The Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, played a crucial role in the Space Shuttle program’s aim to make space rockets reusable. This 15,000-foot-long runway was specifically built as a landing site for the Space Shuttles as they returned to Earth after their missions. The Space Shuttles would hurtle back to the planet at speeds exceeding 200 mph, relying on the runway to provide a safe landing.
Now with the Space Shuttle program retired, the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility found a new purpose as a testing ground for some of the world’s fastest cars. One of these notable vehicles is the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport, a hypercar renowned for its extraordinary performance. With its impressive power output of 1,578 horsepower, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport represents the epitome of automotive engineering and speed.
Top Gear magazine’s Ollie Kew took the opportunity to explore the Shuttle Landing Facility and give us a deep dive into the runway’s history. He then took the wheels of a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport to see if the hypercar could achieve a higher top speed than the Space Shuttle at the very place where they touched down from space.
Watch the video to see how fast the Bugatti went on this top speed run.
