Why is it Limited?

The greatest production car on the market today is hands down the Bugatti Chiron. This car is the successor to the previously loved Veyron and it offers us perfection at every level in order to be a car that can reach insane speeds, offer the poshest interior comfort and even the driving dynamics that make this supercar one that can be driven and enjoyed on a regular basis. This is a car that allows you to reach speeds you never could and still feel like you’re in control of the vehicle but it’s limited when it comes to the top speed.

Most of us might not complain too much about a top speed that’s limited to 261 mph, but when you step into a car that costs $3 million and see the speedometer reads up to 310 mph you want to be able to reach this number and pin the needle. Unfortunately, that’s not possible yet and the reason is one that might surprise you. According to one of the most highly respected drivers in the world and the current Bugatti test driver Andy Wallace, there aren’t any production tires on the market that can handle the force that’s generated at 300 mph.

According to Wallace the team at Michelin is pretty close to being able to offer us tires that can reach these speeds and the company is developing a tire for the Chiron that will be capable of exceeding 280 mph. Wallace has been an expert over time of maxing out the world’s fastest road cars and is the man that set a speed record in the Jaguar XJ220 and the McLaren F1 in which he was able to reach 240 mph, making him a pretty authoritative figure when it comes to speed and what the tires need to be.

There have been rumors that the Chiron can reach as much as 285 mph without a limiter installed, but the folks at Bugatti have denied that and even they don’t know what the true top speed of this car could be without a limiter installed. Unfortunately, it seems like the team at Bugatti will want to help create the tires that can handle the challenges of hitting 300 mph just to see if the car can hit this number, but that might not be their priority at the moment as they look to continue to build this car for their clients.

There are plans in place to attempt a tip speed unlimited run with the Chiron sometime next year but it might not reach the rate at which the speedometer will be pinned to the maximum level. The tires needed to make this run could be ready by then, but it’s hard to say what might be needed to safely operate the car at its maximum speed. Until then, it seems that this car will continue to thumb its nose at us while it presents a speed in the gauges that we can’t quite reach; all because of tires.