The almighty Bugatti Chiron needs no introduction, but we will give it one anyway. With a sticker price starting just under $3 million ($2,998,000 to be exact, because $3 million is too much), the Chiron comes with a quad-turbocharged (yes, FOUR turbos) 8.0 liter, sixteen cylinder (yes, 1-6) “W16” motor yielding 1500 horsepower and 1200 lb. ft of torque. However, the Chiron is bit of a heffer – weighing in at burly 4,400 pounds.
Despite being a chubster, the Chiron puts it down. 0-60 in 2.3 seconds and an “electronically limited” top speed of 261. For a car weighing over 2 tons, that’s damn impressive…as it should be for the price of a small island.
Now, the top speed is impressive, only placing it second to the Koenigsegg Agera RS at 277.9mph. The Agera RS actually went faster, but due to differences in gradients on multiple passes, it was averaged to 277.9mph. However, things need to be noted to compare the Chiron with the Agera, and to bring this to context in the half mile world.
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It takes the Bugatti Chiron 2.7 miles to achieve it’s “electronically limited” top speed of 261 mph. We use quotations for electronically limited, because this essentially means the car “could” go faster if it wasn’t electronically limited, but Bugatti says they have no intention of removing it for a full top speed run, so who knows.
The Koenigsegg took around 3.7 miles to hit it’s 277+mph top speed. However, that wasn’t a dead stop, wide open throttle 3.7 miles. Those passes had a slow run up as the focus was a top speed number, not necessarily in the shortest distance. Obviously, this is a lot of numbers, and a lot of distances, but what does this mean in the half-mile world?
First of all, most will never see a Bugatti Chiron in their life, and it will be even more unlikely to see one participating in a racing event. Thankfully, there are a few badass owners who drive their cars as intended.
The video above, produced by our friends @dailydrivenexotics, shows their recent trip to a @shifts3ctor event where a gentleman named Chris (@aka_boodee) brought out his Chiron just to see what it would do in the half mile. [Sidebar: Shoutout to badasses like Chris who will actually race their supercars and not park it in a garage and rub it with a diaper once a month.]
How did it do? Well, at 189.9mph it’s the fastest documented production car in the half-mile. Perhaps the Koenigsegg Agera RS is faster, but we have not seen any participate in a half mile event, or post any data regarding half-mile speeds.
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Some other notable hypercar speeds from @Shifts3ctor events include the Bugatti Veyron (172mph), Porsche 918 (174mph), and the McLaren P1 (176mph). Most expected the Chiron to do somewhere around 180-185, but a 189.9 at 4400 pounds in a stock car is mind-blowing. Check the vid!