Much like eating regularly at McDonald's, cars are becoming fatter and fatter. It's especially true if you need to cram in a W16 engine, complete with four turbochargers. Add into the mix all-wheel drive, a 100-liter (26.4-gallon) fuel tank, and 420-mm front and 400-mm rear disc brakes, you begin to understand why the Bugatti Chiron is so wide. Not just any machine from Molsheim, but the new Super Sport without the plus at the end of its name.
Carwow's Mat Watson tackled what must be one of the most difficult "tracks" for the Chiron SS – the challenging Drive Thru. He wasn't alone while attempting to maneuver the long-tailed beast through the narrow course of a McDrive somewhere in France. The charismatic YouTuber received instructions from none other than Andy Wallace, Bugatti's test driver.
Gallery: 2021 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport
What would usually take a few seconds in a normal car turned out to be a nerve-racking experience that lasted several minutes. It's perfectly understandable since the Chiron Super Sport is imposingly wide, at 2,183 millimeters (nearly 86 inches) if you include the side mirrors. The fact it has some of the fattest tires ever put on a production car doesn't help either, measuring 285/30 R20 at the front and a meaty 355/25 R21 at the rear axle.
As with any other respectable high-performance machine, it has a nose lift system for a tad more ground clearance. It gives the Chiron SS a ground clearance of 125 mm at the front and rear, which is substantially more than when it's hunkered down in top speed mode at 80 mm front and 89 mm rear. Damaging one of those magnesium wheels is not for the faint-hearted as we're sure they cost a fortune to fix.
The fact it sits so low makes it quite tricky to order at McDonald's Drive Thru since you're far away from the microphone. Mat actually opened the door and got closer to the mic – talk about first-world problems… The black beauty made it out alive without any scratches to the wheels or body, but it took a while.
Chances are the 1,578-horsepower engine drank a lot of fuel considering the sixteen-cylinder behemoth needs anywhere between 17.1 to 40.3 liters / 100 kilometers depending on how it's driven. In the United States, EPA has rated the Super Sport at a measly eight miles per gallon in the city.
While this time around it was stuck in first gear, the Chiron SS can do 273 mph (440 km/h) in seventh gear on an unrestricted section of the Autobahn or a race track provided it has a long straight.
