Bugatti Chiron Super Sport Returns With 273mph Top Speed And £2.7m Price Tag

From the £3 million Noire to the bonkers track-only Bolide, it’s easy to lose track of all the special edition versions of the Bugatti Chiron. To us, though, there’s one that quite clearly stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Super Sport 300+.

It seems Bugatti agrees. Having built and sold a run of 30 examples of the car, which is a production version of the prototype that hit 304mph at Ehra-Lessien, the brand has made a follow-up that’ll be built in double the numbers. It’s simply called the ‘Super Sport’, and it’s what you might call ‘brisk’.

Like the 300+, it gets an elongated body and an electronically-limited top speed of 273mph (440km/h). At its heart is the tried and tested 8.0-litre W16, but with tweaks to the four turbochargers, oil pump, cylinder heads and the valvetrain to unlock 1578bhp.

That’s an increase of 100bhp, while the redline has shot up by 300rpm to 7100. Peak torque of 1180lb ft is now delivered all the way up to 7000rpm, up from the previous figure of 6000. The seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox has also been modified.

It’s also 25kg lighter, with the possibility of whipping out further weight using optional magnesium wheels borrowed from the Pur Sport. Whichever rims you go for, they’re wrapped in highly bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s that are the only tyres on the planet capable of safely taking you beyond 300mph.

These hoops have reinforced belts and are trialled on a test bench once used to test the Space Shuttle’s tyres, which had to stay rolling when helping a 75-tonne craft landing at well over 200mph. Once they’ve been on that rig, the Cup 2s are X-rayed “to rule out even the most minuscule of irregularities,” Bugatti says.

The body is 25cm longer than a regular Chiron, helping laminar airflow stick to the car for longer, creating a smaller wake and lowering drag. The cross-section of the diffuser is bigger too, and to give it more space, the once central exhaust outlets have been pushed to the sides of the car.

For better high-speed stability, the steering has been tweaked for “smoother” movements, and the springs are a little stiffer. The electronic aids have been fettled, reacting to both how you’re driving and which of the four modes you’re in - EB, Handling, Autobahn or Top Speed.

Amusingly, Bugatti hasn’t given a 0-62mph time for the car. The Super Sport is apparently beyond such a basic metric, so instead, we get an incredible 0-124mph time 5.8 seconds, and an equally absurd 0-186mph figure of 12.1 seconds.

The price for that organ-compacting performance? You’re looking at £2.7 million a pop. The first of the 60 Super Sports will be delivered to customers in early 2022.