What?s it like to drive a Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport... in traffic?

All press test drives require the presence of a chaperone—in our case, the affable Butch Leitzinger, one of a handful of racing drivers that Bugatti employs for this reason.Further ReadingThis is what it’s like driving a Bugatti Chiron at 305mphIn fact, the car is so far out of the normal frame of reference that it's perhaps even more daunting to write about than to drive, as evinced by the fact that it has taken me many weeks to properly marshal these words.At least there's no 300 mph (405 km/h) top speed to worry about. Topping out at 218 mph (350 km/h) means the Chiron Pur Sport is actually the slowest car Bugatti has made since its (second) resurrection in 1998. Yes, that's horrid, so take comfort in the fact that only 60 Chiron Pur Sports will be made, they won't get driven much, and pretty soon, the company's new boss, Mate Rimac, will find a way to stick some electric motors in the next Bugatti.After I was suitably awed, we found somewhere to pull over and swapped seats. So I have no way of contextualizing the fact that the special Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires endow the car with 10 percent more lateral grip or what it feels like when the massive fixed rear wing (all 6.2 feet/1.9 m of it) generates all its downforce at speed. The Nürburgring-ification process of Pur Sporting the Chiron might have canceled that top speed in this case, but I can report that even this track-ready Bugatti still checks the first box.Listing image by Jonathan GitlinYou must login or create an account to comment.Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox.