Premiere of the new Chiron1: This Friday, for the first time, Bugatti will be showing the world’s fastest, most powerful, most exclusive and most luxurious production super sports car at the renowned motoring event “The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering” in California. So far, more than 200 of the 1,500 PS vehicles have been ordered. North America is one of Bugatti’s most important markets. Around 30% of Chiron customers come from the United States. Each year, on the third weekend of August, The Quail on Friday and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday attract thousands of aficionados of vintage and modern vehicles to the Californian peninsula, Monterey, south of San Francisco.

Bugatti will manufacture 70 models of the Chiron in 2017. Each Chiron takes about six months to produce from start to finish. Bugatti says no robots are used to make the Chiron. In fact, they claim, "The only electronic tool used in chassis assembly is the new EC nutrunner system. This allows a data curve of each bolt tightened on the chassis to be stored on a computer connected to the system, which then gives the assembly worker a signal when the right torque value is reached. There are more than 1,800 bolted joints on a Chiron, with documentation required for 1,068.

A team of 20 people assemble the 1,800 parts that make up the Chiron at the factory that was built in 2005 for Veyron and designed by architect Gunter Henn.

Each Chiron is completely unique. Customers can choose from 23 different colors of leather; eight different colors of Alcantara; 31 different colors of stitching; 18 colors of carpet; and even choose from 11 different colors for their seat belts.

Ex F1 driver sets world record in 1,479bhp Chiron. Spoiler: it's fast

With no new cars to reveal at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, Bugatti has instead used the opportunity to demonstrate just how fast the 1,479bhp Chiron really is. Not with an outright speed record (that’s scheduled for 2018…), but a record for the fastest car to accelerate from nought to 400km/h – or 249mph – and then back to nought again.

The time? 41.96 seconds, which doesn’t sound that fast in a world where a (albeit 600bhp) family saloon will hit 62mph in three. But let us assure you, it most certainly is. The acceleration bit took 32.6 seconds and 2.6km. Once the driver hit the brakes, it took him another 9.3 seconds and 491 metres to come to a complete halt. In all the run covered 3,112 metres – less than two miles.

Ah yes, the driver. It was none other than Juan Pablo Montoya, he of Formula One fame, and winner of the Indy 500 and Daytona 24Hrs, who said he would have “done anything Bugatti wanted” to drive a Chiron. He didn’t even wear a helmet for the record-setting run. He said: “It gave me such a feeling of security and reliability that I was entirely relaxed and really enjoyed myself during my two days with the car.” Fair play.

Bugatti has already sold 300 of the 500 Chirons it plans to build. It will no doubt sell more off the back of this. Get your deposit in quickly.

The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance 2017 offers the ideal backdrop for the delivery of the first Bugatti Chiron1 to a customer in the US. Following Europe, North America is the second most important sales market for the luxury brand from Molsheim. Almost 30 percent of all the orders received for the Bugatti Chiron come from this region. The price in the US market is US$2.998 million including shipping, duties, taxes and charges. The Chiron series is limited to 500 vehicles. More than half of the total series has already been sold throughout the world.

The first US Chiron is a real eyecatcher with its yellow and black colour scheme. The front of the vehicle is patented in bright yellow and the rear in black “Nocturne”. The “Classique” wheels, the Bugatti horseshoe emblem and the trim part of the prominent side line are also painted yellow. The distinctive two-tone colour scheme is continued by the full leather equipment of the interior. Yellow leather is used on the insides of the seats, the armrest on the centre console, the door trims and the C-shaped dividing line in the passenger compartment in contrast to the rest of the interior, which features “Beluga Black” leather.