Car Sight

Here is the new Bugatti Veyron Super Sport with its four enlarged turbochargers and super-size intercoolers pushing the output of the 8-liter W-16 engine to stupefying 1,200-horsepower. And it’s already broken a speed record for a production car, with a two-way average speed of 267.86 miles per hour. The record run, certified by the German government and the Guinness Book of World Records, took place a couple of weeks ago at the Volkswagen Group’s giant Ehra-Lessein proving grounds in Germany. VW owns the Bugatti brand. The new speed record is a bit more than 14 miles an hour better than what the regular Veyron 16.4 ran under similarly strict circumstances at Ehra-Lessein in 2005. More importantly to Bugatti, 267.86 m.p.h. exceeds the previous Guinness-certified two-way average run of 256.18 m.p.h. made on a closed stretch of Highway 221 in rural Washington State by the 1,183-horsepower Shelby SuperCars Ultimate Aero in 2007. It’s the other Shelby — Jerod Shelby — who runs tiny Shelby SuperCars out of his hometown of Tri-Cities, Wash. He doesn’t have access to a high-speed circuit like Ehra-Lessein that has a perfectly flat surface and a long 5.6-mile straight.

While it’s the bigger turbos and intercoolers that make the additional power, the visually distinctive elements of the Super Sport are a revised front end with larger air intakes and the elimination of the rear, high-mounted air intake scoops that have been replaced by low-profile NACA ducts. The tail has been reconfigured around a new air diffuser and a centered exhaust bundle. It’s just the sort of subtle differences that the elite won’t notice and that are guaranteed to crush the egos of those poor near-billionaires stuck driving their now passé regular Veyrons. The Super Sport’s suspension has also been fortified and stiffened to handle the additional power. The body has also been strengthened and will be available unpainted for those who like the menacing King of the Underworld look of clear-coated raw carbon-fiber.