Bugatti has made it its mission to make the fastest cars in the world and just set a new top speed for the fastest convertible out there at 282 miles per hour. The French brand isn’t happy with that, though and wants to go even faster, just as soon as it gets some new tires that are capable of topping 310 mph.
As it stands, Bugatti currently holds the record for the first production car to hit 300 mph, the fastest car to go from zero to 250 mph and back to zero and the fastest production car, which is held by the Chiron Super Sport 300+ at 304.7 mph.
Company boss Mate Rimac isn’t satisfied with all those records, however, and wants his cars to go even faster. In fact, Top Gear reports that Rimac was caught chatting with engineers from Michelin about the possibility of a tire that could set a new world record.
Bugatti currently ships its record-breaking cars with bespoke rubber from Michelin. The Chiron Super Sport came fitted with carbon fiber-reinforced tires that were developed on a test rig used for aircraft tires, reports Wheels. That was enough to guarantee the tires up to a speed of 500kmh, which is about 310mph. If Bugatti wants to go faster than that, it’ll need all-new rubber from the French tire experts.
Shortly after running the Bugatti W16 Mistral on to a top speed of 282mph, company boss Rimac was spied asking Michelin about the demands on a tire if a car were capable of topping 310 mph. Rimac confirmed the conversation to Top Gear, and explained:
That was exactly our discussion. I figured out that the guys who are here are actually responsible for this kind of high performance and racing tyres. And I’m like “Can you do this? Can you do that? Where’s the limit?”
One of the questions was, “What’s the maximum static load at zero kilometers per hour on the front and rear axle of the Turian tyre? And they were like “What? Why are you asking that?” Some of the very technical customers might know why I’m asking that.
That all sounds very technical, but basically Rimac is asking how far he can push the current tires and how fast a tire could theoretically go. To put a point on it, he added “Can we put the ‘five’ in front of the top speed record?”
Clearly, despite claiming that Bugatti was done with record-breaking new cars there’s still an itch that needs scratching at the hypercar maker. What’s more, the new Tourbillon might be limited from the factory to a lowly 276 mph, but the original Chiron was capped at 260 mph and look where we are now.
Top speeds must be more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules over at Bugatti.
