Whenever one of the big international motor shows rolls around, we’re spoilt with new concept cars and other major announcements from the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. If we were dishing out accolades for IAA 2017, which is currently happening in Frankfurt, Germany, the ‘Best Video’ award would surely go to Bugatti.
Shot by Outrun Films, which has a Speedhunters connection through former editor in chief Bryn Musselwhite, this short film on the Bugatti Chiron going from standstill to 400km/h and back to standstill again in just 41.96 seconds (the fastest time ever reached and officially measured for this driving manoeuvre for a production vehicle throughout the world) is simply epic.
We could wax lyrical about how former F1 race winner and current IndyCar driver Juan Pablo Montoya used Bugatti’s ‘Top Speed Key’ to activate the Chiron’s ‘Top Speed’ mode – AKA, all 1,500hp and no 380km/h (236mph) limit. We could tell you how he used the 2,800rpm launch control to slingshot the car off the start line, and then a split second later at 3,800rpm how the 8.0-liter W16 engine’s second pair of turbochargers kicked in to unleash all hell. We could also talk about the special tyres that Bugatti collaborated on with Michelin for this project, and how the Chiron’s titanium 8-piston/420mm carbon ceramic front brakes, 6-piston/400mm rear brakes, and air brake combined created about 2G of braking force while slowing the car down from 400km/h.
But to truly appreciate this feat of driving performance and automotive film-making (have you ever seen a faster tracking shot?!), just click play above.
Brad Lord
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Pretty fast! I wonder how fast the deceleration time was compared to the acceleration though.
The video is in real time, according to the YouTube description. So ~33s to 400km/h, and ~9s back to 0.
There would be vomit everywhere.
Yup, sub 9sec back to 0 and 2G on deceleration. It's a surreal vehicle and experience.
It's great to see the Volvo being put to use as the world's fastest camera car.
If only your Golf wasn't parked at Dublin long term we could have used that. Fastest in the world.
That wouldn't have been fair on the Chiron, really.
Since it wasn't one continuous shot it's hard to say, but if it was in true real time that is pretty impressive!
How quickly does this one melt the Michelin's? I believe it was 15 min at top speed for the Veyron, or was it 15 miles?
Lets be completely honest, they tested it to 400kph instead of 300 because Bugatti doesn't want people to know the new Chiron is slower than a 6 year old Agera R.
Yeah and we know that Regera can do 0-400 in 20 seconds. I doubt it will take it 22 seconds to decelerate.
Wouldn't be surprised. Isn't this car just built with a 'brute force' philosophy? More cylinders, more liters, more everything. (11 radiators anyone?)
Then perhaps someone more efficient comes along...
It's got the same engine as the Veyron, so 8 liters W16 engine just with more horsepower. I don't want to say this is a bad car, but this is basically the car Bugatti had to build after dieselgate hit. They wanted to build a progressive and modern hypercar, but they didn't have the money so thy build the Veyron 1.1.
There's an unsung hero in every tale, you guys know what the camera car was right?
Removing the driver for weight saving made this feat possible.
Seat's leaned back for aero, innit.
That can't be it – the mirrors aren't folded in. Everyone knows that's how you get more bhp.
They're clearly über rare porous Wolfsburg RS scene point mirrors. Duh.
The bonnet was stepped at the rear for extra coolings too.
Somewhere at Bugatti, a chief engineer sits alone in a dark room, frustrated by the fact that he only just fell short of his design brief.
400 in 40 seconds.
Very nice.
Seems to me that the next milestone to shoot for is zero to 400 MILES per hour and back in 42 seconds.
That's gonna require secondary boost.
SH seems to be having a nostalgia overload these days... Susie's Evo, Peter & Taryn's stint at BB and now Bryn's video. Soon we'll have updates from all the ex-staff! (please tell me I'm right)
Now id like to see Regera in action ir the One:1
Crazy. This thing puts that Merc ONE, and all F1 cars for that matter, to shame. Well done Bughatti.
Amazing achievement, but a terrible video. All that switching views does nothing to show either the acceleration or deceleration. Just give me a decent on-board!
Besides km/hr and distance, I am sure we SH petrolheads love to see accelerometer reading during acceleration and braking of Chiron.
I love this. The Chiron looks modern enough, compared with the Veyron at least. I like that it is still bulbous and boaty in appearance, compared to most other hyper cars which are angular and aggressive in styling terms. Even though there are cars that beat this car in performance numbers in other ways such as 0-300, or whatever, still I think nothing really compares to the Bugatti in terms of how luxurious it still looks at those speeds. Even at 400kph it still is just a car with a bloke in jeans and a normal shirt winding it out it to 400 and back whilst still seeming smooth and comfy. I think in that sense they have done well to maintain the whole brand identity of 'Bugatti' from the early days, which was all about top speed numbers and impressive engineering feats but also luxury details that were present from the world's best coach builders, leathersmiths and other skilled tradesmen of the '30s era.
A pretty awesome achievement for a stock production car, achieving 0-400-0 in 42s and 1.9mi. In all honesty i'd love to know how it stacks up to the koenigsegg one:1, which does 0-300-0 in 17.95s (an barely any hands on the steering wheel.)
But, all seems a bit novel, when john reed pointed out today, that there are cars out there like the drag 965 huracan could achieve 0-400-0 twice in that time/distance on street tyres.
did everyone else miss the final fragment of the speedo going for 450 km/h?
Does anyone else think that this video would have been better if James May stepped out of the car when it came to a full stop?