This Is By Far The Sexiest Rear I’ve Ever Seen…

On a LEGO Technic supercar. The Bugatti Chiron #42083 set review.

Five years too late, some might say, but hey, it doesn’t matter. I can absolutely review a discontinued LEGO set and make you feel like punching yourself for not getting it while it was still in production. I know I almost didn’t, until I bit the bullet and literally just a couple of weeks before the end of 2022 — its last year on the official LEGO shelves — I bought the Bugatti Chiron, set #42083, and I don’t regret it one bit.

The Bugatti Chiron is the 2nd oldest supercar from the new licensed series that the Danish toymaker started back in 2016 with the Porsche 911 GTR, which I also own. In fact, with the Bugatti Chiron, I am now the proud owner of all four supercars from this Technic series, and I am planning a special on this, so subscribe!

Just like the others, this didn’t come cheap either. I paid a little below the official price, 320 euros. Like I said. Not cheap! That was partly the reason I stayed away from this set for so long, over five years. Additionally, while I really enjoyed the Porsche in 2016, when the Bugatti launched in 2018, I didn’t feel as drawn to it. You know me, Porsche is my favourite car manufacturer, and out of all variants, the 911 is the one that I truly connect with. Bugatti was never high on my list. Currently, after owning the Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari, the Bugatti is still my least favourite.

That’s not to say though that I don’t love the set, or that I didn’t enjoy every hour of the 14 or so I spent on building it. Indeed. 14 hours, though not in a single sitting. I stopped doing LEGO build marathons back in 2016 with the Porsche. Too exhausting. For me, building with LEGO is an experience that has to be savoured, not just a goal to have the set done. Building the Bugatti Chiron was very enjoyable.

When it comes to the end result, I have to say, this LEGO supercar has by far the sexiest rear. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

If you’ve never built a 1:8 scale LEGO Technic supercar, there are several things you’ll learn, and the Bugatti is no different in that respect. You learn a bit about the complexity of a manual gear switching mechanism, steering, and suspension on all four wheels. Add to that of course the simpler things like opening doors and bonnet, but in the case of the Bugatti, the latter two are fairly standard. These two functions were very reminiscent of the 2016 Porsche.

What was less so, though, was the overall build detail. While I absolutely loved the Porsche, and still do, I have to admit, the LEGO designer put a lot more thought into the aesthetics of the Bugatti Chiron, both from an exterior and interior design perspective. Some will claim this makes it “less Technic”, but I, for one, welcome the small details, the smoothened out curves and shapes all around the body and the interior. It potentially goes a tad too far by relying on stickers too, but it’s not really that big a deal. While I would have preferred a $300+ set not to have any stickers, I can put up with the few this set comes with.

The toughest part to build — as it always is with these sets — is the gearbox. You don’t only have to pay attention, but also watch out for errors in the instruction manual, which in this particular case they’re more than I am used to. Throughout the entire build, I think I found at least 25 instances where it just didn’t make sense, or they missed smaller steps. Thank God, I am a well-experienced LEGO builder, and I could easily fill in the blanks, and still get it right.

The Technic supercar gearboxes, while cool and all, are becoming a bit boring, so LEGO should definitely look at adding different, new functions to these cars.

Speaking of complexity, this set is a big leap forward from the 2016 Porsche. That came with 2703 pieces, while the Bugatti rocks 3598 pieces! That’s nearly a 1000 extra, so no wonder it feels more complex and looks a lot more polished. You also get — among a few others — an entirely new piece here used for shifting mechanisms, the gear shifter piece in bright orange. This undoubtedly helps with building the gearbox, reducing some complexity and space needed. It’s a good piece. Many Technic fans like that it has been introduced. As demonstrated by the above link, it’s mostly used in larger sets, apart from the Ducati Panigale.

Speaking of pieces, suspension in the Bugatti Chiron is still achieved with the very classic extra hard shock absorber first introduced in 2011! The set features two per wheel, so you get a total of eight shock absorbers! Trust me, this car needs them. In fact, it needs something even tougher, as many LEGO fans and LEGO designers themselves realised after the launch. These were already somewhat soft for the Porsche, carrying almost another 1000 pieces in the Bugatti, stresses them to the point where after being displayed for a few months, you’ll see the car struggling to bounce back. This was the last LEGO Technic supercar to feature these shock absorbers. All the new ones came with “shock absorber no. 3”.

An excellent selection of Technic pieces overall with near-infinite possibilities of MOCs.

You might wonder how much does it resemble the actual car? If you check out the reference image, you’ll find that LEGO has done a surprisingly bang-on job replicating the car’s silhouette, colour-scheme and even smaller details like the rims and the headlights. Both front and rear look gorgeous, but that rear is just damn sexy. And I’m not even a Bugatti fan! Don’t ask me why. Maybe because it’s French, and I’m not really that into French stuff.

By the way, it also comes with a small Chiron branded bag and a pointless tool to engage the rear spoilers, which you can also achieve by just using your hand. Speaking of fun details, the Bugatti Chiron has also been created in full-size by The LEGO team, built with actual LEGO bricks and displayed at the 2018 Paris Motor Show. It was actually drivable and used 2,304 Lego Power Function motors that produced 4 kW (5.4 hp; 5.4 PS) and 92 N⋅m (68 lb⋅ft) of torque! While impressive, I actually think the 1:8 scale retail variant looks better. 😉

So, jealous yet…? 😉

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility! For my less regular readers, I also write about random bits and writing.