No video can prepare you for the brute force of the Bugatti Chiron, not even driving its iconic predecessor, the Veyron.

In the hands of the company’s test driver Loris Bicocchi, the Chiron becomes an absolute monster, as DriveTribe’s editor, Jethro Bovingdon, found out from the passenger seat, after being nailed in it.

And it wasn’t even a fast lap around a famous track, but a short drive near the Bugatti headquarters, in Molsheim, Alsace, France, where the hypercar comes to life.

But it doesn’t all have to be about mind-blowing performance, as a simple shift between the driving modes can make the dampers softer, transforming the car into the ultimate long-distance cruiser.

Unleash the 1,500 PS (1,479 HP) and 1,600 Nm (1,180 lb-ft) of torque from the upgraded 8.0-liter W16 quad-turbocharged engine, and the Chiron will hit 100 km/h (62 mph) from a standstill in less than 2.5 seconds. Its analogue speedometer goes all the way up to 500 km/h (311 mph), but Bugatti won’t allow the caar to go over the 420 km/h (261 mph) mark.

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