Sejak awal tahun ini, Bugatti telah mengumumkan usaha mereka dalam percubaan dan eksperimen kaliper brek titanium yang dibuat khas dengan teknologi percetakan 3D atau ‘3D-printing’. Usaha mereka dalam meneraju ke arah pengilangan sepergini adalah untuk mereka bentuk bahagian kereta yang jauh lebih tinggi dari segi prestasi jika dibandingkan dengan teknologi yang digunakan secara berleluasa sekarang. (more…)
This year has rewarded Bugatti with a decent level of properity. It’s highly-acclaimed hypercar, the Chiron has been well received by fans and customers alike. So much so, that the automaker has managed to fulfill it’s quota of selling 70 vehicles this year. This brings the total vehicles made to about 300 from a maximum of 500 Chiron cars that will ever be built.
Wolfgang Dürheimer, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. said, “It is a tremendous success for the entire Bugatti team that we have already reached the target of 70 vehicles in the first full year of production of the Chiron. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our suppliers for their commitment and delivery compliance.”
So far, 43% of sales of the Chiron have come from various parts of Europe, 26% have come North America, 23% from the Middle East and 8% from the Asia-Pacific region. Production of the mind-bending Chiron started in 2016 with first customer deliveries beginning sometime in March of this year.
Bugatti’s headquarters in Molsheim, Alsace serves as the car’s production area. And the process of building a single vehicle, takes tremendous amount of time and a number of skilled technicians working together. The vehicle is powered by an 8.0-litre W16 engine that produces 1,479bhp. Until recently, it’s performance was unrivaled, but that changed once Koenigsegg wanted a piece of the action.
No car, no matter how special, is free of imperfections. Case in point is the Bugatti Chiron. Regarded as one of the most expensive and powerful cars on earth, the Chiron is considered the epitome of automotive greatness. Today however, that image has been tainted in the form of a recall.
According to an article by Bloomberg, Bugatti Automobiles SAS has informed U.S. auto regulators that it is recalling models of the car due to faulty welds on the front seat recliner bracket. And unlike regular manufacturers, the French automaker isn’t content with notifying customers of the problem via email or calls, instead, they have taken it one step further.
A team of Bugatti personnel will travel to each Chiron owner’s location to pick it up personally. The team will then haul the vehicle in an enclosed truck to one of 12 Bugatti dealers in the U.S. for inspections. There are about 12 of such vehicles in the US, but 47 in total, globally, are affected by this issue.
There’s no word yet on how Bugatti aims to deal with customers outside the US, but we assume that its method, will probably be similar in nature to that executed in the US. At $2.99 million (RM12.20 Million) a pop, owners of the Chiron shouldn’t have to expect anything other than 6 Star level of treatment.
The Chiron is the follow-up model to the mind-bending Veyron, which claimed and held the record for the fastest production car in the world for several years. It is powered by an 8.0-litre W16 quad-turbo engine that produces 1,479bhp and 1,600Nm of torque. The car was the talk of the town until it was recently upstaged by Koniegsegg’s Agera RS with its 0-400-0 km/h feat.
Source: Bloomberg
The general consensus when it comes to purchasing a car is – all of them suffer some form of depreciation. As soon as they are driven off the showroom floor – their values drop. While cars like a Toyota Camry may hold its value for several years, other cars from lesser known marques may loose a whole lot more, rendering them almost unsaleable.
It seems as though a Bugatti Chiron has bucked the trend, with its owner expecting to make a cool £1.1 million (RM6.1 million) over the initial purchase price of £2.5 million (RM13.8 million). The UK based owner has put his car up for sale at specialist supercar dealer Romans International in Surrey for £3.6 million (RM19.9 million).
If this news has you scratching your head, its understandable considering that the car is considered ‘pre-owned’. But this isn’t the main criteria that makes the Chiron extremely valuable. The reason for the price tag – its the most powerful, fastest, most luxurious and the most exclusive production super sports car in the world.
