Monday, Bugatti announced that one of its Chiron vehicles had broken the production car speed record. It did something monumental: It crossed the 300 mph mark.
At first I was excited and amazed. It was a milestone achievement.
But then the more I thought about it, the more a feeling of "Who cares?" started to creep in. Although I understand that setting speed records is a large part of the Bugatti brand, I don't think this is a top priority for today's buyers — even for those that can afford the mutli-million dollar supercar. That's because there's maybe only two places in the world you can hit that speed, one being the test track Bugatti did it at.
It's kind of like the SR-71. It's a magnificent engineering feat but few people will ever get to experience this greatness. It's all about bragging rights at this point.
Second, when you learn more about the car that achieved this record, it becomes very clear very fast that this isn't exactly a production vehicle. It was equipped with a specific aerodynamic kit, specially engineered tires and tuned up to 1600 horsepower.
Something tells me Bugatti will do the same as it previously did and launch a special edition in World Record Edition (WRE) form.
After all that, I've got to ask: Is Bugatti's latest speed record a big, fat "So, what?"