We headed to the track to test what might be the world’s most powerful internal-combustion production automobile. We just wanted to see is this the end? Is it possible that we’re nearing the end of the engine’s life? Automobile manufacturers are phasing out internal-combustion engine in favor of hybrid and fully electric power for their most advanced versions. There’s a greater probability that the Chiron Super Sport we just drove, together with a number of other Bugatti’s with the same 1578-hp engine, is the most potent combustion-engine supercar from a leading manufacturer ever. There is still a lot that might happen. New vehicles from SSC, Hennessey, and Koenigsegg, all profess to have the same or more power. However, none of them have already been transversely mounted for road usage and all use E85 gasoline. The Bugatti’s 1578 horsepower comes from 93 octane premium gasoline, and its delivery will begin early in 2022. This will be the last word in the history of the vehicle internal-combustion engines.
After English Le Mans champion and Bugatti test driver Andy Wallace clocked 304.8 mph in a Super Sport at Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien circuit in August 2019, the Chiron proclaims to be the world’s greatest and fastest vehicle. To commemorate the occasion, it first unveiled the Super Sport 300+, which features the same upgraded engine as the world-record-breaking car. Only 30 will be built, all in the orange and black stripe. Those automobiles have all been sold, and delivery has just begun, so we won’t be able to test one. Then there’s this plain simple Super Sport, which, according to Bugatti is technically and aerodynamically similar to the record vehicle but can be customized to your liking and whose production is limited solely by the fact that only 50 of the 500 total Chiron construction slots remain. The peak speed of both models is, however, indefinitely confined at 273 mph.
We’ve taken 1578-Horsepower Bugatti Chiron Super Sport for a test drive. It’s completely crazy. However, if you’re willing to wait a second to experience what it’s like to travel by car with such sublime energy, it’s worth travelling over the changes that were done to breach that barrier. The upgrades made to the 8.0-liter W-16 engine, despite its possible GOAT (greatest of all time) status, are perhaps the least spectacular. The majority of the additional 99 horsepower was purchased for a low price with four larger, more effective turbo engines and a 300-rpm redline rise to 7100 rpm, with peak power of 1180 pound-feet now accessible between 2250 and 7000 rpm, instead of 6000. Top gear has grown by 3.6 percent. For enhanced good stability, the suspension has been strengthened somewhat, and the adaptable damping, automated stability control, and steering have all been modified. Michelin built special Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires for the car, which have a top speed of 310 mph (and were tested on a system designed to test Space Shuttle tires to ensure they could resist the 5300 g produced at that speed. Before being delivered, each one is X-rayed for flaws.
The aero kit, entrusted with pushing this enormous car through the air at race-car speeds while maintaining Volkswagen levels of stability, is possibly the most artistic alteration. The front end has small, hard-to-see fins and perforations that generate an ideal fluid motion along the vehicle’s body. The Super Sport gains 7.4 inches of length in the back thanks to an extravagantly formed carbon molding that reduces drag by maintaining the air connected for longer and minimizing the “tear off” region where it eventually quits the car and becomes turbulent by 44 percent. To improve the diffuser’s surface area, the emission pipes are already piled on top of one another, two on every side. The latter is a long, beautiful single carbon part that begins in the middle and climbs rearward, holding the rear end trapped at V-max with just one degree of flap angle.
On the tiny, two-lane French rural roads surrounding the Circuit Paul Ricard, none of these alterations hinder the Chiron’s amazing docility at low speeds or its capacity to jink into bends like a vehicle two-thirds its heft. Its excellent visibility, incredible grip, and rapid, almost intuitive steering quickly allow you to avoid about the car’s worth, size, and strength. This isn’t simply a dragster; it’s also a vehicle designed to be flown. It is designed to handle the mountain routes, allowing a steely-eyed businessman to travel in perfect comfort. Bugatti envisioned this automobile as a type of ur-Chiron, along with all the original’s features but near-insurmountable power and speed and they may have been successful.
To discern the difference between a regular Chiron and one on the road, you’d have to experience a neurobiological miracle. A Pur Sport with 1479 horsepower and 15% shorter gear seems more primal, according to Bugatti, and is slightly faster up to 124 mph. The Super Sport starts to withdraw with its next speed statistic of 186 mph, requiring 12.1 seconds to the Pur Sport’s 12.4 and the basic car’s 13.1. In a completely unscientific test, both a Pur Sport and a Super Sport left Turn 7 at around identical speeds and came loose down the Mistral straight, braking soon and in almost the same position. We’d utilized all of the power and all of the revs in each car, according to the changeable displays in the centre of the rotary HVAC handle on the Chiron. After less than a mile, neither car was close to being done, but the Pur Sport recorded 206 mph at the halting point, compared to 217 mph for the Super Sport.
For a few precious moments, you can truly feel that little, typically theoretical distinction that producers battle over, engineers stress over, and prices are set for. As it enters the stratosphere of race-car speed, the faster car’s speed increases dramatically, and the engine note had been a touch subdued in regular use—bellows like a god in agony. The cognitive understanding that your automobile is tracking perfectly straight and true, and that the stodgy old Volkswagen Group has authorized this seeming craziness, counteracts the fear of what has been delivered to you. If you want to brake, the rear suspension rises to a 39-degree air-brake angle, shifting the centre of weight backward and allowing you to foot the brake, understanding you’ve encountered it little, if any pure gasoline-powered road cars would ever be able to match.