Bugatti will only be making 500 of these cars over the course of the next 10 years, which makes it extremely desirable and valuable to many collectors and billionaires. But this one is extra special due to the options that come with it.
The black Chiron has been fitted with a leather and carbon interior at a cost of £53,000 (RM292,923) and carbon fibre seats for nearly £16,000 (RM88,429). It’s an insane amount of money to spend on a car that has covered only 1,609km since new, just to list it for sale shortly after taking ownership of it.
Speaking of the car’s listing, Tom Jaconelli, Director of Romans International, said, “Although the Chiron is not yet sold out, if you place an order today you will be waiting at least three or four years before the car could be built and delivered, so we are offering the chance to ‘jump the queue’ but of course there is a hefty premium to pay for this privilege.”
The supercar dealership has been in the business of selling exotic vehicles for nearly 20 years and has already sold a Maserati MC12 and a pair of Ferrari LaFerraris. Like the Chiron, these hypercars were also built in extremely low numbers and have commanded hefty asking prices.
Some changes are a foot at the Volkswagen Group according to an article by Top Gear UK. Bentley and Bugatti, two of its high performance sub-brands will each receive a new CEO. This news comes after Wolfgang Dürheimer who is currently the CEO of both brands, announced his retirement.
Instead of replacing Dürheimer with a single employee, VW has opted to separate both roles by picking Adrian Hallmark as the head honcho of Bentley and Stefan Winkelmann as the head of hypercar maker, Bugatti.
Hallmark previously held various top executive sales positions at Bentley, VW, Porsche and Saab. His appointment as CEO of Bentley is one of several major decisions that will take place over the course of the next few years. This is due to four Bentley board members, including Dürheimer, who are about to reach the retirement age at about the same time.
Stefan Winkelmann, who was elected to lead Audi Sport last year, will now be in charge of ensuring that Bugatti continues to dominate the high end market of luxury supercars. Prior to his appointment at Audi, Winkelmann was at the helm of Lamborghini for about 11 years.
During his tenure at the Italian manufacturer, Winkelmann helped to turn the company’s fortunes around from an ailing automaker into one that has a strong product portfolio and decent cash flow. He also saw the introduction of the Gallardo, Lamborghini’s most successful vehicle to date.
The car was also partly responsible for the Italian automaker’s financial health and relatively steady recovery. It shared quite a bit with Audi’s R8 supercar but was still unique enough to ensure that the essence of Lamborghini was not diluted in anyway.
Now, with the appointment of Winkelmann at Bugatti, the same magic that played a part in Lamborghini’s recovery, could work for the French automaker as well. If true, this would be the best time for it as the company looks to stave off attacks from Koenigsegg who seem hell bent on stealing the hypercar crown.
Source: Top Gear UK
The Buggati Chiron, built to be the pinnacle of hypercar performance, has held the 0-400-0 record, since it was announced at the recent Frankfurt Motorshow. The feat is accomplished by accelerating from 0-400km/h and then back to 0km/h in the shortest amount of time -the Chiron has done it faster than any other car in the world.
Until 1st October, the Chiron has held that record with a blistering time of 41.96 seconds. The man behind the wheel was former F1 driver, Juan Pablo Montoya. Powering the monster is an 8-litre W16 quad-turbo engine that produces 1,479bhp and an incredible 1,600Nm of torque.
As powerful as that may sound, it wasn’t enough to keep Koenigsegg’s monster at bay. The Agera RS bested the Chiron’s time by achieving the 0-400-0 feat in a mere 36.44 seconds, about 5 seconds faster than the Bugatti.
The Car was driven by Niklas Lilija and the recorded run was completed on an airfield runway in Vandel, Denmark. That said, Koenigsegg fans’ celebrations may appear to be short lived as the incredible run was discredited, and won’t qualify as an official record.
