Why haven’t Koenigsegg, Hennessey or Bugatti tried to beat 304mph (yet)?

The current production car top speed record is held by the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, at 304.77mph. Thing is, that was only set in one direction, and the Chiron isn’t in production any more. So is it about time someone had a go at beating it?

During Top Gear’s latest ‘Boss Level’ chat, we asked Christian von Koenigsegg, John Hennessey and Mate Rimac when their companies might attempt a new top speed run.

Christian von Koengisegg said: “We have the aero, we've tested it, and we know the [Jesko Absolut] powertrain can push beyond 500kph… [311mph] but it's down to having the tyre to be able to plan the attempt for us to make it safe.

“I think if it's only a tyre made for record breaking, it's less exciting because then the customers can't really buy the whole package.”

Mate Rimac agreed that building a one-off ‘high speed tyre’ isn’t the way forward. “You can't actually do that because when you do a tyre, there's a certain investment behind it, and you can spread that investment amongst hundreds of cars that you'll make.”

The Bugatti-Rimac boss has merely hinted at the top speed potential of the new Bugatti Tourbillon, given it’s more powerful, lighter and generates less drag than the old Chiron. Test driver Andy Wallace told us he would be up for driving if Bugatti asked him to give it a go when the car is finished. The question is… where?

John Hennessey weighed in with this insight: “We believe the Michelin Cup 2R tyres are capable of running the [300mph+] speeds. Every car has different downforce parameters and load sensitivity. We're probably going to do a test with Michelin on their aircraft tyre dyno where they can spin the tyres up to 300mph.

“For us really it's more a matter of where's the venue. Runways are just basically very short. So you'd have to have a very hard launch, very hard acceleration, get up to the speed and then get on the brakes before you run out of runway. So even if one of our cars could hit 500kph on a runway, that's not going to be the v-max.

“Then we're relegated to a highway which [Koenigsegg] did successfully”, John continued. “But I think it's just dangerous. It’s super narrow and you can have a deer decide to cross the road when you're going 280 miles an hour.” Oh dear indeed.

John was referencing the 277mph record set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS back in 2017, on a (safely closed) public road in Nevada, USA. No deer were harmed in the setting of that record. Would he take the Venom F5 for a flat-out blast on Texan home turf?

“I think for us we want to do it on a runway, [though] Texas is another possibility. We've done some projects with the state of Texas where they've let us test on new highways.

“But again, it's kind of the aspect of not being able to control animals. I've hit birds going almost 200 miles per hour! There's big bragging rights if somebody gets [over 300mph], and again, Bugatti went the 304 in one direction, [so] the two-way average would be nice. I've got to bust your balls a little bit, Mate!”

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