The Bugatti Divo1 was unveiled at the exclusive automotive event “The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering“ in Monterey, California. With the Divo, the French luxury brand has developed a super sports car tuned for agility, nimbleness and optimum handling performance on winding roads. It is powered by Bugatti’s iconic eight-litre W16 engine with a power output of 1,500 PS. The aerodynamics of the model have been intensively fine-tuned and the suspension and chassis settings have been modified. As a result, the Divo is 35 kilograms lighter and has 90 kilograms more downforce than the standard Chiron2. The lateral acceleration of the Divo has been boosted to 1.6 g. Its maximum speed is limited to 380 km/h.The Divo can lap the Nardò handling circuit in southern Italy eight seconds faster than the Chiron. The series will only consist of 40 vehicles. Upon the start of presentations to selected customers, the strictly limited small series, with a net unit price of €5 million, sold out immediately.

It was therefore decided to build a super sports car with a different character from the Chiron which would still be immediately recognizable as a Bugatti. Bugatti President, Stephan Winkelmann explains: With the Divo, Bugatti is also reviving its coachbuilding tradition. In its first few decades, the French luxury brand had considerable success with bodies built to its own design and installed on existing chassis. To date, a modern Bugatti has represented a perfect balance between high performance, straight-line dynamics and luxurious comfort. Within our possibilities, we have shifted the balance in the case of the Divo further towards lateral acceleration, agility and cornering,” Winkelmann added. “The Divo is made for bends.“

He also claims that the feedback from exsisting customers was overwhelming. The Divo was showed to a small group of selected Chiron customers. All 40 cars were sold immediately. This in itself was staggering which aplauded 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.The supercar is 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.The Divo project was also a welcome opportunity for the Bugatti team to add a modern chapter to the coachbuilding story of Bugatti which had been so successful in the early years of the brand.

The design team continued the evolution of the design elements for the Divo in line with the design brief and reinterpreted the design philosophy “Form follows Performance”. The outer skin of the Divo was designed in an uncompromising way to emphasize lateral acceleration. The main objective was to achieve optimum aerodynamic and thermodynamic efficiency. At the same time, the Divo represents a new styling approach which the design team has developed especially for a coachbuilt Bugatti and which is distinguished from the modern core products of the brand.

The slimmer side line of the Divo helps make the vehicle look lower and longer. The new proportions allow a visual horizontal division of the body, which is reinforced by a special colour scheme. The top, more elegant section is painted with a matt finish in a silver colour “Titanium Liquid Silver” developed especially for the Divo. This effectively underpins the sculptural, muscular form of the car. The long domed areas with their smooth surfaces along the C-pillar and the rear side sections optically shift the driver’s cab forwards. This gives the Divo an extremely dynamic appearance even when the vehicle is standing still. The lower part of the sides has more of a functional, technical design, reinforcing the car’s forceful appearance and giving it a confident stance on the road. This section features exposed carbon fibre tinted in a petroleum blue shade, “Divo Carbon”, developed especially for this model.

An entirely new architecture was developed for the front of the car. There are additional air inlets for brake cooling. The new, vertically oriented front lights with daytime running light on the outer edge in each case give the Divo an appearance of greater width. With a light opening which is only 35 millimetres (1 3/8“) flat, the extremely compact, lightweight LED headlights move into a new technical dimension. A light animation developed especially for the Divo underlines the distinctive signature of the front end. The horizontal split into a lower carbon and an upper matt silver section also makes the Divo look lower and underlines the optical impression of width. 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 fact that the central line runs from the front over the roof to the rear spoiler is not only a reminiscence of Bugatti’s legendary past but also serves a function. This configuration prevents air eddies from forming over the vehicle, creating turbulence on the rear spoiler.

One highlight at the rear of the vehicle is definitely the new, highly sophisticated 3-D rear light. This is actually part of the rear grille, which is partly produced by a 3-D printing process and has special lightweight fins with a variety of sizes. A total of 44 of these fins light up, forming the rear light of the Divo. At the outer edge, the fins become wider, creating a more intensive light. Towards the centre of the vehicle, they are narrower, resulting in gradual fading of the light. The result is a striking appearance which means that the Divo is also unmistakable from the rear.

The two-tone colour scheme also intensifies the forceful impression created by the rear. The fenders are painted in “Titanium Liquid Silver” with a matt finish and are optically distinguished from the parts which control airflow at the rear end. Air outlets, rear spoiler and diffuser have a carbon finish. “Divo Racing Blue”, a bright turquoise blue shade developed especially for the Divo, underlines the three-dimensional character of the three surfaces leading to the air inlets and outlets on the front, sides and rear, creating dynamically contrasting effects. The technical character of the colour scheme and materials used for the exterior is continued in the interior. A matt version of the exclusive high-gloss carbon fibre used on the exterior is to be found in the interior. The colour effects of the carbon tint and exterior paintwork are reflected on a 1:1 basis by the dark “Divo Grey” petroleum tone of the Alcantara in the interior, providing a subtle contrast with the glass-blasted anodized grey surfaces of the metal parts.

The distinctive “Divo Racing Blue” is also used as an Alcantara leather tone in the interior, where it plays a special role by providing an optical split in the interior surfaces. This colour is used almost throughout the driver’s section while it only provides selected accents in the darker passenger’s section. Another stylistic link between interior and exterior is created by the door trims and seat areas, which feature an embroidered three-dimensional rhomboid structure with an algorithmic configuration, reinterpreting the structure of the grille and rear lights.Technical innovations in the interior include the seats, which not only feature a new design but offer greater lateral support. The steering wheel is partly covered with Alcantara and has larger paddles fitted firmly on both sides of the wheel. Thanks to larger armrests and calf supports, the central console ensures greater comfort.