2018 was supposed to be the year that Bugatti finally unleashed the Chiron on an open race track to see how fast it can really go. That was the plan when the French automaker unveiled the hypercar in 2016. But, now that we’re here, it looks like Bugatti is having a change of heart. There’s a good chance that we won’t see the Chiron do a top speed run this year. Worse, we may not even get to see it at all because, according to new Bugatti CEO, Stephan Winkelmann, the top speed test is no longer “a priority” for Bugatti.

Why Won't Bugatti Shoot for a Top Speed Record with the Chiron?

For a company that hasn’t been shy about its top speed conquests, this is a stunning about-face for Bugatti. It’s one thing to delay the top speed run for whatever reason, but to say that it’s not a priority? It seems that new CEO Stephan Winkelmann isn’t that keen on doing it, telling CNBC that the speed test isn’t a priority because the company has “a lot of things to do.”

That doesn’t sound right, especially for a company that held the production top speed record for years before it was unseated by the Koenigsegg Agera RS. We can understand that Bugatti is busy, sure, but is it busy enough that it’s not even thinking about doing a top speed run when that kind of pursuit served as one of the Veyron’s most enduring legacies?

We’ll probably never know why Winkelmann isn’t as keen on giving the Chiron a chance to prove itself on the track as his predecessor, Wolfgang Durheimer. The fact that Winkelmann himself admitted that even he doesn’t know how fast the Chiron can go is a sign that this new regime may not be as concerned about maximizing the Chiron’s full potential.

The Chiron is a Work of Art Through and Through

It’s too early to tell if that strategy is going to work — let’s give Winkelmann the benefit of the doubt for now — but it is interesting that this is the approach that’s being taken. Perhaps the automaker is now more concerned about touting the engineering marvel that is the Chiron. That aspect of the hypercar often gets lost in the discussion of its speed and performance abilities. The Chiron, for all intents and purposes, is a work of art and engineering, the likes of which we rarely get to see in the world. Maybe that’s what Bugatti’s focusing on now. It’s hard to blame the company for taking that approach.

Or maybe all this talk of top speed runs was extinguished the moment the Koenigsegg Agera RS set a top speed record of 277.9 mph. Either way, the Chiron’s top speed record may remain a mystery for some time.

References

Bugatti Chiron

Read up what your favorite TopSpeed experts had to say about the 2016 Bugatti Chiron}

Bugatti Chiron Sport

Check out our full review of the 2018 Bugatti Chiron Sport}

Bugatti News

Want to know all there is about Bugatti? Check outt he latest Bugatti news!}