This is what Bugatti does before delivering the Divo hypercar

MANILA: If you’re rich enough to buy a Bugatti, you can probably afford not to care about the testing and quality control it goes through pre-delivery, but if you must know, it is painstakingly comprehensive.

“Each vehicle is intensively tested and checked before delivery so that we can guarantee the absolute quality of our hyper sports cars such as the Divo. We want to get as close to perfection as possible. Our customers expect that from us,” says Christophe Piochon, Member of the Board for Production and Logistics at Bugatti and Molsheim Site Manager.

Before your hand-built unit hits the road from the assembly, two employees cover the body with eight square meters using a special protective film. The underbody is also fitted with a covering used specifically for test purposes and a set of test wheels are used.

The quality checklist to get dynamic approval is over 100 points and takes at least five hours. The first part checks to see if the unit complies with homologation required for the region it will be delivered to, follows the customer’s chosen configuration, and if all electronically operated functions are working.

It then goes through a five-hour drive covering around 300 kilometers of valleys, mountains, and plains in Alsace, France to check steering and drive commands before it goes to a closed runway at the Colmar airport to test at speeds above 250 km/h and to observe braking behavior. From the airport, it goes to the motorway to cool down and to allow the test driver to listen for sounds, squeaks and to feel for vibrations.

Upon its return to the garage, the gearbox oil is changed, the original wheels are put in, and the underbody is installed before it sets out for a one-hour 50-kilometer drive for the final approval.

After ticking all the boxes, the body protection is peeled off and then paint artists work for two days to produce the exterior finish. When that’s done, four employees wearing fine, white cotton gloves check the surface for imperfections, which can take up to six hours.

The last check happens in a light tunnel where under daylight-bright light beam the Divo spends another hour getting inspected.

“We invest an immense amount of time and effort, but this allows us to ensure that only vehicles close to perfection leave the Atelier,” added Piochon.

Only 40 Bugatti Divos will be made and each is priced at € 5 million (Php 282 million).

Photos courtesy of Bugatti

Also read: Bugatti Divo units to roll out this year