos are active to improve responsiveness; above roughly 3,800 rpm, all four turbos spool up to deliver maximum pressure. The combined output is 1,479 horsepower and 1,180 lb-ft of torque delivered through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission to all four wheels.

Cooling a 1,479-horsepower engine in a road car required ten individual radiators positioned around the car's body — three in the front, one on each side of the rear quarter, and additional units for the oil, fuel, and transmission. The rear clamshell hood opens to reveal this complex layout, and the engineering behind it is as striking as the bodywork above it.

Breaking 300 mph — The Super Sport 300+

In August 2019, Bugatti test driver Andy Wallace piloted a modified Chiron Super Sport 300+ to 304.773 mph on a closed section of Volkswagen's high-speed oval in Ehra-Lessien, Germany. The car used a detuned version of the standard Chiron's W16 producing approximately 1,578 horsepower, a lengthened and more aerodynamically optimized body, and Michelin tires specially engineered to handle the centripetal forces at that speed — where each tire rotates roughly 4,100 times per minute. The run made Bugatti the first manufacturer to certify a production-based car exceeding 300 mph with independent TÜV verification.

The standard road-legal Chiron is electronically limited to 261 mph to protect its standard tires. At 261 mph, the car's active rear wing deploys in a high-drag braking position to reduce lift, and the four-wheel-drive system shifts torque distribution rearward for stability. The electronically managed air brake also helps the car stop from highway speeds in shorter distances than most sports cars can reach those speeds in the first place.

The Horseshoe Grille and Bugatti Design Language

The large horseshoe-shaped front opening — visually the most recognizable feature on any modern Bugatti — traces its design heritage to the very first Bugatti automobiles built by Ettore Bugatti in Alsace in the 1900s. The Type 35 grand prix car of 1924, one of the most successful racing cars ever built with more than 1,000 race victories, featured a rounded horseshoe grille that became the brand's signature. The modern Chiron's interpretation of this shape is much larger and houses the car's primary cooling air intake, flanked by C-shaped chrome side elements that wrap around the forward edge of the doors.

Bugatti manufactures its cars in a glass-walled atelier in Molsheim, France — the same town where Ettore Bugatti established his original factory in 1909. Each Chiron took approximately six months to build by hand, with a team of no more than four technicians responsible for assembling each complete car from start to finish.