Video Discription |
▪ Extended footage – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbfaQcrgG7s
The rear end breaks out slightly into a controlled drift, the tires start to squeal. Sven Bohnhorst reacts with lightning speed, countersteers briefly and keeps his foot on the accelerator. Drifting – with a smile on his face.
The engineer works at Bugatti as a chassis setup engineer and is testing the new Chiron Pur Sport at the limits of its handling dynamics. The aim is to improve the vehicle even further and to tune the chassis, steering and dampers even more precisely. His starting point is in the area of fine nuances and minute details. These are almost imperceptible individually, but will later convey the complete picture of a perfect driving experience to customers. After weeks of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his colleagues were finally able to return to testing the new Chiron Pur Sport on a race track at the beginning of May.
“The track at Bilster Berg with its very own topographic relief is challenging and demands a high level of concentration. It’s a technical circuit with varying radii, fast and slow sectors and severe elevation changes. A genuine challenge for us chassis developers,” explains Sven Bohnhorst. The track goes up and down, making the Chiron Pur Sport lighter in some places, and pressing it down into the dips with significant spring compression. These are ideal conditions for fine-tuning the running gear and safety systems. This is where engineers can test and take the Chiron Pur Sport to its limits. Particularly suitable for this purpose: the new ESC Sport+ driving mode. Experienced drivers can activate this mode when driving on race tracks in the Chiron Pur Sport. For this first time, this mode allows larger drift angle with much easier controlled drifting – the driver is able to stay on the throttle much longer to control the rear end before the ESC kicks in. This turns the Chiron Pur Sport into an extreme Chiron derivative at the other end of the performance spectrum, a model with very active driving characteristics that is made for cornering. A model that pushes the limits even further out, but where handling remains very easy to control and predict. Targeted and precise.
“The combination of an uncompromisingly sporty and harder chassis setup, new tires with a softer rubber compound geared towards lateral dynamics, and the shorter transmission ratio make it possible to maneuver the Chiron Pur Sport out of any corner safely and at lightning speed. An incredible feeling at the wheel that makes the adrenalin flow,” says Sven Bohnhorst enthusiastically. The new hyper sports car is much firmer, dynamic and direct to drive than the Chiron. It generates more grip, understeers less and provides neutral handling even in fast corner combinations. “It’s a car for drivers, for all those who have petrol in their blood. I never want to get out again,” says Sven Bohnhorst happily.
Even though Bugatti usually tests on longer race circuits like the handling track in Nardo or on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Sven Bohnhorst feels at home at Bilster Berg: 9 right turns, 10 left turns. 44 crests and dips. 20 percent uphill and 26 percent downhill grades with a change in elevation of 70 meters over 4,207 meters. It only took the engineer a few laps to get to know the circuit. “I now know exactly how to drive around the track. Because the Pur Sport offers such confident handling, it is easy to familiarize yourself with the special characteristics of the track,” explains Sven Bohnhorst. The 8.0-liter W16-cylinder engine with 1,500 PS and 1,600 newton meters of torque serves as the power unit. During test drives, engineers are not primarily focused on lap times. Instead, they want the Chiron Pur Sport to handle perfectly even in extreme situations. The vehicle must offer customers in particular more clearly perceptible and purer driving pleasure. “In terms of development, we are close to reaching our goals – the Chiron Pur Sport is very precise and extremely agile to drive, even on such a tight handling course,” adds Sven Bohnhorst.
He and his chassis colleagues complete lap after lap, usually an initial warm-up lap followed by two fast laps and a cool-down lap to finish. Regardless of the task at hand, this procedure guarantees a reproducible driving impression and makes objective assessments possible while combining all driving modes and systems. A challenging task.
During fast laps, Bohnhorst pays attention to the overall handling, but also to how the steering, dampers and other chassis systems such as traction control and all-wheel drive react. He also observes the interaction of fundamental chassis components such as spring rates, anti-roll bars and tires.
And it will soon also be available to customers. The Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is available to order now. Production of this derivative, limited to 60 units, will start in the second half of 2020. The net price will be three million euros. |