Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s it. The race to 300 mph has been won. Sorry Koenigsegg. Sorry Hennessey. Bugatti have reached one of the biggest milestones of our age with a slightly modified Chiron. The big three-hundo! 304, to be exact.

Of course, that’s the record for a street-legal vehicle. The first time a human being hit that speed on wheels was the 3rd of September 1935, when Malcolm Campbell piloted Blue Bird to 301 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. I’m not saying everything was lovely and more special in the past, but the facts are these: 

• 36.7 litre supercharged Rolls Royce V12 airplane engine
• 2,300 horsepower
• Dually rear tires to battle wheel spin

Kind of outdoes even a quad-turbo 1600 horsepower W16, doesn’t it?

Anyway, back to the record at hand. The world’s multi-million dollar-est car companies have been vying for 300 for a few years now. In 2017 Koenigsegg hit 278 mph with an Agera RS and before that came the 270 mph Hennessey Venom GT. You just know those Texans will be back to dethrone the European Duke, especially as the makers of said Duke have announced that they’re out of the flat-out speed record game now. Mic. Drop.

‘Man with one of the world’s best jobs’ Andy Wallace (Bugatti test driver) was at the wheel for the record run at VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany. Fun fact: the track was built in a Cold War no-fly zone and has a perfectly flat straight that’s 5.4 miles/8.7 km long.

The record-breaking Chiron features a longer, more slippery tail, taller gears, and a tuned-up engine that makes 1600 horsepower. It also got a set of bespoke Michelins which is a good thing because at top speed they rotate 68 times each second. There’s speculation that this will be the future Chiron Super Sport as it has the same increased output as the not-gorgeous Centodieci and its exhausts are in the same place. We’ll have to wait and see for that. Anyway, here’s the on-board footage from the land missile itself.