The Magic of the 2022 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport Goes Beyond Numbers

the Volkswagen Group in 1993, the company was on the brink of insolvency. Determined to right the ship, he led initiatives that drove a number of key products upmarket and was an instrumental figure in VW’s dramatic turnaround in the following years. The crown jewel of this strategy—at least from an optics standpoint—was the resurrection of the Bugatti name under Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. in 1998, and the subsequent debut of the Veyron in 2005.

Bugatti already had a storied history in motorsport and a bonafide supercar on its resume by way of the EB 110, but the Veyron was an entirely different animal. Motivated by an 8.0-liter, quad-turbocharged W16 engine that sent nearly 1,000 horsepower to all four corners through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, it was capable of exceeding 250 mph and is considered by many to be the world’s first hypercar; an automotive engineering feat so significant that calling it a mere supercar wouldn’t have done it justice. Seventeen years later, the Chiron Super Sport carries the spiritual torch that was originally ignited by the Veyron, but the automotive landscape has changed significantly over that time. Four-digit horsepower is somehow becoming relatively commonplace, and in terms of outright performance, the Chiron now has some very serious competition moving in on several different fronts—most notably from the Rimac Nevera, an EV hypercar that I also recently spent some time with. In an odd twist of fate, the Croatian automaker now also has a controlling interest in Bugatti.