Despite producing some of the most powerful and expensive sports cars on the planet, Bugatti’s priorities aren’t necessarily tied to one-upping the competition in terms of ultimate top speed. In fact, Bugatti feels like it doesn’t have to prove, well, anything.
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The Full Story
Bugatti has plenty of history when it comes to fighting for the title of fastest production car in the world, most recently in 2010 when it bested the
When asked about the Chiron, Winkelmann claimed the model had the potential to go faster than its electronically limited top speed, but that the company didn’t really care to find out. Rather, he says Bugatti is more interested in overall track performance.
“I think it could easily go 440 km/h (273 mph) or 450 km/h (280 mph), but we’ve made no test,” the CEO told CarAdvice recently during Monterey Car Week. “If you do it then it’s not something that needs to be done only once, but all the cars need to be built in a certain way.”
Bug’s current monster machine is the Divo, a track-focused iteration of the incredible Bugatti Chiron. Despite the performance-centric mindset, the Divo is actually electronically limited with a lower top speed than the standard Chiron (down to 236 mph, as compared to the standard model’s 420 km/h, or 261 mph). This is mostly due to the greater levels of downforce in play thanks to the Divo’s larger, more aggressive aero package, which puts tremendous strain on the tires at high speed.
“With the Divo we had to make that decision and I think it was the right one,” the CEO continued. “Absolute top speed is not on the agenda at the time being.”
Rather, we prefer it when Bugatti focuses its attention on making breathtaking speed and consummate luxury the primary goals, as in many ways, that’s what made the original Veyron so exciting.
There’s another element at play here - pride. With so many other competitors vying for the title of fastest in the world (Koenigsegg, Hennessey, SSC, etc.), it makes sense to completely disengage from the fight altogether. Why join the rat race? After all, Bugatti is the kind of company that doesn’t try to accomplish something - it either does it, or it doesn’t. For now, it’s looking like the latter.
Further Reading
Read our full review on the 2018 Bugatti Chiron.
Read our full review on the 2018 Bugatti Chiron Sport.
Read our full review on the 2019 Bugatti Divo.
Read more Bugatti news.