Bugatti Chiron’s Top Speed World Record in Jeopardy

Bugatti appeared to beat Koenigsegg’s 2017 top-speed record with impressive run in new Chiron supercar that exceeded 300 mph. 

As we reported earlier here, Bugatti’s hotly anticipated new Chiron hypercar set the car world ablaze when the company reported that a modified example of a production Chiron broke the magical 300-mile-an-hour-barrier at VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track. That lofty number is an accomplishment for a purpose-built, land-speed machine and scarcely believable in a car that the average billionaire can buy for themselves and use for running errands. The stunning speed is the highest ever achieved by a street-legal car. “It’s a milestone for eternity,” said Stephan Winkelmann, president of Bugatti. Unfortunately the legitimacy of the run is being cast into doubt, at least as far as The Guinness Book of World Records is concerned.

But now, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reports that The Guinness Book of World Records is not acknowledging the impressive run as an actual record due to one pretty major technicality. This despite the fact that the run was verified at the time by Germany’s Technical Inspection Association. According to Guinness the final number of any land-speed record entered in the famous book has to be an average of two runs performed in opposite directions. Furthermore the runs have to be done within one hour of each other. In the case of the Chiron’s top speed run, Bugatti only performed one run with their driver Andy Wallace behind the wheel. The 304.7873 mph speed handily beat by almost 27-mph the current record of 277.87 mph set by the privately owned Koenigsegg’s Agera RS back in 2017. That run toppled the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport from the top-speed throne, ending a 12-year reign as the fastest car in the world.

For their part, Bugatti explained that they performed only one run in a single direction for safety reasons. According to the story in the Daily Mail, Bugatti says that parent company Volkswagen Group’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany is only safe for a top-speed run in one, clockwise direction. Going in the opposite direction and against the “grain” that the track has developed from years of use could cause the special Michelin tires fitted to the Chiron to overheat.

Another thing that the Daily Mail rightly points out is that the record-setting Chiron is not even an actual production car that can be purchased…yet. The Agera RS that Koenigsegg used for their record run was done with a customer’s car. But while the Chiron in question may have relied on the standard 1,578-bhp, 8.0-liter, quad-turbo W16 engine and 7-speed transmission, there were a number of key modifications done to it, not least of which was the 25cm longer bodywork. The one-off (so far at least) Chiron also utilized a trick, laser-assisted suspension system and returned exhaust. The fact that The Guiness Book of World Records is not recognizing their run– at least for the time being — must be pretty disappointing for Bugatti. After all, they congratulated Koenigsegg when they beat Bugatti’s record in 2017. But the French company was also quick to state that they would be making an attempt to set another world record as soon as the Chiron was ready. For now though it appears that Koenigsegg’s record run still stands.

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