Apex Predator

With 1,500hp and a focus on more agile handling dynamics, the new Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is pure terror for other, lesser hypercars.

- Viju Mathew

Wending its way through Malibu, Southern California’s Pacific Coast Highway teems with the automotive equivalent of great white sharks, the sleek Ferraris, Lamborghinis and McLarens common to the daily commuting frenzy. But I’m behind the wheel of megalodon, bigger, badder and awesomely more powerful: the US$3.96 million Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport.

One of only 60 to be made, this Pur Sport further refines a model introduced in 2016. The Chiron has always been about mind-blowing stats, from the founding edition’s 420km/hr top speed to an amount of carbon fibre that, stretched end to end, would reach the moon nine times over. But while the initial Chiron targeted the type of straight-line acceleration best suited to airport runways, the Pur Sport represents a decided turn toward, well, turns.