Bugatti

Veyron Super Sport

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport: Reclaiming the Crown

When the Volkswagen Group resurrected the Bugatti brand in 2005 with the Veyron 16.4, it was an engineering marvel that fundamentally shifted the goalposts of the automotive world. With 1,001 horsepower and a verified top speed of 407 km/h (253 mph), it was the undisputed king of speed, luxury, and excess.

However, in 2007, a small American manufacturer named SSC (Shelby SuperCars) took a heavily modified, twin-turbo V8 supercar called the Ultimate Aero TT to a closed highway in Washington state and clocked a two-way average of 412 km/h (256.14 mph). The Veyron had been dethroned.

Ferdinand Piëch, the brilliant and notoriously demanding chairman of the VW Group, would not tolerate second place. He ordered Bugatti’s engineers back to the drawing board. Their mission was simple: build a Veyron capable of utterly obliterating the SSC record, ensuring Bugatti remained the absolute pinnacle of automotive achievement.

The result was the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. Unveiled in 2010, it was not just a Veyron with the boost turned up; it was a comprehensive re-engineering of the aerodynamics, the chassis, and the monumental W16 engine.

The Heart: 1,200 Horsepower of W16

The core of the Veyron Super Sport is the legendary 8.0-liter (7,993 cc) quad-turbocharged W16 engine. To extract an additional 199 horsepower over the standard Veyron, Bugatti could not rely on simple ECU tuning.

The physical hardware of the engine had to be upgraded to flow significantly more air and handle immensely higher internal pressures.

  • Larger Turbochargers: The four turbochargers were significantly increased in size, forcing massive volumes of compressed air into the cylinders.
  • Larger Intercoolers: To cool the denser intake charge, the air-to-liquid intercoolers were uprated.
  • Exhaust: The exhaust system was redesigned for lower backpressure, exiting through a massive, central dual-pipe setup instead of the standard Veyron’s single large rectangle.

The result was a mind-bending 1,200 PS (1,184 hp) at 6,400 rpm and a tectonic 1,500 Nm (1,106 lb-ft) of torque available from 3,000 to 5,000 rpm.

This immense power is routed through a reinforced 7-speed dual-clutch transmission (DSG) built by Ricardo, capable of shifting gears in 150 milliseconds despite handling torque figures that would shatter a conventional gearbox. Power is delivered to all four wheels via an incredibly sophisticated Haldex all-wheel-drive system.

Aerodynamics: Cheating the Wind at 267 MPH

Adding 200 horsepower is only half the battle when attempting to break 430 km/h. At those speeds, aerodynamic drag increases exponentially (squared). Pushing a two-ton hypercar through the air at 260+ mph requires an aerodynamic profile resembling a teardrop rather than a traditional sports car.

Bugatti’s engineers focused intensely on reducing drag and increasing cooling efficiency. The visual differences between a standard Veyron and a Super Sport are stark:

  • The Roof Scoops: The most iconic change was the removal of the two massive, exposed air scoops that sat above the engine on the standard car. In their place, the Super Sport features a smooth roofline with two NACA ducts integrated directly into the carbon fiber. These ducts draw air into the engine much more efficiently with significantly less aerodynamic drag.
  • The Front Fascia: The front bumper was redesigned with massive, expanded air intakes to feed the numerous radiators required to cool the 1,200-hp W16.
  • The Rear Diffuser: The rear of the car features a completely redesigned, double-diffuser system to manage airflow under the car and increase high-speed stability.
  • The Active Wing: The massive rear wing, which also acts as an airbrake, was reprogrammed to deploy at different angles to perfectly balance downforce and drag depending on the car’s speed.

The Chassis and Michelin PAX Tires

To ensure the Super Sport didn’t just go fast in a straight line, the suspension was heavily revised. The spring rates were stiffened slightly, the anti-roll bars were thickened, and the complex, active shock absorbers were recalibrated from the racing cars used in the VW Group’s motorsport divisions. The result was a car that felt significantly sharper and more planted than the standard Veyron, capable of pulling 1.4 Gs of lateral acceleration.

The unsung heroes of the Super Sport are the tires. Bugatti worked exclusively with Michelin to develop a bespoke version of the Pilot Sport PAX tire. These massive tires (265-section front, 365-section rear) are specifically designed to withstand the immense centrifugal forces generated at 430 km/h. At maximum speed, the tires would completely disintegrate in roughly 15 minutes. Fortunately, the Veyron’s 100-liter fuel tank is completely drained in just 12 minutes at V-Max.

The Record Run: 431.072 km/h

On July 4, 2010, at the Volkswagen Group’s massive Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany (featuring a perfectly straight, 8.7-kilometer straightaway), Bugatti’s official test driver, Pierre-Henri Raphanel, climbed into the black-and-orange “World Record Edition” Super Sport.

To claim the official Guinness World Record, a car must complete two runs in opposite directions (to account for wind) within an hour.

  • Run 1: Raphanel hit 427.933 km/h (265.905 mph).
  • Run 2: With the wind at his back, he pushed the Veyron to a staggering 434.211 km/h (269.806 mph).

The average speed of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph) officially made the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport the fastest production car in the world—a record it held for seven years until the Koenigsegg Agera RS broke it in 2017.

Legacy and Value

Bugatti produced just 30 customer examples of the Veyron Super Sport. The first five were the “World Record Edition” cars, finished in the iconic exposed black carbon fiber and bright orange livery, un-governed to reach the full 431 km/h. The remaining 25 cars were electronically limited to a “mere” 415 km/h (258 mph) to protect the tires.

The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is not merely a car; it is a monument to human engineering capability. It proved that with enough resources and relentless determination, the laws of physics could be bent to create a luxury grand tourer capable of outrunning Formula 1 cars on a long enough straightaway. It is the ultimate expression of Ferdinand Piëch’s megalomaniacal vision.