Bugatti Divo
For the first time in recent brand history, Bugatti now offers two supercars simultaneously. Parallel to the Chiron, the French manufacturer presented the new Divo at The Quail in California during the Monterey Car Week. Although this is based on the carbon monocoque of the Chiron, it is visually independent. Bugatti president Stephan Winkelmann gave clear guidelines to his development team and received a corresponding result: “The Divo has significantly higher performance in terms of lateral acceleration, agility and cornering. The Divo is made for corners.”
This was made possible by sophisticated developments on the aerodynamics, a modified suspension and a weight reduction of 35 kilograms compared to the Chiron. New spoilers and the wider fixed rear wing – which continues to work as an air brake – achieve 90 kilograms more downforce, which increases the possible lateral acceleration to 1.6 g on road tires. Thus, the lap time on the handling course of the Italian test area Nardó drops by a full eight seconds. Since the Divo is more about handling than pure top speed, the latter was electronically limited to 380 kph (236 mph), which is still more than enough in most countries. It is made possible by the technology packet of the Chiron with the eight-liter W16 quad-turbo engine and 1,500 horsepower.
Only the characteristic line of the side windows and the windshield are reminiscent of the Bugatti Chiron, all other body panels of the Divo are independent and give it a more modern and sportier appearance, but at the same time clearly recognizable as a Bugatti. With this low-volume series, the French company revives the coachbuilding tradition of the 1920s and 30s, when they placed individual body designs on existing chassis. For the Divo they did lot of fine tuning of the bodywork in the wind tunnel to combine the best possible air resistance with as much downforce as possible. As a positive side effect coolers and brakes are better supplied with cooling air.
The progressive new design language of the Divo with its curved LED headlights follows the clear motto ‘form follows performance’, which was also used by McLaren with their new Senna. However, the Bugatti designers created a more appealing result. The presentation vehicle was painted in matte ‘Titanium Liquid Silver’ and combined with many petrol blue tinted bare carbon parts – called ‘Divo Carbon’ – and accents in ‘Divo Racing Blue’. A particular detail are the highly complex three-dimensional LED taillights, that are part of the rear grille and partially created with a 3D printer. Inside, matte bare carbon is combined with Alcantara in ‘Divo Gray’ and ‘Divo Racing Blue’, with split between the driver and passenger side.
The name of the new supercar derives from Albert Divo, a Bugatti works racing driver from the 1920s. His real name was Albert Eugène Diwo, but he wrote his name later himself with a ‘v’. After working as a fighter pilot in World War 1, he than worked as a mechanic and then rose himself into the cockpit of racing cars of the brands Sunbeam, Talbot-Darraqc, Delage and finally Bugatti, where he in 1928 immediately won the Targa Florio with a Type 35B. He was able to repeat that victory a year later. More racing successes on circuits and hillclimbs followed. Between 1936 and 1939 he started alternately for Talbot and Delahaye, before he ended his career. After World War 2 he served as a race director for the lubricant supplier Castrol and in 1962 co-founded the ‘Club International des Anciens Pilotes de Grand Prix F1’. The supercar named after him is strictly limited to just 40 copies worldwide and costs five million euros plus taxes each. However, all vehicles were already pre-ordered in advance of the world premiere.
Images: Bugatti
