Leave it to Bugatti to show up to 24 hours of le Mans and one up every purpose built race car that participated in the event. The Chiron made an appearance at the race event last weekend and managed to hit a top speed greater than any of the endurance race’s participants.
The Bugatti hit a max speed of 236-mph while the fastest race car, the Audi R18 driven by Loïc Duval, topped out at “only” 213-mph in the same section of the track. While this is an extraordinary achievement for a road-going supercar, there are a few things that make this comparison somewhat unfair.
The first being the Chiron has a fairly significant horsepower advantage over the LMP1 cars that participated in the endurance race. More power usually equals more speed, which allowed the Chiron to eclipse the Audi’s max speed by 13-mph.
The second reason is that LMP1 cars use a significant amount of downforce generated by the canard, diffusers, splitters and rear spoilers placed around the body. This equates to them being able to take turns at mind-boggling speeds but hinders their top speed in straights due to an increase in drag. While the Chiron does implement similar techniques, they are in a less aggressive form, giving the car an advantage in a straight line.
Finally, the LMP1 cars were competing in an endurance race. Meaning these cars hard to be able to handle 24 hours of non-stop hard driving. Fuel conservation techniques had to be put in place along with the mindset that it probably isn’t the best idea to push the car that needs to handle 24 hours of racing to its absolute max in a straight. In long races, consistency pays off more than raw power. This is something the Chiron didn’t have to worry about.
Regardless of all this, it was still interesting to see the Bugatti Chiron push its self to the limits on the straights of le Mans. We’re currently a couple years away from seeing the Chiron’s true top speed, but consider this as a sneak peak of what the car can do.
