Bugatti Chiron Busts Through 300mph, But Don't Rewrite The Record Books Just Yet

Dsavage27
Besides some rear end stability and roll cage, 100 more hp, slight weight savings ( still probably around 4000lbs), and being lowered this is still a basically non touched Chiron. Real impressive for a 2 ton car with just under 1600hp.
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Not disputing your post really, but weight has very little to do with top speed. The faster you go, the less it matters compared to aerodynamics to the point where 99.999% (for example) of your power output is going towards overcoming air resistance and 0.001% is overcoming rolling resistance (which weight is a component of). All of that is to say that the Chiron's weight is largely irrelevant to its speed capabilities. If anything, it probably helps by adding stability.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
Honestly they could sell a car with the exact specification (minus the cage) as the 300mph one and just speed limit it to 261mph for safety. It would be no less impressive as a car, and nobody is going to get anywhere near that speed anyways. The prospective owners would still own "Trecento" (of course that would have to be the name) even if their cars won't go that fast.
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I'd agree except on the name; it's European and would have to be metric, right? Cuattrocentonovanta e mezzo is a bit of a mouthful though...
 
Bram Turismo
The point is, Bugatti got there first. Koenigsegg have always surpassed Bugatti, but they've only achieved those goals after Bugatti set the bar.
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I'm pretty sure that Bugatti also did the same thing to McLaren in the past and remained as a consistent topnotcher. However, before the Veyron went 250mph, didn't the Koenigsegg CCR made the previous record in 2005, being able to hit around 245mph?
 
GTV0819
I'm pretty sure that Bugatti also did the same thing to McLaren in the past and remained as a consistent topnotcher. However, before the Veyron went 250mph, didn't the Koenigsegg CCR made the previous record in 2005, being able to hit around 245mph?
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Technically yes, koenigsegg hit 241 in its top speed test which I think was enough to dethrone the McLaren F1. But a few months later the veyron topped that by hitting 253.
 
Bram Turismo
The point is, Bugatti got there first. Koenigsegg have always surpassed Bugatti, but they've only achieved those goals after Bugatti set the bar.
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I'm not sure that's fair to say. Koenigsegg was the one who finally dethroned McLaren after 11 years only for Bugatti to enter the super car world & break it months later. Then came SSC a couple years later and then Bugatti again a few years after that in 2010, who held it for another 7 years.

It took Koenigsegg 13 years after the CCR run to finally beat Bugatti with the Agera. I don't think they've ever actually surpassed Bugatti except in other acceleration categories.
 
McLaren
I'm not sure that's fair to say. Koenigsegg was the one who finally dethroned McLaren after 11 years only for Bugatti to enter the super car world & break it months later. Then came SSC a couple years later and then Bugatti again a few years after that in 2010, who held it for another 7 years.

It took Koenigsegg 13 years after the CCR run to finally beat Bugatti with the Agera. I don't think they've ever actually surpassed Bugatti except in other acceleration categories.
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What I've been also thinking earlier.
 
There was always somebody faster first.

It's entirely meaningless to frame it as a "competition" anyway. It's just a bit of fun - with some serious engineering, I grant you, and that is what makes it interesting.
 
*yawn* I'd be very surprised if those things can go a lot faster than the top speed of an airliner. :lol:
 
Yes Campbell did but on the Salt Flats of Bonneville, not a paved asphalt track. If people want to point out the 300 mph mark being broken it is done so routinely every time NHRA has an event with Top Fuel and Funny cars. I think the significance here will always be that this car could be made for production and be this fast. That an actual manufacture team achieved something of a barrier in a road going car before others.

At this stage it's a prototype and I hope @McLaren is right and a production version due to this achievement is made.
 
The record car has now evolved into the Chiron Super Sport 300+.
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/supercars/bugatti-chiron-super-sport-300-production-300mph-car

02_ss300p_3i4_front.jpg
03_ss300p_3i4_rear.jpg
04_ss300p_interior.jpg
 
I also didnt realize that they are putting a speed limiter on it...for now. I think it should be set for 288 like what was rumored the standard chiron can hit. By that it could still edge the top speed of Koenigseggs Agera RS and still have a top speed higher than the standard chiron. And then by that logic it shouldn't really have the "300+" name attached it should just be a Chiron Super Sport and call it done.
 
Crazy good marketing by Bugatti here. Car sets the bar a month before the reveal by TopGear. At the same time, Bugatti has organized a 110th Anniversary tour for Chiron owners going on in Europe. At the end of the tour, the owners were presented with the actual car and then told there would be a production version available to them first.

Hearing that all 30 have been sold (naturally) ahead of public reveal tomorrow.
 
Dsavage27
I also didnt realize that they are putting a speed limiter on it...for now. I think it should be set for 288 like what was rumored the standard chiron can hit. By that it could still edge the top speed of Koenigseggs Agera RS and still have a top speed higher than the standard chiron. And then by that logic it shouldn't really have the "300+" name attached it should just be a Chiron Super Sport and call it done.
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Th perk of having almost 1500hp.
 
They should label this car as super art work sport as it will hardly ever see a road in its lifetime. But finally they nailed it a good looking long tail.
 
So yes, record was set with a pre production car, but no, the production car can’t do it. I’m assuming the limiter was put in place for insurance reasons, but it sucks that they do that. So the race is still open, probably gonna be Koenigsegg or Henessey, because the Devel Sixteen hasn’t hit 30 mph, let alone 300. Either way, Forza’s gonna get some cool cars in the future. (Polyphony is to busy putting Honda Fits in Gran Turismo to bother with that)
 
crooky369
Wasn't the McLaren F1 the same in that the road car couldn't reach the 241mph the record car achieved?
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I assume the Mclaren F1 was said to be the fastest car reaching around 240mph in 1998 before the 21st century.
 
crooky369
Wasn't the McLaren F1 the same in that the road car couldn't reach the 241mph the record car achieved?
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No. McLaren posted 221mph as the car's top speed (in sixth gear), but calculated 231mph as the top speed in the XP3 prototype during a run at Nardo. The 241mph run came after production in 1998, with the XP5 prototype running a higher rev limiter... among other things.

McLaren didn't set a 'record' in an unrepresentative car then sell a short run of lookalikes with the achievement in the name and the inability to match it. Although Andy Wallace drove both cars.
 

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