There’s no doubt that you’ve heard of Bugatti, and you probably know at least one of the newer models. Whether it’s the Veyron, Chiron, or any of their more limited models, you know they are fast. Even some of the fastest in the world. Well there’s a real secret to that, and no, it isn’t some formula hidden away in a vault.
The real secret is simply created through smart minds and a lot of near perfection when it comes to building a car this extreme. Going 300 miles per hour isn’t any easy feat, after all. The true secret behind Bugatti’s extreme success when it comes to speed in their very rich racing past has been their engine power. Ettore Bugatti, the company's founder, made his first ever automobile, the highly unknown Type 1, a Prinetti and Stucchi produced car with four engines instead of one in the vehicle. This trend of being the most powerful and fast car around has stuck with the company even in current days and will stay with the company for years to come.
The current world record Bugatti, the Chiron Super Sport 300+, as the name says, passes 300 miles per hour. Officially, the recorded speed was 304.7 miles per hour, but that was due to a lack of road. The car could have gone faster but the automobile had already flown past the marked stopping point despite possible dangers.
Many would wonder, how could a car so big and bulky like a Bugatti be the first stock production car to pass 300 miles per hour?
Bugattis, after all, are known to be very heavy for the class they are in. The truth, however, is that if Bugattis weren’t as heavy as they are, the power of their cars would send a vehicle flying with all 1600 horses that cars like the world record Chiron have.
Odyssey Or Chiron
The Bugatti Chiron weighs a whopping 4,400 pounds. For comparison, the even bigger 2020 Honda Odyssey is an absolutely huge minivan with lots of storage space and 8 seats. This family van with electronic doors and no weight savings used only weighs 4,354 pounds, 46 pounds less than the 2 seater hyper car, made to go fast, featuring little to no storage space. The Bugatti is the tank of hyper cars, but it acts nothing like a tank. It really acts the opposite and dominates the competition.
Safety Limitations
The original Bugatti Chiron model was limited to a mere 261 miles per hour. This wasn’t because that was as fast as the car could go. It was because the world hadn’t invented tires strong enough to handle the pressure of going any faster. In other words, if the Chiron had gone faster, something might have broken and a horrible crash would have ensued, and one at speeds that high could be deadly. Until late 2019 there still weren’t tires that could handle this kind of speed. The team at Bugatti changed that, however, when the Chiron Super Sport was released passing 300 miles per hour. In order to make sure their new tires were strong enough, they even did an x-ray on them to make sure everything was built to perfection, which they were. These new innovations that Bugatti has made and continues to make are a large reason for their ability to launch cars to the high speeds they reach.
Temperature Control
The air cooling and extreme number of radiators included in a Bugatti are shocking. With such a strong engine and fast car, without some excessive measures to cool off the car, it could go up in flames. Due to this absolute requirement for air, the car is covered in built in cooling systems. There is even a little vent area hidden next to the square headlights that allows air to get in and cool the systems. Not to mention the 10 radiators the Chiron has to keep the car from overheating at speeds a regular vehicle would only dream of.
The engines used in Bugattis are clearly the biggest reason for their high speeds. A Bugatti Chiron engine is so big and powerful that it weighs almost 1,000 pounds, almost a quarter of the entire car's weight, all from the engine. While there are multiple different components that go into this masterpiece, from extreme cooling to downforce to specially designed tires, despite how all of them are necessary and very helpful, the incredible engine Bugattis have is what really powers them to high speeds.