Well, what a waste of time this week has been for “World’s Fastest Car” Stories. Earlier in the week the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport lost its title for the fastest production car in the world, but now it has been reinstated by Guinness. This, ironically, after taking another crack at “fastest car in the world” bragging rights with the world’s fastest convertible; the Grand Sport Vitesse. Bugatti officially hold both titles now. But, at the rate records have been changing hands lately, that could all change by the end of the week.
To recap, after an inquiry earlier this week, Guinness World Records decided to strip Bugatti from their overall title after finding out the supercar used to achieve 267.8 mph (430.98 km/h) had been modified, which meant it did not comply with the necessary rules. This decision was taken after detecting the record-breaking car had its top speed limiter deactivated. All 30 production cars sold came with the limiter activated at 258 mph (415 km/h), which is a bit silly of you ask us.
As a consequence, the official title for the world’s fastest production was momentarily returned to the SSC Ultimate Aero which can do 255.83 mph (411.72 km/h), and which achieved that record back in 2007. Chances are the Hennessey Performance Venom GT will soon challenge for the first place as during testing it managed to reach 265.7 mph (427.6 km/h) but the record is not official at the moment.
At the time of the reversal, Bugatti supported its record saying: “Guinness knew the Veyron’s speed limiter was deactivated but that for safety reasons, cars subsequently sold to customers would have their speed limiters activated [set at 258mph].” Right after the debacle surfaced, it appeared as though Bugatti would get their revenge with the car rumoured to be a kind of ‘Super Veyron’ which will allegedly do 288 mph (463 km/h). Bugatti teased images of such a vehicle which turned out to be a Bugatti Grand Sport Vitesse World Record Convertible (WRC).
Chinese driver, Anthony Liu Xu, has now driven the convertible model to a top speed of 408.884 km/h (254.069 mph) which makes it the world’s fastest convertible. The record was run by the Grand Sport Vitesse at Volkswagen’s 19.3 km ring in Ehra-Lessien, Germany.
The Grand Sport Vitesse has a quad-turbocharged 7.9-litre W16 engine that produces 882 kW and 1 500 Nm of torque. It is connected to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission which enables the model to accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 2.6 seconds and hit a top speed of 408 km/h (255 mph).
The WRC is just a special edition that celebrates the fact the Grand Sport Vitesse is now officially the world’s fastest convertible. Bugatti will celebrate the event with a limited run of eight examples of the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse World Record Edition. The special edition Grand Sport Vitesse will feature the same two-tone orange and black paintwork and cost a mighty $2.6 million.
In the meantime and in light of Guinness’s decision to reinstate the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport for the overall crown, it is said that Bugatti are still moving ahead with plans for the 1193 kW hardtop Veyron in an attempt to thwart Hennessey and SSC from future ‘world’s fastest’ crown attempts.
