#6: 2017 Bugatti Chiron
The Veyron managed to hold title as the world’s overall fastest production car until just last year, though its usurper comes from within – and it manages to break into the top of our list without any electric magic or hybrid powertrains. No, instead Bugatti kept things simple and harkened back to the beginning of our list: There is no replacement for displacement.
Thumping along inside the Chiron’s curvy haunches is another monumental W16 motor with eight liters of displacement. A strengthened gearbox and 25% more power (the Chiron makes 1,479 horses and 1,180 torques) allows the Chiron to make zero to 60 in under 2.5 seconds, though more impressive are its triple-digit figures: Zero to 124 MPH takes just 6.5 seconds and the Chiron makes it to 186 MPHs in just 13.6 seconds.
2017 Bugatti Chiron
The Chiron’s top speed actually hasn’t been fully confirmed. Bugatti limits the car to only 261 MPH, though it is said it can max out at 310 MPH – if tire makers can develop a street-legal tread capable of managing those speeds. Until then, Bugatti says, the limiter shall remain. Key to all this madness id the Chiron’s larger turbos which allow it to make 100% torque from 2,000 to 6,000 RPM. A revised two-stage forced induction system staggers boost from just two turbos, allowing the last two to kick in beyond 3,800 RPM when boost has already been sufficiently built.
And all other measures of the Chiron are equally psychotic: An improved intercooler moves 60,000 liters of air per minute, more than you and I breathe in a whole week. Temperature management continued to remain a challenge, so the Chiron is now capable of chugging 800 liters of coolant in the same span of time with 10 radiators crammed under its carbon fiber monocoque shell (each of which takes four weeks to fabricate by hand).
