Prototype Bugatti Chiron ups speed record to 490 km/h

Having become the first to break the 400 km/h barrier with the Veyron in 2005 and then 430 km/h with the Super Sport iteration in 2010, Bugatti has upped the stakes with its successor to its much revered hypercar.

According to Britain’s Top Gear magazine, a prototype Chiron, driven by 1988 Le Mans 24 hours and three-time Daytona 24-hour winner Andy Wallace achieved an approved V-max of 304.77 mph or 490.48 km/h at Volkswagen’s famed Ehra-Lessien private testing facility in Germany a month ago, on August 2.

A project that has been in the works for six months with additional input from Dallara and Michelin, the prototype measures 25 cm longer than the standard Chiron as a result of a new tail section to reduce drag, a new quad exhaust setup, a deeper diffuser and removal of the automatic air brake. Like the regular Chiron, Bugatti has kept the 8.0-litre quad-turbocharged W16 engine, but with the same 1 600 PS or 1 177 kW output as the Chiron Sport.

The final speed, approved by Germany’s Technischer Überwachungsverein (TUV), translated as Technical Inspection Association, means that the Chiron has bettered the two-way average set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS in 2017 by 43.3 km/h.

“Bugatti has once again shown what it’s capable of. With this new record of the Chiron we enter again uncharted territory. Never before has a series manufacturer reached this high speed. Our goal was to be the first manufacturer ever to reach the magic 300mph mark. We have now achieved this – making ourselves, the entire team and myself, incredibly proud,” Bugatti President Stephan Winkelmann told the publication.

“With this record, Bugatti will also withdraw from the competition to produce the fastest serial production cars. We have shown several times that we build the fastest cars in the world. In future we will focus on other areas.”

According to the publication, the 300 mph record could very result in the creation of the Chiron Super Sport that is reportedly expected to debut within the coming weeks given that the record was set by a near-production ready derivative.

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