The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ may have looked remarkably stable when it cracked the 300 mph (482 km/h) barrier, but driver Andy Wallace has revealed that the car actually got airborne during the run.
While recently speaking with Wheels, the racing driver said that a change in surface at the Ehra-Lessien circuit meant the hypercar was briefly airborne at 277.7 mph (447 km/h) during its record-breaking sprint.
“There is a surface change [on the straight], and I was calling it a ramp and jump, and everyone was wondering why I was calling it that,” he said. “That was until they looked at the data, and they realised that it actually is a jump. This occurs at 447km/h on that fast run. 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.”
Also Read: Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ Capped At Just 30 Units Worldwide (New Images)
Wallace says he was well aware of the small jump in the track and had to ensure he kept the Chiron’s throttle pinned while going over it to ensure the car wasn’t unsettled.
“You know that surface change is there, and after you have fired yourself off the banking, and the numbers are coming up, you kind of brace yourself for going over this jump. You can’t lift though. In fact, lifting makes this much worse, because then you get a pitch change at the front and it gives you a whole heap of trouble. You are far better off staying flat, which means there is not much you can do about it, you just go with it and hope it is alright.”
If driving a car towards 300 mph isn’t scary enough, we imagine that driving a car so fast while also getting some air time could unnerve many of the planet’s finest racing drivers.
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