Porsche 918 Spyder Battles A Bugatti Chiron In Drag Race (2024)
The Bugatti Chiron and Porsche 918 Spyder were like ships passing in the night. As one bowed out, the other rolled in. The Porsche disappeared in 2015 with the new Bugatti arriving in 2016. While you could slot both in the hypercar category, they reach those heart-stopping speeds differently. The Porsche is a plug-in hybrid, but the Bugatti isn’t, and the drag race in the video above shows which is quicker.
Power in the Porsche comes from pairing a 4.6-liter V8 with two electric motors. The combined output is 887 horsepower (661 kilowatts) and 944 pound-feet (1,347 Newton-meters) of torque. It was a powerhouse when Porsche introduced it in 2013, but the Chiron towers over it. The Bugatti makes 1,500 hp (1,118 kW) and 1,180 lb-ft (1,600 Nm) of torque from its 8.0-liter W16 engine. However, while there’s a massive performance gap, the race isn’t a runaway for the Bugatti.
It’s difficult to tell, but it appears the Porsche got a better start off the line than the Bugatti, but the slight lead is only momentary. By the end of the race, the Bugatti had closed the gap and pulled ahead. The video quality isn’t superb, but Bugatti crossed the finish line ahead of the Porsche, earning itself the win. You can see the 918’s brake lights illuminate before the Bugatti’s.
Watch More High-Horsepower Drag Races:
While there’s a substantial performance difference between the two, the Porsche kept up quite well. Both manufacturers claim a mid-2.0-second sprint to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour), though the Bugatti’s top speed dwarfs the Porsche’s – 214 mph (345 kph) to 261 mph (420 kph). But performance often comes down to more than just numbers on a page. It’d seem odd to pair Porsche’s performance hybrid against Bugatti’s powerhouse, but there is more than one way to win a race.
Both manufacturers claim a mid-2.0-second sprint to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour), though the Bugatti's top speed dwarfs the Porsche's – 214 mph (345 kph) to 261 mph (420 kph).
However, the magazine says, Koenigsegg took Chiron's achievement as a challenge and completed the same 0-249-0mph run in its Agera RS – beating the French marque by 5.5 seconds.
The Porsche 911 Turbo S and the Bugatti Chiron are two of the fastest 0-60mph production cars in the world right now. Porsche claims the Turbo S can do 0-60 in 2.6 seconds while the Chiron can do it in just 2.3 seconds. But what happens if its a 1/2 mile drag race? Will the Porsche have a chance of beating the Chiron?
The Swedish supercar was born to defy gravity and beat the Bugatti Chiron, and it's the fastest Koenigsegg. With a 5-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, it has 1,600 hp (100 more than the “classic” Jesko).
Deliberately limited by the manufacturer to a top speed of 261 miles per hour, the Chiron's speed testing topped out at 304 mph in the hands of a professional racing driver. That concept of “acquiring” is the driving force for Bugatti buyers.
Can a car go 400 mph? As of 2023, no cars have managed to break the 400 mph barrier but that's not due to manufacturers' lack of trying. As it stands, there are a few cars that have managed to exceed 300 mph.
The top spot for the world's fastest supercar goes to Bugatti. In 2019, pilot Andy Wallace railed a tweaked-version of the 1,600 hp, 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged Chiron Super Sport around the Ehra-Lessien track.
The total system delivers 652 kW (887 PS; 875 hp) and 1,280 N⋅m (944 lbf⋅ft) of torque. Porsche provided official performance figures of 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) in 2.6 seconds, 0–200 km/h (0–124 mph) in 7.2 seconds, 0–300 km/h (0–186 mph) in 19.9 seconds and a top speed of 345 km/h (214 mph).
The 918 Spyder paired a 4.6-litre V8 with twin electric motors (one on each axle) to give the driver a combined 899PS of power. Less than 1,000 were made – 918 (of course!) to be exact – but those lucky owners were able to experience a 0-100km/h time of just 2.6 seconds.
The dynamic performance of the Porsche 918 hybrid engine
The main power source is a 4.6-litre V8 that delivers around 578PS of power that was directly derived from the successful RS Spyder, which was good for engine speeds of up to 9,000rpm.
Introduction: My name is Horacio Brakus JD, I am a lively, splendid, jolly, vivacious, vast, cheerful, agreeable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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