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Bugatti Veyron Super Sports reclaims world's fastest title

Under the watchful eye of the Guinness Book of Records, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sports reclaimed its title as the world's fastest production car.

Antuan Goodwin Reviews Editor / Cars
Antuan Goodwin gained his automotive knowledge the old fashioned way, by turning wrenches in a driveway and picking up speeding tickets. From drivetrain tech and electrification to car audio installs and cabin tech, if it's on wheels, Antuan is knowledgeable.
Expertise Reviewing cars and car technology since 2008 focusing on electrification, driver assistance and infotainment Credentials
  • North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
Antuan Goodwin
2 min read
Bugatti

Under the watchful eye of the Guinness Book of Records, the Veyron reclaimed its title as the world's fastest production car.
Under the watchful eye of the Guinness Book of Records, the Veyron reclaimed its title as the world's fastest production car. Bugatti

If you call yourself a car buff, then you already know Bugatti's fire breathing, 1,001 horsepower, 253 mph Veyron 16.4 is the second fastest car in the world--its title usurped by the 256 mph SSC Ultimate Aero TT in 2007. With the mighty Veyron scheduled to end production, Bugatti couldn't put the beast to pasture as second best, so it built a better one: the 1,200 horsepower, record shattering Veyron Super Sports.

With liberal applications of fluorescent orange paint, the Veyron Super Sports may also be the world's gaudiest production car.
With liberal applications of fluorescent orange paint, the Veyron Super Sports may also be the world's gaudiest production car. Bugatti

Bugatti's engineers attacked the Veyron's W-16 engine with larger turbos (the Veyron has four of them), intercoolers, and revised its engine tuning to give it a 199 horsepower gain. The company also gave the vehicle's chassis and suspension upgrades to handle the increased power and G-forces, as well as an improved aerodynamics kit. For reasons beyond our sensibilities, it also slathered the bottom half and wheels of the vehicle with a few tins of retina searing orange paint. When the dust settled, it now has 1,200-horsepower monster that in the hands of French racing driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel averaged a Guinness Record grabbing 268 mph over two runs at Germany's Ehra-Lessen proving grounds.

Bugatti will electronically limit production versions of the Super Sports to 258 mph to keep customers from disintegrating the tires at ludicrous speed. However, that's still 2 mph faster than the Ultimate Aero TT, so the record of world's fastest production car will still belong to Bugatti--for now, at least.

According to Bugatti, it will build 30 examples of the Veyron Super Sports, all of which will probably be spoken for by the time the vehicle bows at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in August. The company hasn't released pricing information, but when talking about a unicorn car like the Veyron, does it even matter?