The Bugatti Divo -- the world's most expensive sports car by a wide margin -- did make its debut on August 24 and what a debut it was.
The reveal at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering at Carmel-by-the-Sea in California before a spirited audience dispelled some of the speculation surrounding this road beast built for speed while confirming others.
Here, at the rolling greens of the Quail Lodge & Golf Club, car enthusiasts for the first time beheld the real Bugatti Divo. It looks nothing like its predecessor, the Bugatti Chiron, for one thing. What Bugatti president Stephen Winkelmann took the wraps off was a machine built totally for speed thanks to its Volkswagen W16 powerplant. No mystery why the Divo sports a VW engine -- VW owns the marque.
And the Divo isn't designed as a road machine like the more luxurious Chiron, which is thrust silently by its quad-turbo 8.0-liter engine. The Divo is a track-oriented brute some eight seconds faster than the Chiron when tested at the Nardo Ring high-speed test track.
But, for outright top speed, the Chiron is still the car beat since the Divo will hit the ceiling at "only" 380 km/h compared to the Chiron's electronically capped 420 km/h, but only after special modifications are made.
The Divo, however, is more aerodynamically friendly and 35 kg lighter than the Chiron. And it's a lot more expensive. In fact, it's the most expensive Bugatti ever with a sticker shock price tag of $5.8 million per vehicle. That's a million dollars more expensive than the most expensive sports car on the road, the Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita worth $4.8 million apiece.
Only 40 of these incredibly fast street monsters will be built and all of these sold out before the Divo showed its face in California. The car is, quite literally, a billionaire's plaything.
For its 10th anniversary, the company now known as Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S., the successor to the original Automobiles Ettore Bugatti founded in 1909, teased the image the Divo a week before the Aug. 24 reveal.
The Divo is being described by pundits as a souped-up Chiron, the immensely popular mid-engine, two-seat sports car first revealed in March 2016. Chiron has also lent its name to the current Bugatti era, the Chiron, which began in 2016 and which should last for the next 10 years if the example of the Veyron era is anything to go by.
The Divo features a distinctive new design that underlines its driving dynamics. It is lighter than the Chiron and more agile. This machine will generate more downforce and this more massive g-force promises significantly better handling, including at the corners. The Divo will share its platform and drivetrain with the Chiron.
"With the Divo, we want to thrill people throughout the world," said Winkelmann.
The Divo is named after Albert Divo, the driver known for driving Bugatti Type 35s when he bagged the 1928 and 1929 Targa Florio race.
