YouTuber Mat Armstrong has successfully restarted a rebuilt Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport after reconnecting the front and rear halves of the car during his latest workshop update.
The hypercar had previously been split into two sections to allow access to a damaged gearbox and engine mounting following a crash involving owner Alex Gonzalez.
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Armstrong showed the unusual state of the car at the start of the rebuild process.
“Here is the front of of a Bugatti Chiron purport. And here is the rear half of a Bugatti Chiron purport. And today we’ve got to connect both of them together.”
The repair challenge began after Gonzalez asked Armstrong to attempt rebuilding the damaged hypercar.
Armstrong said: “After Alex crashed his Bugatti, he’s nominated me to repair it.”
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The project has been complicated by the lack of factory support from Bugatti, which declined to provide parts for the repair.
“But we just don’t think it’s safe and that’s why we can’t support it,” a response referenced in the video stated.
The manufacturer also questioned whether the rebuild could be completed outside a specialist facility.
“You can’t just do that in a garage.”
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Despite that, Armstrong previously separated the rear section of the Chiron from the front half to remove the broken gearbox and engine mounting.
“But despite that, in the last video, we managed to separate the rear half of the car away from the front half.”
With the mounting repaired and the chassis reconnected, the rebuilt Chiron was started again for the first time since the crash.
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Two possible repair solutions were initially considered for the broken engine and gearbox mounting.
One option involved 3D scanning the damaged component and machining a replacement from a solid aluminium block using CNC technology.
“Now, when they’re making it out of the complete CNC machine block, if one of these crank sensors are not in the exact same spot they were from the original mounting, then that could cause the engine to run lumpy, not start at all, or when it’s under boost, not to run the correct boost.”
His latest video concludes with the hypercar starting for the first time, something Bugatti wasn’t expecting to happen. The build continues on Mat’s YouTube channel.
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