In officially resetting the world land speed record for production cars that appears in the Guiness World Record book, Bugatti brought in the most potent version yet of the Bugatti Veyron. Behold the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. Actually, you can't behold it officially just yet, as the car's formal unveil comes at Pebble Beach next month.
The Super Sport's 8.0-liter W16 engine makes 1,183 horsepower (up from 1,001) and 1,106 pound-feet of torque (up from 922) courtesy of bigger turbos (all 4 of them) and bigger intercoolers. (The front intakes are larger, too, and NACA ducts have been cut into the roof.) With that kind of power, it would be ridiculous if the car didn't break some kind of record.
So on July 4, with Guiness staff on hand at the Ehra-Lessien proving ground near Wolfsburg, Germany, Bugatti test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel drove the Veyron Super Sport to a new land speed record of 267.86 mph (a two-way average). This crushed the old record of 256.18 set in 2007 by a comparative little guy, the Shelby SuperCars Ultimate Aero, which coincidentally also carried a 1,183-hp rating.
We're not sure why Bugatti hasn't released video of the record-setting run, but perhaps it will turn up.
Inside Line News, New York Times
With the Super Sport's extra helping of horsepower, the chassis needed some attention, too. Bugatti has fitted different spring and dampers, and bulked up the stabilizer bars. No details on the tire specs just yet (though the record-breaking car had a high-performance variety of Michelin's ill-fated PAX run-flat tires), but the total package is good for 1.4g on skidpad, Bugatti says. Right. As if cornering ability matters in a car this fast.
That said, the production car won't be capable of 267+ mph, as an electronic limiter will see that you don't exceed 258 mph.
wcoy14 says:
07:51 AM, 07/ 7/10
Everyone else is reporting 268mph, just wondering who is right?
sgude says:
08:48 AM, 07/ 7/10
These Bugs are ugly, but at least their performance cannot be questioned. Okay, maybe not "ugly" in the textbook definition, but definitely not pretty.
ed124c says:
09:18 AM, 07/ 7/10
Maybe I dreamed this, but didn't Top Gear get a Veyron up to about 250 MPH in Germany?
breadwagon says:
09:43 AM, 07/ 7/10
I don't know what I want more, the car or Monsieur Raphanel's carbon fibre helmet.
ninjin says:
10:18 AM, 07/ 7/10
@ed124c
Yup, James May took a regular Veyron up to 407kph on the same track.
greenpony says:
10:48 AM, 07/ 7/10
That's 4 x 10^-7 times the speed of light, and would cause time to move 0.0000000000085% slower.
stoppre75 says:
11:42 AM, 07/ 7/10
wcoy14 says:
07:51 AM, 07/ 7/10
Everyone else is reporting 268mph, just wondering who is right?
267.86 ...now round that to the nearest whole number....
wcoy14 says:
01:46 PM, 07/ 7/10
stoppre75 if you would have looked earlier they had 278 and now its changed. I know how to round up thank you.
greenpony says:
11:31 AM, 07/ 8/10
Shame on the editor for not noting the update with anything more than italics. No footnote, no crossing out the original text, nothing. Yes it was 270-something earlier.