Not that you're likely to catch sight of one on the road anytime soon, but the Bugatti Divo - Bugatti's better-handling, track-focused twist on the ludicrous Chiron hypercar - will officially start delivering to customers soon, Covid-19 be damned. The new model costs approximately 5 million euros - about $5.4-million USD - and will be built in quantities of just 40. Four-zero. That's less than three percent of the number of Ferrari 488s sold in Europe just last year.

The low production volume is a reflection of the level of dedication and uncompromising attention to detail being poured into each and every example. Bugatti sees the Divo as a bit of a return to its meticulous, labor-intensive coachbuilding roots, and that sort of thing means less volume by nature.

"Coachbuilding is all about creating unique vehicles - individually tailored cars to suit personal tastes," says Bugatti President Stephan Winkelmann. "The Divo perfectly embodies these values."

Bugatti's history with coachbuilding goes back nearly a century, at least to the famous Type 57, which offered coachbuilt bodies from firms like Gangloff, Weymann, and Weinberger, not to mention Bugatti itself.

The coachbuilt Bugatti Divo was designed under Achim Anscheidt, with the goal of providing maximum lateral acceleration with optimal aerodynamic and thermodynamic efficiency. While it's more than vaguely reminiscent of the Chiron on which it's based, the Divo has been given hood air inlets that reduce the car's frontal area and improve air flow. Air curtains ensure that air flows smoothly over front and rear portions of the vehicle sides, and a new front chin spoiler provides extra downforce while enhancing the car's ability to keep cool.

In all, the Divo delivers 456 kg (1,005 lb) of downforce at 380 kph (236 mph) - some 90 kg more downforce than the Chiron - thanks in large part by a tall, proud rear wing that's some 23 percent wider than the Chiron's. All that downforce pays dividends on a road course, where the Divo enjoys a peak lateral acceleration of 1.6 g.

Testing at the Nardò handling circuit in southern Italy revealed that the Divo can complete a lap a full 8 seconds faster than the Chiron before it - an eternity in performance driving terms. Given that, it's little wonder that Winkelmann called the 1,479-horsepower Divo a "true masterpiece of automotive crafsmanship."

Bugatti hasn't put out a precise date for when it expects to begin delivering the Divo to customers, but after a grueling two-year development period, it's enough to know that the date is imminent at all.