Eleven years ago, Bugatti leant me a Veyron for a day.
It was one of the best motoring days of my life.
And it kind of kick-started my career
because we posted a video of me doing 220 something
and lots of people saw it on the interwebs.
Well, now Bugatti has a new car. It's called the Chiron.
And once again, they've given it to me for one day.
What would you do with your one day in a Chiron?
Obviously, I'm going to drive all day, but before we go, some numbers.
Two million pounds,
fifteen hundred horsepower,
four turbochargers, eight litres, 16 cylinders.
Yeah, this is the new Veyron.
We are actually on the border of Iman and the UAE,
on some stunning mountain roads.
We're going to wiggle around here a bit.
Yeah, amazing. Or my American colleague would say: "Sweet!"
WARNING: WAITING IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.
VIOLATORS WILL BE FINED
It takes all of about 400 yards of driving in the Chiron
to realise that this is a profoundly different car to a Veyron.
I suspected and feared that it would be just another Veyron with more power.
In other words, a car that was immensely impressive in a straight line
at very high speed but didn't really like corners.
This car loves corners.
In fact, on this road,
it demolishes most other cars.
And that's down, in part, to the steering.
It's just superb.
This is one of the best electric steering racks I've ever driven.
Apparantly, there are seven different algorithms overlapped
giving the right response.
The result is a car you can place really, really well.
And there's the new Michelin Cup 2 tyre, super sticky.
And there's the four-wheel drive system which is helpful, then the electronic,
which mean you can leave the thing wide open and hang in them.
I'm not man enough to turn it off here. And you don't need to anyhow.
Watch what happens when you accelerate...
Yes, I don't have words to describe what this can do.
The ride is level and composed.
It is just designed to demolish road surfaces.
I think, technically, over this kind of surface,
this is one of the most complete cars I've ever driven.
And I really didn't expect to say that.
The engine, what's to say.
Sequential turbo, so from zip to about three-eight, I get two.
Then the other two come in full after-burner effect.
You get a lovely step at about three-eight
that makes you just feel like a school child all over again.
And the numbers that come up on the dashboard, I can't talk about them.
In terms of power and torque, this car has now equal.
On this road I don't think anything could stay with it.
A 918, maybe with all it torque vectoring,
but once you get to an open stretch, this is just brutal.
And it's so composed.
And do you know what? It's fun! It's fun thrilling it accurately.
It's not a car to slip and slide although there's slip allowed in the handling mode.
In the EB mode, which is the normal mode, you get a more subtle ride
and an earlier intervention in the electronics.
Oh, my days! What a machine.
Extraordinary. Extraordinary.
That's my look of surprise
because I did not expect this car to be able to do this on a windy road.
Wow!
So, it maybe miles better than expected on a windy road,
but you have to clock some proper speed during your 24 hours with a Chiron,
so we're heading back to the Al Maktoum airport where we shot the television film
to head north of 200 miles per hour.
This is what you might call a runway.
Look at that for a view. Look at that for a view.
Quite often people like me get a bit sniffy about straight land speed.
It lacks skill...
Circuits are more glamourous...
There is something about a car that can go around a circuit
that makes it somehow more credible than a car going in a straight line.
But speed's addictive, isn't it? I'm addicted to speed.
I have a 4.8 km runway ahead of me and a car with 1500 horsepower,
that's currently limited to 236 mph.
What would you do? I know what I'm going to do.
This insane vehicle
runs with a tyre pressure monitoring system that goes to two decimal places
because tyre pressures are critical.
I'm now running at about right.
Below 2.8 bar is dangerous.
And the pressure drops with the airflow over,
so I'm losing pressure front left and rear right.
Keep one eye on it, it's fine.
And there we are, 236 mph, one hand.
I think they call that engineering.
I'm going to slow down. That's outrageous.
There's so much airflow over the front tyres
they cool as you go up through 200 mph and you lose pressure.
How mad is that.
Wow.
I don't really know where to begin
with the numbers and specification of the Chiron.
It weighs 1995 kilograms, that's 45 kilograms more than a Veyron.
The basic structure is shared with the older car,
but the wheelbase is longer and it's much, much stiffer.
The quad turbo W16 motor is the same capacity as before
but the block is stronger.
The turbos now run at 1.85 bar of boost and they run in pairs sequentially.
It only likes 98-octane fuel.
Power is 1500 horsepower, and torque 1180 pounds per feet.
I guess I said that without laughing.
The dual-clutch transmission has been completely redesigned.
The aerodynamics are complicated.
The rear spoiler has four positions,
the headlights double as intakes,
and accelerated air down the flanks acts as a stability device.
You can really feel it at 230 mph.
The front brakes: 420 mm carbon silicon carbide discs.
They're simply immense.
The Chiron is no engineering revolution,
but it's an arresting set of numbers
designed to pass every usability and drivability test
expected of a Volkswagen group product.
And that is mind-scrambling.