The reason for this is, the Koenigsegg Agera RS that was used to accomplish the run wasn’t a road legal production car but was a modified vehicle and as such, may not be allowed to be on public roads. The Bugatti on the other hand, is completely road legal and if one had deep enough pockets, he/she would be able to walk into a Bugatti dealership and purchase an it.
That said, this does not negate the fact that the Agera RS is a much faster car than the Chiron. And it won’t be long before Koenigsegg find a way to make the Chiron-killer, legitimately road-legal. Till then, enjoy the picture galley we have put together.
Frankfurt played host to some of the more interesting reveals in recent years. A number of automakers brought out some pretty interesting and luxurious offerings. H.R. Owen, a leading luxury vehicle dealership is gearing up to have these vehicles put on sale soon.
The company deals with the world’s most sought-after premium car brands which include Bugatti, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and BAC. Here, were are going to a cover a number of more memorable cars that were unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Bentley Continental GT
The first car worthy of mention is Bentley’s new Continental GT, which sports a smoother and more rounded design, more prominent circular headlights with DRLs and of course an all-new engine. Its an enhanced version of the company’s famous 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged W12 TSI engine that is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
Ferrari Portofino
Like Bentley, Ferrari too had something pretty interesting to show us. It launched the Portofino, an entry level Ferrari and a successor to the California T. It’s a drop-top GT that is powered by a 592bhp engine and a E-Diff3 limited-slip differential.
It is supposed to be lighter than its predecessor, and that coupled with a more powerful engine, means that the Portofino requires just 3.5 seconds to get from 0-100km/h, a mere 0.1 seconds slower than the more expensive and sophisticated GTC4 Lusso.
Bugatti Chiron
Bugatti’s main reason for showing up at Frankfurt was to flaunt its Chiron hypercar at its rivals. The Chiron made the news recently for setting a remarkable pace record by accelerating from 0-400km/h and back to a standstill in just 41.96 seconds.
What’s even more remarkable than this is that the Chiron needed only 3.112km to accomplish this feat. It’s an astonishing vehicle both in terms of capability and styling. H.R. Owen’s Bugatti London showroom will have an example on display for order and for the general public to salivate over.
Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster
Last but not least, Lamborghini was there too, primarily for the Aventador S Roadster. Compared to the standard car, the S version has more power and a four-wheel steering system. Though not revolutionary for the time, the Aventador is still one of the most extreme hypercars on sale today.
Unlike Ferrari and McLaren, Lamborghini vehemently believe that naturally aspirated engines still offer the best driving experience one would want. And until it’s no longer economically viable, they will continue to make these amazing non-boosted vehicles for the elite.
Princess Diana ‘s 1994 Audi Cabriolet will go under the hammer at Coys auction at Blenheim Palace on the 15th of July. This is only fitting considering that the location was also the birthplace of Winston Churchill and is also considered a World Heritage site.
This particular Audi is expected to sell between RM 193,288 to RM 220,900 due to the fact that the car was previously driven by, arguably, one of the most influential female figures of the 1990s. It was loaned to Princess Diana for personal use by Dovercourt Audi of St Johns Wood and is now up for sale just a few days after another Audi, also used by her, went under the hammer.
The car is still registered as L541 GJD and has been storage for many years. In 2004, the car was purchased by the current owner and used as a daily driver to ferry the family around until 2009. Once he discovered the importance and significance of the Audi, the car was promptly kept away in storage, to preserve it until it was put up for sale.
It was been featured in several media images showing the Princess stepping in and out of the car with the number plate clearly visible. Despite the Audi’s relative importance, it will probably be overshadowed by the likes of the 1926 Bugatti Type 37 that will also go under the hammer during the auction. It is said that the car might fetch RM 2,209,000 to RM 3,313,500 because it is considered as one of three Type 37s supplied in 1926 to Bugatti agent and world speed record holder Malcolm Campbell.
How well both cars do remains to be seen. So, stay tuned and we will let you know later on, how much these cherished vehicles are sold for at the auction.
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