Finally the highly anticipated Bugatti Divo was unveiled at “The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering“ in Monterey, California, and as expected the car is, well, pretty much what we expected. The Divo is a track-focused Chiron with less weight and sharper handling. We have to say though, the looks did take us by surprise. 

We were expecting the Bugatti Divo to be a slightly revised Chiron in terms of styling, maybe with a huge wing and some black accents. But that is not the case. As Bugatti says, this car marks the brand’s return to the golden age of coachbuilding. And with a production run of just 40 units, each costing a cool 5 Million EUR, the Divo amounts to the same thing as a one-off coachbuild.

The 1,500 PS power output of the W16, quad-turbo behemoth has not changed in the Bugatti Divo compared to the Chiron. But the new boy is about 35 kg (77 lbs) lighter than its sibling and benefits from much more advanced aerodynamics. That is why Bugatti says the Divo is built for corners. It produces 90 kg (198 lbs) more downforce than the Chiron, and even though its top speed is limited to ONLY 380 km/h (236 mph), it’s 8 seconds quicker around Nardo’s handling circuit, which means it beats the Chiron around pretty much any race track that has corners.

Named after Albert Divo “a French racing driver who was a two-time winner of the famous Targa Florio race on the mountainous roads of Sicily with Bugatti in the late 1920s,” Bugatti Divo is no less luxurious than the Chiron, and some may even say it is better looking as well. But it doesn’t matter, because you can’t buy one. All of the 40 production copies have already been sold.

“When I took up my position at Bugatti at the beginning of the year, I soon learnt that our customers and fans were waiting for a special vehicle which would tell a further story for the brand in addition to the Chiron,” said Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. “The Bugatti team was also very eager to implement a project like this.”