In a race reminiscent of a 2007 Top Gear episode that sees Richard Hammond behind the wheel of a Bugatti Veyron taking on a Eurofighter Typhoon in possibly the wildest drag race ever seen on television, Bugatti has recreated something very similar, and once again a very one-sided drag race is the result, but that’s for later.
In 2021, Bugatti’s limited run Chiron Sport ‘Les Légendes du Ciel’ derivative lines up next to the Dassault Rafale Marine, a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft capable of a 1 389 km/h top speed.
The location is a naval base in Landivisiau, north-west France and Bugatti’s latest model, only 20 ‘Les Légendes du Ciel’ models were built to celebrate the company’s founder Ettore Bugatti’s success in aviation.
Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel launches the hyper sports car to 100 km/h in 2.4 seconds and onto 200 km/h in 6.1 seconds. French navy pilot Etienne Bauer’s Rafale Marine might weigh close to 10 tons, but the fighter jet is able to hit 165 km/h after 150 meters and 210 km/h after 250 meters, and takes off after 450 meters at around 260 km/h.
“I pulled away from the Rafale over the first few hundred meters, but after a few hundred meters more it was around 20 meters above and alongside me in the air. An incredible and fantastic sight,” says Raphanel after an expected loss.
The Bugatti is no match for the French multirole fighter’s 58,550 Newtons of thrust (4 212 kW), it boasts a paltry 1 103 kW by comparison.
Watch the drag race here:
