One-off Bugatti Chiron Profilée sells for £8.7m at auction
The ultra-exclusive Bugatti Chiron Profilée has gone under the hammer in Paris, selling for a record-breaking £8.7m
It’s not often that a car manufacturer creates a one-off road-legal example of a cancelled project for public sale, but then Bugatti is no normal car maker. The Chiron Profilèe is an understated take on the Chiron Pur Sport that was initially cancelled to cater for the unprecedented demand for the Pur Sport, but not before one fully-homologated model was built. At RM Sotheby’s 2023 Paris sale, it sold for a record-breaking €9,792,500 (c£8.7m), making it the most valuable new car ever sold at auction.
Hendrik Malinowski, Managing Director of Bugatti Automobiles, said: '...it was important for us to offer the opportunity to acquire this piece of history to as many people as possible and we were excited with the enthusiasm of the global automotive community for this very special car. Bidders clearly recognized the importance and value of the Chiron Profilée, with an intense rivalry and a price that places this car firmly into the history books.'
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The Profilée features the same powertrain as the Pur Sport, pairing a 1479bhp variant of the quad-turbocharged 8-litre W16 engine to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission built by Ricardo. The distinction from a normal Chiron are its gear ratios which are 15 per cent shorter. This gives the Profilée a 0-62mph time of just 2.3sec, 0.2sec faster than a standard Chiron and 0.1sec quicker than the Chiron SuperSport 300+. 0-124mph is dealt with in 5.5sec and it’ll top out at 235mph, 18mph higher than the Pur Sport for reasons we’ll get into.
The chassis tune is also shared with Pur Sport, with coil springs that are 65 per cent stiffer on the front axle and 33 per cent at the rear compared to a standard Chiron. It also has increased negative camber angle on the rear axle by 50 per cent, which is one of the more extreme setup changes amongst countless other minor geometry adjustments.
Instead, the differences between Pur Sport and Profilée are all about design, with a range of bespoke elements that give the whole car a more sophisticated edge. This starts at the rear, where the Pur Sport’s tall rear wing has been replaced with a static ducktail that creates a more streamlined silhouette.
This sits on top of the same rear bumper design as a Pur Sport, which together create an area of low-pressure helping suck out the huge amounts of hot air being generated from the W16 engine. The low-profile wing also significantly reduces drag compared to the Pur Sport, explaining its higher top speed.
The Profilée’s front bumper, splitter and side skirts are also familiar from the Pur Sport, so too the reformed front wings that integrate double openings on either side to relieve air pressure from inside the front arches at high speeds. This is matched to a nose with broader intakes that sit either side of the enlarged horseshoe grille.
The single Profilée will be finished in a bespoke colour combination pairing Argent Atlantique paintwork with blue tinted carbonfibre on the groundwork elements and lower half of the rear bodywork. These elements are paired to a bespoke set of magnesium wheels, finished in a corresponding colour mix.
Inside, the Chiron’s minimal cabin is highlighted by its material quality rather than glossy LCD displays. For the first time in a Bugatti this includes a woven leather on the door cards, upper dash ring and centre console, contrasting with the smooth finish leather used throughout the rest of the cabin. Few cars are built like a Bugatti – even at the very top of the hypercar market – helping make this very special car feel worth every bit of its eye-watering price tag.
