Now in its final stages of development, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport is undertaking 400km/h high-speed test drives under the watchful eyes of the Bugatti engineering team, as they seek to fine-tune the world’s fastest production sports car before it reaches the customer market.
Over several days, Bugatti’s engineers made changes to the Chiron Super Sport’s suspension damping, mechanics and aerodynamics ahead of delivery to the first customers at the end of August this year.
“Following successful road tests at up to 380km/h, we are now refining the handling of the vehicle at up to 440km/h to allow the Chiron Super Sport to perform with uncompromising safety, even at this incredible top speed. It will give the driver a good, and above all safe, feeling at extremely high speeds,” explained Jachin Schwalbe, head of chassis development at Bugatti.
The speed, safety and stability provided by the Chiron Super Sport are down to a combination of technical modifications and optimizations. Various vehicle parameters can be changed and compared based on variable settings for components such as the rear wing angle, vehicle height, damping and electrically assisted steering. With changes being made each lap in a top-speed setting, Bugatti’s engineers can subsequently deduce and apply the best possible vehicle setup.
“Our engineers are from a wide variety of specialist backgrounds, enabling them to comprehensively verify our assessments, ensuring the best possible result and therefore maximum performance for the future owners while ensuring there is maximum testing safety,” noted Schwalbe.
During the test program, approximately 100 additional sensors recorded various data such as temperatures and pressures.
“With the incredible power output and high speeds, the uplift and the thermodynamics change depending on the different pressure levels. We therefore monitor all the parts at top speed and full load and then optimize them if necessary. We owe this level of work to the customers who buy this extraordinary and exclusive vehicle,” commented Michael Bode, who is part of the team responsible for overall vehicle testing at Bugatti.
