Here’s something that would give the Flash pause: It’s the Bugatti Chiron hitting an eyeball-squeezing 304.77 miles per hour at a Volkswagen-owned test track facility in Ehra-Lessien, Germany. The “world record run” for fastest top speed in a production vehicle set by the Chiron delivers thrills, chills, and thoughts of unimaginable bills in the video below—but there is a caveat here. Still though, take a second, watch the clip, and—in the words of the great Ray Arnold—hang on to your butts.
Bugatti posted the video of the three-million-dollar Chiron hitting the blistering speed to its YouTube page, with a simple congratulations to pilot Andy Wallace and, presumably, anybody else involved in the effort. The video starts out by noting that “The challenge to break the 300mph barrier has long been an ambition of the automotive world,” and that this is “The story of how Bugatti rose to the challenge.”
And rise to the challenge the vehicle and driver did indeed. According to Car and Driver, the beastly black and orange beauty had its stock quad-turbo W-16 engine (that’s four turbochargers and 16 cylinders) tuned to a breathtaking 1,600 horsepower—for reference, the 2015 Ferrari 458 generates 570 horsepower. The Chiron used for the speed record also had aerodynamic, safety, and gearing adjustments made, which allowed it to surpass the base Chiron’s top speed. And that is exactly the caveat.
Bugatti doesn’t explicitly state that the “world record run” is for a production vehicle because this Chiron is not production spec—it’s been modified. So while this speed run is certainly impressive, it doesn’t really slot in to any list of records. The world’s fastest production-vehicle top speed record still belongs to the Koenigsegg Agera RS, which hit 277.87 miles per hour in 2017.
But fret not, any millionaires (billionaires?) reading this: Bugatti’s coming out with its Centodieci model soon, which has similar specs to this modified Chiron. The price tag for the Centodieci? A cool $8.9 million. But it does look like a spaceship, so that’s nice.
Bugatti’s Centodieci.
What are your thoughts on this “world record run” by Bugatti? Are you excited to see what top speed an electric supercar can achieve? Let us know in the comments!
Images: Bugatti