Bugatti sports car 'breaks the 300mph barrier'

A pre-production Bugatti vehicle has broken the 300mph barrier - a landmark as it’s the first hyper sports car to hit the speed.

British test driver Andy Wallace was behind the wheel as an upgraded Chiron hit 304.773mph at the Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany on August 2.

The top speed has been verified by the TÜV, which is Germany’s Technical Inspection Association.

It’s not eligible for a Guinness record, which requires that the car drives two ways down a track within 60 minutes.

The record was set in a variant on a production car - albeit one which costs three million euros (£2,720,265)

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Stephan Winkelmann, president of Bugatti said, ‘Bugatti has once again shown what it’s capable of.

‘With this new record of the Chiron we enter again uncharted territory. Never before has a series manufacturer reached this high speed.

‘Our goal was to be the first manufacturer ever to reach the magic 300-mile-per-hour mark. We have now achieved this – making ourselves, the entire team and myself, incredibly proud.’

Bugatti also announced that it was to withdraw from attempting to produce the fastest serial production cars.

Winkelmann said, ‘We have shown several times that we build the fastest cars in the world. In future, we will focus on other areas.’

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