Say Hello To The 1479bhp Bugatti Chiron

It’s arguably the car of the show at Geneva, and it’s at last here for us to drink in: the Bugatti Chiron. Its predecessor - the Veyron - was monstrously powerful and bonkers fast, so where does a hypercar go from there? Even more power, it seems.

Mounted in the middle is a heavily revised version of the Veyron’s 8.0-litre, quad-turbo W16, good for an unholy 1479bhp at 6750rpm, and 1179lb ft between 2000 and 6000rpm. That’s enough to overcome the Chiron’s colossal mass - it weighs just 5kg shy of two tonnes - and gets you from 0-62mph in “less than” 2.5 seconds. While in most driving modes you’re limited to a mere 236mph top speed, but - as with the Veyron - the full beans can be accessed using a ‘Speed Key’.

Using this will see you top out at 261mph, less than the old Super Sport, but it is worth noting that this is an electronic limited top speed for ‘road use’. Precisely what ‘road’ Bugatti is thinking about, we’re not sure. The speedometer does go up to 500kmh (310mph), however, and Bugatti has rather intriguingly said “this is by no means the end of the road for the Bugatti Chiron”. Without the limiter the Chiron won’t be far off a 300mph car, but tyres are a limiting factor.

Want to delve into the stats a little further? You can expect to do 0-124mph in 6.5 seconds, and 0-186mph in 13.6 seconds. Both small improvements over the Super Sport, and big improvements over the boggo Veyron.

Other highlights include no less than 10 radiators, active aerodynamics (the rear wing on its own has four different positions), a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox sending power to all four wheels, and some massive tyres. Really massive, in fact: 285/30 R20 for the front, and 355/25 R21 rear.

Just 500 will be made, and as you’d expect, they won’t be what you’d call cheap. How much, you ask? €2.4 million (£1.9 million)…