Bugatti’s CEO says that the Chiron will not be taken past its limited top speed of 261 mph.

The Bugatti Chiron remains one of the most beloved hypercars of our generation. A massive 8.0-L quad-turbo W16 engine is essentially two 4.0-L V8s welded together to produce 1,479 hp and 1,180 lb-ft of torque. Power is routed through a 7-speed dual-clutch to all four wheels all the time, and despite the fact it weighs well over 2 tons, zero to sixty is done in just 2.3 seconds.

However, top speed has always been a sore spot on the Chiron. It is electronically limited to a running gallop of 261 mph even though its predecessor--the Veyron--managed a top speed of 268 mph.

What’s worse is that everyone knows that the Chiron can go faster, even Bugatti’s CEO Stephan Winkelmann. Speaking at Monterey Car Week, he practically bragged that the Chiron could easily surpass 280 mph--if only Bugatti had the time to try.

"I think it could easily go 440 kph or 450 kph, [280 mph] but we've not made the test,” he said. “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."

That provided the faintest glimmer of hope that the Chiron would perhaps, one day, take the gloves off and really give a go of it. Y’know, put your money where your mouth is, as it were.

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But no, that’s once again proven to be not the case. Speaking with Motor Trend, Winkelmann shot down the possibility of a Chiron speed run in no uncertain terms.

"To me, a top speed run is not on the agenda," the CEO said. "For me, performance has a lot of facets, and the Chiron besides being a hypercar is a car covering a lot more than other supersports cars."

He went on to talk about the recent Divo unveiling, which takes the Chiron away from top speed and directs it more towards lateral acceleration, braking, and all-out track performance.

Bugatti had nightmares trying to get your average joe millionaire over 250 mph in the Veyron, so maybe they just don’t want to deal with the hassle involved in getting people to completely unsafe speeds.

We may never know.

NEXT: BUGATTI'S RECENTLY ANNOUNCED DIVO WILL BE THEIR MOST AGILE VEHICLE YET