Why you’re already too late to buy the ambitious new €5m Bugatti Divo supercar

French supercar manufacturer Bugatti has premiered its latest automotive innovation – and it has already sold out. On 24 August, at exclusive motoring event The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering in Monterey, California, super sports car ‘Divo’ made its debut with a 40-unit limited edition supercar engineered for agility and optimum performance on winding roads, and proved itself to be the most ambitious car yet from the brand.

The supercar is named after French racing driver Albert Divo, who was a two-time winner of the famed Targa Florio race of in Sicily with while driving for Bugatti's racing team in the late 1920s. The vehicle powered by Bugatti’s signature eight-litre W16 engine with a power output of 1,500 PS and is cited by the brand as "the modern interpretation of Bugatti’s coachbuilding tradition."’ The lateral acceleration of the Divo has been boosted to 1.6 g, allowing it to reach a maximum speed of 236 mph.

“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.

“To date, a modern Bugatti has represented a perfect balance between high performance, straight-line dynamics and luxurious comfort," he said. ". Within our possibilities, we have shifted the balance in the case of the Divo further towards lateral acceleration, agility and cornering. The Divo is made for bends.”

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But how does it compare to the Chiron, previously the fastest super sports car in Bugatti’s history? The Divo can lap the Nardò handling circuit in southern Italy an impressive eight seconds faster than the Chiron model and its aerodynamics, suspension and chassis settings have all been modified, resulting in the Divo weighing 35 kilograms lighter with 90 kilograms more downforce than the standard Chiron.

In terms of engineering, the Divo’s newly-designed, wide front spoiler provides higher downforce and therefore overall cooling performance is improved. The brakes are cooled by four independent air sources on each side which means the tyre temperature consistently remains in the optimum range. This system – which is also used on the Chiron – is further supported by the vacuum generated by the air curtain on the tyres.

“The feedback from our customers was overwhelming," said Winkelmann. "We showed the Divo to a small group of selected Chiron customers. All 40 cars were sold immediately – this was fantastic confirmation for the Bugatti team which had put so much dedication and passion into the project. The Divo is a further project intended to thrill people and the world. Our fans are very important to us.”

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“The modern interpretation of coachbuilding gave us engineers new freedom,” said Stefan Ellrott, Bugatti's head of technical development at Bugatti Stefan Ellrott said. “The step that we have taken with the Divo in 3 terms of agility and high-performance cornering dynamics can be compared with the overall development from the Veyron to the Chiron.”

“The Divo is a further example of our design philosophy ‘form follows performance," added Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti's director of design of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S said. “In this case, the engineers and designers aimed to create a vehicle focusing on cornering speeds and lateral dynamics. The Divo project was also a welcome opportunity for our team to add a modern chapter to the coachbuilding story of Bugatti which had been so successful in the early years of the brand.”

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“Our task was to develop a vehicle which would look different from the Chiron but still be immediately recognizable as a Bugatti," he said. "For us designers, this meant that the three key style elements of Bugatti had to remain in place: the horseshoe-shaped front grille, the typical Bugatti signature line along the sides of the vehicle and the characteristic fin that defines the longitudinal axis of the car when viewed from above, which was derived from the Type 57 Atlantic.”

The car comes in the bright turquoise shade ‘Divo Racing Blue’, a hue developed especially for this model, which also features as an Alcantara leather tone within the interior. The Divo has already proved a hit during early customer presentations, where the strictly limited series – each valued at €5 million – sold out immediately. A feat that was repeated in California.