About the Contest

As part of OCD’s objective of highlighting niche communities on the Hive Blockchain, this week, the focus is on the Planetauto Community. The community is all about cars and the fun around cars. We can find many motorheads there, and chances are you will love it as much as I.

If you fancy participating, you can do so here.

Have fun!

My Favorite Car

I love cars. I love speed.

Hold on to that thought, and I will explain why my favorite car ticks both the boxes. I have two sites on which I write exclusively about the fastest things in the world while on the other about Formula 1 (F1) car. F1 cars are the fastest cars that can turn on corners at high speed for those who don't know. The only other type of car which comes close is Indy cars. They are comparable with F1 in every way. Anyway, coming back to my point, I love cars, and I love speed. So, my ultimate dream car is an amalgamation of these two areas of love.

Let me not make you guess too much. My favorite car is the coolest looking fastest car in the world. I am talking about the Bugatti Chiron. For those that don’t know, here is a picture of the Bugatti Chiron.

Picture Source

For those that aren’t aware, at the time of writing this article, the Bugatti Chiron was the only production car to have broken the 300 [482.8 kmph] mph barrier. There is no other car "yet" that can go faster than 300 mph or rather 304.77 [490.48 kmph], which is the speed that the Chiron achieved in the speed test. But why do I say, “yet”. Ah, that’s an interesting story which we will look at in a moment. But before that, you would want to know what the Bugatti costs and how much would I have to shell out to buy one in my country.

I will touch upon the cost part and why it is, therefore, still a dream car. Hopefully, sooner than later, the dream shall come true. 😊

Bugatti Chiron | Costs A Ton | And Twice That!

The Chiron, much like any hyper sports car, is made in limited numbers and meant for connoisseurs. That means it will be north of the million-dollar mark. Not only that, the Chiron is the diamond standard when it comes to cars, so yeah, it’s going to cost way more.

The Chiron in the U.S. would cost about $3 million. But it becomes way more costly in my country. You see, India has 110% customs duty on automobiles coming in as a Completely Built Unit (CBU). Since there are no Bugatti manufacturers or assemblers in India, it can come only in the CBU mode. So, what is the cost in India?

Here is one of the local sites listing the Chiron.

Source

As you can see, it is yet to be available in India. Not only that, the price may be a bit off. That is because of two things – the dollar-to-INR conversion at the time of the article listing and the fact that the cost is not for the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport. The Super Sport is what went beyond 300 mph. So, let’s figure out what the cost would be in India.

The current dollar to INR rate is: 1 $ = 73.86. For computation, we will take it as 73. So, on simple conversion, a $3 million Chiron would cost INR 219 million in India. That is 21.9 crores. However, that is not the only thing. The 110% customs will also apply since it will be imported as a CBU. So, the final cost would be 2.1 times. Therefore, the final cost is INR 459.9 million or 45.99 crores.

That’s like double the cost of the actual price of the car in the U.S. But like I said, the Bugatti is built for the connoisseur, and they wouldn’t bother to see the price tag twice. How else do we see the Bugatti Veyron, the Chiron’s older cousin, on Indian roads?

So, that explains the cost part. Now, let’s look at the history and why I say “yet” when pointing out that no other car has gone faster than the Bugatti Chiron. And you would love the story.

Bugatti | A Historical Perspective

The Bugatti was founded in 1909 and had its genesis in Germany. Like most engineering marvels, the Bugatti too had some ideation from pre-world-war Germany. The Bugatti vehicles won many of the races in the early 1920s when there were no regulations of equal spec engines. As such, Bugatti could make faster engines and put every other car behind.

That was not all. The obsession with speed was always there with the brand. Even in the 1940s, when cars considered 100 kmph as their outer speed limit, the Bugatti went and created cars that could do twice that speed without breaking a sweat. The company did have its ups and downs but in the 90s is when it started looking better.

The Bugatti EB110, one of the earlier speed demons, was owned by Michael Schumacher, the F1 legend, back in 1994. That gave the brand some recognition among personal car buyers.

That was the start of what would be Bugatti’s speed domination of road-legal cars. But the EB110 was not the fastest. That crown belonged to the McLaren F1, which was the fastest car in the world back in 1993. So, the EB110 came a distant second. The F1 could do 240 mph top speed, but no other car had crossed the 250 mph barrier.

That probably gave the Bugattis some ideas. And here’s what happened since then.

Bugatti Vs. The World | Clash of the Titans

The McLaren’s reign as the fastest car remained for more than a decade and would have been one of the longest. In 2005, that was about to change. The Bugatti came up with the Bugatti Veyron, which trumped the McLaren F1 and was also the first to break the 250 mph [402.34 kmph] barrier. It did a 253 mph [407.16 kmp] and thus put the McLaren F1 behind. Have a look.