This DIY Bugatti Chiron Started Life In A Junkyard, And That’s Exactly Where It Belongs
A team of builders spent months turning a scrapped Pontiac G6 into a Bugatti Chiron, and one of them ended up calling it the “Walmart Bugatti.” That nickname came from inside the project, which says plenty about how the build turned out.
Its creator says it cost nearly $100,000 and took more than four months, while a real Chiron costs around $3 million. The team finished it and drove it on the road. But it begs the question that if you can build a hypercar from junk, does it mean you should?
The Real Bugatti Chiron Costs $3 Million And Makes 1,500 HP
The Bugatti Chiron runs an 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged W16 engine that makes around 1,500 hp in standard form, paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and all-wheel drive. Its top speed is electronically limited to about 236 mph, and owners need Bugatti’s special Speed Key to unlock the full 261 mph. Bugatti claims it reaches 60 mph in about 2.3 seconds, even though it weighs around 4,400 lbs.
A base Chiron costs $2,998,000 before options, and the options list could push that figure much higher. By 2022, the Chiron was listed at roughly $3.3 million to $3.9 million, and special versions like the Super Sport cost even more. Bugatti also sold a one-off car based on the Chiron for a reported $18.9 million.
Bugatti built only 500 Chirons, and production ended in May 2024 with the Chiron L’Ultime. Between the price and the small production run, the Chiron is a car almost nobody will ever drive, let alone own. That’s exactly why one Canadian YouTuber decided to build his own from junkyard scraps.
How A Junkyard Pontiac G6 Became A DIY Bugatti Chiron
Canadian YouTuber Steven Song couldn’t afford to spend millions on a Chiron, so he set out to build one from a junkyard car. He picked a scrapped Pontiac G6, a mid-2000s family sedan that’s hardly anyone’s idea of a supercar.
Song claims that he chose the G6 because its dimensions and proportions are close to a Bugatti’s, but the numbers show it’s absolutely not the case. The G6 sedan is 10.1 inches longer than a Chiron and rides on a wheelbase that’s 5.6 inches longer. It’s also 9.6 inches narrower and 9.4 inches taller, on a car whose whole look depends on sitting low and wide.
The G6’s only real advantage was a metal frame the team could weld directly onto. The crew stripped it to the frame, built a steel exoskeleton from junkyard scrap, then widened the car by about 5 inches on each side and lowered it.
The original G6 engine started on its first test, but it leaked what the crew thought was transmission fluid almost immediately. Midway through, the sculptor quit for another job and left the body and interior unfinished. The warehouse lease also ran out, so the half-built car sat in storage for more than two months.
A new sculptor later fixed the cracked body, and the fiberglass interior came out so rough it had to be redone in leather.
Even Its Own Crew Called It The “Walmart Bugatti”
The crew’s own mechanic, Omar, called the finished car the “Walmart Bugatti” before the reveal. Even Song admits the car “wasn’t perfect, far from it.” The Bugatti blue paint makes the shape recognizable, but it still looks like what it is, a foam-and-Bondo body on a family sedan.
The video never mentions an engine swap, so the car almost certainly still runs the G6’s original front-wheel-drive setup instead of a W16. Even the G6’s strongest engine, a 3.6-liter V6, made 252 hp, roughly a sixth of a Chiron’s output.
Song claims it cost nearly $100,000 and took more than four months, calling it his most ambitious project so far. That figure covers the whole production, but even as a rough car budget, it works out to about 3% of the base Chiron’s price. It’s cheap for a Chiron, but it’s serious money for a car that still looks like someone described what a Chiron looks like over the phone.
The team did finish the build and drive it on the road, and the video has since topped 7.3 million views. As a car, though, it started life in a junkyard, and that’s perhaps where it rightfully belongs.
Source: Steve Song via YouTube
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