Bugatti invites fortunate few to push the 400kph barrier on a space shuttle runway
Invitees were also presented with a custom race suit and helmet to recall this special day
Some may wonder what hypercar ownership gets you besides a seven-figure car that can do speeds upwards of 300kph. French carmaker Bugatti has an answer to that called ‘incomparable experiences’. In a recent customer event, lightly titled the “400 Drive”, Bugatti hosted owners of the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to achieve speeds higher than 400kmph, a feat accomplished by very few men and fewer Bugatti owners in their hyper sports cars.
A five-kilometre (or three-mile) historic runway that was once used as a space shuttle runway was devised as the proving ground for this high-speed event. This experience was inspired by Ferdinand Piëch’s vision for the Bugatti Veyron, which challenged engineers to build a car that could drive 400 km/h in the morning and accompany its owner to the opera in the evening. Christophe Pichon, President of Bugatti Automobiles, was present at the event and commented: “Just a few years ago, reaching 400 km/h required months of careful preparation, the best racers and the ideal conditions. For a very long time, no production car could even come close to that speed for a moment. But today, in the world of our meticulously engineered and designed Bugatti hypercars, we have made that feat accessible to our customers in complete safety, giving them something very few people will ever experience. Most of them even had the chance to experience it with their own vehicle. Such moments are part of the incomparable magic of Bugatti.”
Though before the hypercar maker allowed its customers to go for the run, drivers were made to complete an intensive induction with a Bugatti Pilote Officiel. This induction helped invitees to prepare for the physical and psychological stress of accelerating up to 400kph, where their bodies would experience a longitudinal force of more than 1 g when accelerating at full throttle.
Also, for the unaware, Bugatti Chiron hypercars get delivered with a Top Speed Key that puts the car in an even lower drag position. The same gets accomplished as the car configures the rear wing and chassis height in a lowered position, and two hydraulically operated flaps get shifted in front of the front wheels to reduce downforce on the front axle by itself.
The Chiron Super Sport’s 1,600 hp W16 quad-turbo engine, coupled with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, pushes the hypercar to 300 km/h in just 11 seconds. It maintains sixth gear beyond the 400 km/h mark and only finds its last gear at 403 km/h. While the car is engineered to go even faster but track limitations on the 3-mile runway halt the high-speed proceedings to go any further.
Upon exiting the Space Florida take-off and landing area, each competitor received their custom-made Bugatti racing suit embroidered with their name and a unique Bugatti helmet with their top speed written on it as a reminder of living a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
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