Mat Armstrong successfully restarts crashed Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport in major rebuild milestone
Published on Mar 09, 2026 at 4:46 PM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Mar 09, 2026 at 4:46 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
A lot of us have probably been following the story of Mat Armstrong as he attempts to rebuild the crashed Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport supercar.
Rebuilding it after a fellow YouTuber crashed it, Armstrong has faced trials and tribulations along the way, with Bugatti unable to help him and even saying it can’t be done.
But Armstrong has passed a few milestones with the car recently, and the latest one has just taken place.
With the supercar now being fired up for the first time, it looks like this Bugatti might get on the road again after all.
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Why this Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport rebuild has been such a challenge
Several factors have made this such a challenging supercar rebuild.
Bugatti has said it wouldn’t be able to help rebuild the crashed supercar for several reasons.
They said the two halves of the car couldn’t be split by just anyone, and that 3D printing parts was a no-go.
But Armstrong and his team did manage to split the car and source parts to use in the Bugatti.
Repairing the gearbox was one of the biggest tasks, which again was something Bugatti doubted Armstrong could do.
In the end, the mount for the transmission was welded back into place.
Armstrong was then able to join the two halves of the car, using 14 titanium bolts.
But the biggest question was whether they would be able to fire up the supercar.
How Armstrong fired up the Bugatti again
Reconnecting the car was not an easy task.
Everything from the coolant, fuel, intercooler, and ECU systems all needed to be brought back together.
One potential worry was that the cooling system may have been damaged.
The Chiron had been driven without coolant, and that isn’t what you want to do with any car, let alone a supercar worth millions of dollars.
With a big sigh of relief, Armstrong and his team did not need to worry about it.
Amazingly, the car fired up for the first time, and a new custom exhaust even gave it a deeper, throatier sound.
A fuel line did briefly pop, but this was fixed.
In even better news, the supercar drove after successfully going into gear, too.
Maybe the future for this Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is bright after all.
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Henry joined the Supercar Blondie team in February 2025, and since then has covered a wide array of topics ranging from EVs, American barn finds, and the odd Cold War jet. He’s combined his passion for cars with his keen interest in motorsport and his side hustle as a volunteer steam locomotive fireman at a heritage steam railway.
