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Bugatti Unveils Divo At ‘The Quail - A Motorsports Gathering +VIDEO


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Editor's Note: Christiaan Hetzner writing for Automotive News reported that the Bugatti Divo supercar sells out despite costing nearly $6 million. Bugatti sold all 40 examples of its $5.8 million Divo as soon as it showed the limited edition supercar to a small group of wealthy (Duh!) customers.

Bugatti Unveils Divo At ‘The Quail - A Motorsports Gathering
By Henny Hemmes,
Senior European Editor

The Hague, August 24, 2018. This week, the Monterey Peninsula, Ca., is flocked with car aficionados to participate in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion, one of the other automotive events (August 21-26), or just enjoy being a spectator. As the Monterey Motoring draws a crowd of some 100,000 people, several car manufacturers used are showing a new model. Among them this year, is Bugatti., that is presenting a new model by the name Divo on the lawn of ‘The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering’.


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The car is named after Albert Divo, the French racing driver who won the famous Targa Florio race in Sicily for Bugatti twice in the late 1920s.

Based on the requirements for such a race, the Bugatti Divo is light and nimble and will boast enormous down force and g-forces. Bugatti claims that the handling will be outstanding, while the dynamic character of the Divo is underlined by a new, strong design language. The new mode! Model is powered by Bugatti’s 8-liter W-16 engine with an output of 1,500p.

“Happiness is not around the corner. It is the corner. The Divo is made for corners,” says Bugatti President Stephan Winkelmann. “With the Divo, we want to thrill people throughout the world. With this project, the Bugatti team had the opportunity to interpret the brand DNA in terms of agility, nimble handling in a significantly more performance-oriented way.”


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With the Divo, Bugatti is reviving its coach building tradition. In the first decades of its history, the French luxury brand had considerable success with bodies designed in-house under the leadership of Jean Bugatti and installed on existing chassis.

The Divo’s aerodynamics were considerably improved. The front cover is equipped with air intakes which reduce the effective cross-sectional area of the vehicle , improves air flow at the front and increases aerodynamic efficiency. An optimized ‘air curtain’ generates better air flow over the front and rear sections of the car’s sides. The newly-designed, wide front spoiler provides higher down force and guides more air to the front air inlets. Therefore, the cooling system receives a higher mass flow and overall cooling performance is improved brakes are cooled like in the Chiron, but the system gets additional support from the vacuum, generated by the air curtain on the tires.

The design of the roof form a NACA air duct, a flow-optimized air inlet. In combination with the specially designed engine compartment cover, this ensures a very high air mass flow to the engine compartment, playing a key role in temperature management in the engine bay. The rear end features a new, height-adjustable rear spoiler which functions as an air brake when turned forwards and is set to different angles for the individual driving modes.

The rear spoiler is 23 per cent wider than n the Chiron and has a width of 72 inches/1.83 meter. It improves efficiency and results in higher air brake performance as well as significantly more down force, which is also boosted by the rear diffuser that was completely redesigned for better efficiency while accommodating four tailpipes.

The total down force is 1,005 lb /456 kg, 198 lb./90 kg more than on the Chiron.

Improving the cornering dynamics was the main goal for the development of the chassis. Therefore, camber was increased allowing a maximum (limited) speed of 236 mph/380 kmh. Therefore, there is no Top Speed Mode, like in the Chiron. The Divo is 77 lb /35 kg lighter than the Chiron and reaches lateral acceleration of 1.6 g.

“The Divo is a further example of our design philosophy ‘Form follows Performance‘. In this case, the engineers and designers aimed to create a vehicle focusing on cornering speeds and lateral dynamics,” says Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti ‘s Director of Design. “The body of the Divo was designed to emphasize lateral acceleration., while the main objective was to achieve optimum aerodynamic and thermodynamic efficiency.”

The NACA air inlet on the roof creates an optical connection with the air outlet in the centre of the front cover and guides the air towards the rear spoiler. The central fin running from the front over the roof to the rear spoiler is reminiscent of Bugatti’s legendary past but also serves a function. It prevents air eddies from forming over the vehicle, creating turbulence on the rear spoiler.

Bugatti combines the Titanium liquid silver color with Divo Racing Blue, and continues these colors in the interior.

The Divo is being made in a limited series of only 40 units, Which are all sold at a net price of €5 million.


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