The Aston Martin currently developing an Adrian Newey designed and Cosworth powered car?
But Aston-Martin's entire 2018 net income is around 1/47 the amount of money VW lost on just building and selling the Veyron, let alone what they spent developing it. It's fair to put them a tier above the likes of Zenvo, Spyker, or Bristol, and not by a small margin, but they just had their first 2 consecutive years of profitability as an independent company in a long time, after losing more money in 2016 then they've made in 2017 and 2018 combined. I think they can compete on the track, and keep their limited production flagships competitive, but there's not a chance they have a 304MPH Chiron in them.
They've gotten to 250MPH, a hair shy of the very first Veyrons 15 years ago, by building a raw, insane-looking supercar (the Valkyrie) with zero practicality and not a fraction of Bugatti's refinement, and they'll never build 450 of it or anything like it. I'm not discounting Aston-Martin's accomplishments, especially considering the financial obstacles I've mentioned, but they're already doing the best they can. You need the unconditional backing of the biggest automaker in the world, and a willingness to lose several times more cash than Aston Martin's made in its entire existence, to create a Bugatti.
...
Yeah, that was hyperbole. VW AG did build a car that could do that Autobahn thing, the VW Phaeton, but the Chiron definitely floats like a luxury car at normal speeds if you want to set it to do that. Even more than the Veyron already did. If Koenigsegg can do that, they haven't come close yet. The problem is they're not trying to: they and everyone else with a player in that echelon of the industry still seem to think that competing with Bugatti is about track specs. A Bugatti isn't fun on mountain twisties at 40MPH, and it's still bored at 150MPH. It just...does it, because it can, effortlessly. There's nothing it can't do, but there's also nothing the driver can do to feel like they're close to the limit. It's something like how people used to describe the Nissan R35 GT-R's driving dynamics, back before everything else got even more computerized.
With that level of performance capability, it shouldn't be possible for it to be that nice, and everyone else has found it to so impossible that they've given up before they even try. Nobody else is really trying to chase Bugatti or VW AG as a whole anymore, just create more rough, unliveable speed record chasing hypercars with carbon fiber interiors that could've come out of a Michael Bay movie. But throwing unlimited cash at the seemingly impossible just to prove it can be done, even without a business case, was kind of Piëch's thing. The Chiron builds on what his VW learned with the Veyron, and offers insanely more of everything that put the Veyron in the headlines, even as nobody is close to matching the full package of the Veyron 15 years on.
IIRC, both Bugattis Doug DeMuro reviewed had plenty of ultrasuede
Hmm, what version were they driving? I'm one of the few non-journalists or rich people to have actually have seen a Chiron in person, although I'll never be able to afford even 1/30 of one, and I could've sworn that the only part that was suede was the headliner. Which, well, the only real alternative is cloth, which is even lighter. I'm sure it wasn't a Sport or any other sort of special edition, because Bugatti's bespoke work looks so wild that you'd know one when you see one, even if you don't know exactly what it is.
It was in a parking lot I walked past near Saugatuck MI, which is basically Chicago's version of Monaco, and the very richest people there are probably even richer than Monaco's. Except for the Bugatti, it was otherwise unremarkable for a parking lot near a yacht club there: a few Rolls-Royces, some Maserati GranCabrios, a Ferrari or two, nothing cheaper than an Audi. Speaking of Maseratis, have you heard a GranTurismo/Cabrio accelerate from a stop sign? It's the best engine noise you'll ever hear. They're such cheaply-made, outdated, crappy Dodge parts bin cars in every other way, but once you hear one you'll want one, and you wouldn't car if it cost double its $150k. I felt like the waitstaff even in my fully-loaded van I spent $44k on, and I didn't even park in Saugatuck! However, the area also has great sand dunes, museums, lakeshore, and somewhat affordable shopping and restaurants for us plebs. I unfortunately left my camera in the car a town over, because I'd already been a bunch of times and didn't want to carry it around while hiking.
Jeremy Clarkson found the Veyron ill-suited to twisties, when driving it from Italy to the UK in a Top Gear race, reflected in its laptime.
They're not F1 cars, because as I said, what makes Bugatti Bugatti is the luxury, refinement, practicality, and looks that, at least from the front and side, would be within the realm of luxury GTs, although a bit oddly proportioned, if the Bugatti face weren't so iconic. The laptimes are up there with far less liveable and refined cars from the likes of Porsche and Lamborghini, though. Maybe VW uses specially tuned versions when they track Bugattis or lets journalists do the same, kind of like Ferrari is infamous for? Either way,