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With both the production car speed and Top Gear track records to its credit, does Bugatti’s Veyron Super Sports have anything left to prove?
Conventional wisdom is often wrong.
When Bugatti test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel set a new production car top speed record of 430.9km/h in the Veyron Super Sports, the doubters choired that it could not handle.
Sure it could reach 430km/h on VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track, but any circuit with corners would have it hopelessly compromised.
As a unit of analysis the standard factory Veyron only managed a best time of 1:18.3 around Top Gear’s test track.
To put this in perspective, the Veyron was slower than a Caterham R500, Pagani Zonda F Roadster, Noble M600, Koenigsegg CCX and Gumpert Apollo.
How would the Veyron Super Sports fare? Especially considering it makes 159 units more power (peaking at 895kW) as opposed to the standard Veyron’s 736kW and weighs 50kg less.
Well, In the hands of the Stig Bugatti's Super Sports has dispelled most myths around the Veyron’s perceived lack of agility.
When the times were tallied from episode five of this season's Top Gear, the Stig had managed to navigate the Top Gear test track in a new record time of 1:16.8 seconds – a record time sure to stand until Clarkson, May and Hammond retire.
When Bugatti test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel set a new production car top speed record of 430.9km/h in the Veyron Super Sports, the doubters choired that it could not handle.
Sure it could reach 430km/h on VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track, but any circuit with corners would have it hopelessly compromised.
As a unit of analysis the standard factory Veyron only managed a best time of 1:18.3 around Top Gear’s test track.
To put this in perspective, the Veyron was slower than a Caterham R500, Pagani Zonda F Roadster, Noble M600, Koenigsegg CCX and Gumpert Apollo.
How would the Veyron Super Sports fare? Especially considering it makes 159 units more power (peaking at 895kW) as opposed to the standard Veyron’s 736kW and weighs 50kg less.
Well, In the hands of the Stig Bugatti's Super Sports has dispelled most myths around the Veyron’s perceived lack of agility.
When the times were tallied from episode five of this season's Top Gear, the Stig had managed to navigate the Top Gear test track in a new record time of 1:16.8 seconds – a record time sure to stand until Clarkson, May and Hammond retire.
