Remember when Bugatti said it would retire from chasing records in September 2019? Management has changed since then, and so have the company’s objectives. The newly founded Bugatti Rimac joint venture has already smashed a record. The Mistral is now the fastest open-top production car ever. It follows two record-breaking Veyrons and a Chiron. For the first time, we get to see all of them together.
From left to right, in the top image, we have the (takes a deep breath): Veyron 16.4 Super Sport World Record Edition, Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse World Record Edition, Chiron Super Sport 300+, and the W16 Mistral World Record Car. All four are part of The Singh Collection, owned by an Indian customer. Combined, the cars pump out 5,520 horsepower from their quad-turbo, 8.0-liter engines. The Veyrons make do with “just” 1,183 hp, while the Chiron and its open-top sibling, the Mistral, each pack 1,577 hp.
Photo by: Bugatti
Besides having impressively powerful engines, the four hypercars have also made history by setting speed records. The Veyron coupe hit 267.85 mph (431.07 km/h), while its convertible counterpart, the Grand Sport Vitesse, reached 254.04 mph (408.84 km/h). In the subsequent Chiron era, Bugatti achieved 304.77 mph (490.48 km/h) with the coupe and 282.04 mph (453.91 km/h) with the roofless Mistral.
Although the W-16 story is over, the new V-16 engine powering the Tourbillon fuels Bugatti’s ambitions to hit 500 km/h—that’s 310 mph. CEO Mate Rimac has been talking with Michelin about a tire that would allow the folks from Molsheim to make history once again. It’ll take a while because the Chiron replacement won’t go into production until 2026.
Even with suitable rubber, it won’t be easy to reach the magical 500 km/h. Why? Since Bugatti is no longer part of the Volkswagen Group, it has lost access to the Ehra-Lessien test track, where the Veyrons and the Chirons smashed records. The Mistral’s mighty performance took place at the Papenburg test track, also in Germany.
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