Bugatti on Thursday took the wraps off a Chiron Super Sport with unique details inspired by the Type 57SC Atlantic.
Known as the Chiron Super Sport 57 One of One, the car is the latest creation of Bugatti's Sur Mesure personalization department, and was commissioned by a client who wanted to build a tribute to a Type 57SC Atlantic that she saw more than 20 years ago.
The car she saw was the 1936 Type 57SC Atlantic built for Victor Rothschild. It was the first of the four examples that would be built, and is currently owned by Peter Mullin and Rob Walton, after they acquired it at a 2010 auction. The world was just starting to recover from the global financial crisis at the time, but the car still managed to sell for more than $30 million.
Special touches on the Chiron Super Sport inspired by the Type 57SC Atlantic include the silver-tinted blue paint finish, the revised horeshoe grille with polished vertical lines, and multiple recreations of the original car's silhouette, like on the underside of the rear wing and on the door linings. Bugatti's Dancing Elephant motif, as well as the signature of Jean Bugatti, the designer of the Type 57SC Atlantic, were also added to the cabin.
Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 57 One of One
No change was made to the Chiron Super Sport's mechanicals. Power comes from the Chiron's quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W-16, though the output has been dialed up to 1,578 hp instead of the standard 1,480-hp rating. The Chiron Super Sport also rides on a bespoke set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires rated at up to 317 mph. This is made possible by reinforced belts that were torture tested using a test bench originally built for the Space Shuttle program.
The Chiron Super Sport's body is also longer than the standard Chiron to help it remain stable at high speeds. The design includes a long-tail section—the rear was stretched by almost 10 inches to hold the laminar flow to the bodywork for as long as possible—and a wide rear diffuser integrating stacked exhaust tips.
The body is shared with the more extreme Chiron Super Sport 300+, a prototype for which hit a speed of 304.773 mph in 2019. The Chiron Super Sport's top speed is capped at 273 mph.
This isn't the first Chiron-based car inspired by the Type 57SC Atlantic. Bugatti in 2019 revealed the La Voiture Noire. The car, whose name is French for “The Black Car,” is inspired by the black Type 57SC Atlantic that was the personal car of Jean Bugatti. The original car's whereabouts are unknown, as it went missing at the onset of the Second World War.
