A Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport ripping up the Nurburgring Nordschleife is as crazy as it sounds



The Nurburgring Nordschleife is known as the “Green Hell” for good reason – nearly 21 kilometres of twisty tarmac with 73 complex bends and 300 metres change in altitude, plus kerbs as slippery as ice. You can imagine how crazy it will be to have 1,500 hp and 1,600 Nm on a track like this.

But that is exactly what Bugatti did. For the final suspension and handling tests to tune the chassis control software of the Chiron Pur Sport, the hypercar maker elected to use the Green Hell as the proving ground for the 8.0-litre W16 monster. And yes, it’s exactly as crazy as it sounds like. Check out the short onboard video Bugatti has released:

To be fair, the Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport was designed to be a track-focused version of the Chiron. Fitted with reworked aerodynamics, stiffer chassis and dampers, retuned gearbox, and a slight weight loss, the Pur Sport is probably the most qualified member of the Chiron family to take on the Nordschleife.

But still, we can’t help imagine the possibility of something going wrong when there’s more than 1,600 Nm of torque just under your right foot… especially when this thing costs a whole three million Euros, and only 60 will be made.

Here’s Bugatti’s head of development Stefan Ellrott’s justification: “It’s extremely important to us for the Chiron Pur Sport customer to instantly sense the much more radical approach we’re taking with this car in terms of driving dynamics.

“With its unusual topography, numerous bends and the high-speed section from Döttinger Höhe onwards, the Nordschleife is very demanding for both driver and vehicle so it’s ideal for our new car, which is streamlined for agility and speed. This is why we’re running the final tests for fine-tuning the suspension and safety systems here in the Eifel,” he added.

The Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport taking on the infamous Carousel at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

The company also adds that aside from track testing, they also took the Chiron Pur Sport out on the motorways and hilly roads around Nurburgring to make sure that it drives just as well in a day-to-day scenario.

For an extended look at the Chiron Pur Sport on track, along with a technical chat with Bugatti’s head of chassis development Jachin Schwalbe, check out Misha Charoudin’s video where he was invited along for the prototype testing.


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