The Bugatti Chiron is fast. It’s really fast, if you want specifics—so fast Bugatti puts a speed limiter on it because modern tires can’t handle the pressure speeds near 300 mph would put on them. So, naturally, to film its record 249-mph Chiron run, Bugatti had to use something just as fast: another Chiron.
Duh. There go my whimsical theories that all of the video production on this nearly 1,500-horsepower monster’s run was done with magic and fairy dust. (What! Don’t look at me like that. I like to believe.)
Nope, it was just another Chiron that got a head start.
Bugatti used the black Chiron in the video above to make a record run from a dead stop to 249 mph and back down to 0 mph earlier this month, which it did in just under 42 seconds. Records are a big deal with these kinds of cars, because all of their future owners need something to brag about on Instagram if they’re going to spend $3 million.
Here’s video of some of that run, complete with Bugatti’s mysteriously fast camera platform that didn’t get the credit it deserved originally:
What we don’t know yet is how the Chiron actually compares to its predecessor, the Veyron, since the new car’s speed limiter caps off at 261 mph. The Veyron ran 267.8 mph without a limiter in 2013, and Bugatti doesn’t plan to make an unrestricted speed run with the Chiron until next year.
And if that run goes like this one, it sounds like we could have two unrestricted Chirons. One of them just gets to be the non-record-holding stepchild.