Bugatti Veyron smashes roadster world record

BUGATTI has claimed another top speed world record – 408.84km/h for its Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse roadster – just days after the Veyron Super Sport was stripped of its 431 km/h title by Guinness World Records.

To celebrate what is now officially the world’s fastest open top production sportscar, Bugatti will produce eight World Record Car editions of the Grand Sport Vitesse, each priced at €1.99 million ($A2.47m) plus taxes.

The record-breaking car, which achieved the feat at Volkswagen Group’s Ehra-Lessien proving ground with Chinese race driver Anthony Liu at the wheel, will be shown at the Shanghai motor show later this month.

All special-edition cars will be painted in the same black and orange two-tone finish seen here, which Bugatti says “perfectly translates its inner qualities into its exterior appearance”.

Powering the record-breaking special editions is the same 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 engine as the Grand Sport Vitesse that has been on sale since last year.

It pumps out 883kW of power, with 1500Nm of torque available between 3000 and 5000rpm, delivered to the road via all four wheels.

The uprated chassis deploys fast-acting active dampers and beefed-up anti-roll bars.

A special roof spoiler and windbreak are claimed to guarantee calm open-top driving, even at the record-breaking speed of 408.84km/h.

Having achieved these speeds with the roof removed, Mr Liu said he could “really experience the sound of the engine and yet even at higher speeds I did not get compromised by the wind at all".

Rather than world records book publisher Guinness verifying the record, this time independent German organisation for Technical Inspection and Certification (TUV) was on hand.

Bugatti Automobiles president Wolfgang Schreiber said setting the record “reaffirms once again that Bugatti is the leader when it comes to technology in the international automotive industry”.

“When we introduced the Vitesse, we established the top speed for open-top driving to be 375 km/h.

Still, we could not let go of the idea of reaching the 400 km/h mark with this car as well. The fact that we have succeeded in reaching 408.84 km/h is a thrill for me.” Bugatti was stripped of its 431km/h world record for road-registrable cars when Guinness discovered the electronic 415km/h speed limiter had been deactivated during the attempt, contravening a policy stating that vehicles must remain factory standard.

Given the Grand Sport Vitesse is electronically limited to 375km/h for the road, Bugatti clearly disabled the limiter again, but TUV rules apparently allow for this.

The Veyron lost its title when US tuner Hennessey claimed their Lotus Exige based Venom GT deserves the now unallocated world record , having achieved a top speed of 427.6 km/h during its own testing.

However no world records authority has yet tested the Venom GT, which like the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, can be driven with the roof panel removed.