Talk About a But-Puckering Moment
The fact that Bugatti got a version of its Chiron to do over 300 mph is absolutely insane. This was not believed to be possible due to tire technology limitations, but Michelin proved that it could make a tire that could do it, and Bugatti had the car. An interesting tidbit of information came from the driver of the car during an interview with Wheels. Andy Wallace said the car briefly went airborne.
“It goes from a nice smooth surface, to an older surface. It felt to me inside the cabin that it was all coming off the ground and then coming down,” the driver said. Wallace said he called that portion of the straight on the racetrack a ramp and people were wondering why until they looked at the actual data. ” … they realized that it actually is a jump. This occurs at 447km/h on that fast run,” he said.
The speed Wallace was traveling in miles per hour was 277.7 mph. That happened during the run that culminated in the car hitting over 304 mph. Wallace said he had to make sure not to let off the throttle when hitting that spot so that he wouldn’t upset the car in any way. If he had, the results could have been disastrous.
