While the original Bugatti Veyron is an impressive enough piece of engineering, the luxury hypercar-maker is once again working its automotive magic with an even faster, more extreme model which has just been crowned the world’s fastest production car.
Bugatti has released the first images and details of the special edition Veyron SuperSport – an 895 kW beast clad in carbon-fibre body panels and orange paintwork.
The Bugatti Veyron SuperSport features an improved version of the quad-turbo 8,0-litre W16 powerplant that propelled in the original model into the record books back in 2005. This unit’s power has been boosted by 109kW for a total 895kW with 1 500 N.m of torque thanks to a quartet of enlarged turbochargers and intercoolers, as well as a raft of other go-faster modifications.
For instance, Bugatti has improved the aerodynamics and engine cooling by expanding the front air intakes. At the back, the special edition Veyron boasts a double diffuser and a centrally mounted exhaust pipe, while include a new shock absorbers and strengthened stabilizer set up improves vehicle control at high speeds.
Although this set up doesn’t endow the Veyron Supersport with a faster 0-100 km/h time (2,5 seconds) than its “stock sibling”, the 0-200 km/h time has been whittled down to a remarkable 7,3 seconds with 300 km/h coming up just 7,7 seconds later. Impressive stuff, but it’s the all-important top speed that everyone is talking about.
Bugatti has already undertaken a Guinness world record attempt with company test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel behind the wheel. The Veyron Supersport managed to 428- and 434 km/h during a World Record attempt with Guinness finally opting for an average- top speed record of 431 km/h. That means that the Veyron Supersport has taken the title of world’s fastest production car from the SSC Ultimate Aero TT by a whisker.
The Veyron Supersport will make its official début at next month’s 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California after which it will be available in a limited run of 30 units costing $1,8 million (just shy of R14 million).
