Top Car

January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 69

9

RADOVAN VARICAK/MO

TOR FORECAST

It’ll moveAston’s

styling forwards
Unlike DBS,Virage andVanquish
before it, DB11 isn’t yet another
minordevelopment ofthe still-
beautiful but long-pensionableDB9.
Sothe styling will bea conscious
departure fromDB9, albeit a
careful one.James Bond’s DB 10
is, ofcourse,previewingelements
ofthe design oncinemascreens
worldwide, particularly in thebody
surfacing. ThatSpectre caris one
ofthe reasons why the new Aston
will bebadgedDB11, but it’s also
todenotea stepchangein Aston’s
development. There’s precedent
here: there was never anAston
DB8.When DB9 replaced DB7, it
was justasbeautiful, yet profoundly
more modernandbroader in ability.
History repeating? Let’s hopeso.

Test mule gives awayDB11’s
wider track. Weexpecta
handlingmasterclass

BUGATTI’S BESTcustomers saw the successor to the 430kph Veyron

SS – named Chiron– at a preview last July. Its public premierewas inked in

for the Geneva show in March 2016. But the 442kph-topping, 1 100-plus kW

supercar is now on hold, the most high-profile, high-performance casualty

of Volkswagen’s cost cuts in the wakeof the dieselgate scandal.

You can understand why VWGroupchairman Matthias Müller got

cold feet aboutthe Chiron. Imagine the headlines if VWhad pampered

a thrill-seeking elite with a supercar retailing at €2.2 million (+/- R33

million), when it had barely rolled up its sleeves correcting the 11 million

diesel cars running the emissions defeat device.

It’s a punishing blow for the Bugatti project, whose world’s fastest

car-goal in 2001 encapsulated the VWcharacter: arrogance, steely determi-

nation and engineering excellence. The Chiron was set to follow the Veyron

blueprint closely: carbonfibre body structure, four-wheel drive and quad-

turbo W16 engine. By revising 70% ofthe parts, the engineers had coaxed

another 220kW from the 8.0-litre W16, pushing it to beyond 1100kW; the

dual-clutch transmission was primed to handlenearly 1627Nm of torque.

Redeveloped tyres and a modified 4WD system with adaptive torquesplit

and torquevectoring reportedly delivered a 2.3sec 0-100kph time. To go for

442kph v-max again required a second key tolower the nose, lock the rear

airbrake and shut the selectively blocked air intakes.

The Chiron includes new design elements. Double-barrel headlights sit

eye-level with the ba dge on top ofthe horses hoe grille, the roof-mounted air

intake scoops are dropped for semi-oval lateral apertures, and the engine is

partly covered by a panel wearing Bugatti’s trademark centre crease.

The finished car seduced a double-digit number of clients into signing

contracts and pl edging to pay deposits in two tranches, with the second

triggering the delivery of the jewel-like speed key as an appetite-whetter.

Now the Chiron is on hold. Whether it sees the light of day depends on how

quickly VWrestores its reputation.

BUGATTI CHIRON

THIS 442KPH PHENOMENON

WAS LINED UPTO BE THE 2016

SUPERCAR. NOW ITS FUTUREIS

VERY CLOUDY INDEED...

2016 ’s MOST WANTED