The McLaren Speedtail and the Bugatti Chiron are two of the fastest hypercars the world has ever seen. Despite their similarities, they develop power and speed in dramatically different ways. But when they go up against one another in a drag race, the results are incredibly close.
Brooks from DragTimes collaborated with The Triple F Collection for this series of four races between the two hypercars. The Speedtail develops 1,036 horsepower through the use of a hybrid system and weighs 3,521 pounds (1,597 kg). The Chiron has considerably more horsepower, at 1,500 hp, but it also weighs much more, at 4,236 pounds (1,921 kg). It also builds all of that power exclusively through a non-electrified quad-turbo W16 engine.
While each car has its own launch control system, the drivers agree that neither launches particularly well. With that in mind. they initially decide to scrap drag races from a dig and instead have the cars go from a 40 mph (64 km/h) roll. In that format, the first three races are incredibly close. At the finish line of the first race, there’s less than half of a car length between them and the McLaren is the one that takes the win.
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During the second attempt, the Speedtail seems to get off to a huge lead initially before the Chiron reels it in and pulls out the win by what looks like less than a quarter of a car length. During the third race, the cars aren’t so close and the Bugatti manages a win of about a full car length. At this stage, the guys decide to go ahead and try a proper drag race from a standing start.
The results are a dramatic win for the French hypercar and afterward, we get an idea of why. According to both presenters, the battery pack in the Speedtail was very low on juice. Evidently, the battery needs to be at around 90 percent for the car to have full power but in these races, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of just 15 percent.
To confirm the issue, data from a day before, when the Speedtail’s battery was topped up, is compared and sure enough, it was much faster in that state. We just hope that we get to see how things go once both cars are fully prepared.