More than 400 km/h in a production car? Yes that works! If you have 3.8 million (in Austria plus NoVA) left for a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport, know a very long straight – and get the blessing of chief instructor Pierre-Henri Raphanel.
He drives the car that others only dream of – and not just every now and then. Pierre-Henri Raphanel is chief test driver at Bugatti. While even the few customers don’t drive an average of 2,000 kilometers per year with their Chiron, they sit behind the wheel of the most powerful, fastest and most expensive sports cars in the world almost every day. Probably no one has started the eight-liter sixteen-cylinder engine as often as the former Formula 1 racing driver from France. Except perhaps his colleague Andy Wallace, with whom he now shares the job. No one has accelerated the car with its up to 1600 hp to more than 300, and in some cases over 400 km/h. And no one else knows better how to drive the low-flying aircraft made of paint, leather and carbon over the road than the horsepower professional. Behind the scenes, the development of the third Bugatti of the new era is already in full swing and there is much to suggest that The new company boss Mate Rimac has come up with something very special for this. While the engineers are finished with the Chiron and the mechanics in Molsheim are working on their orders, Raphanel continues to use the most expensive company car in the world and goes on tour with it to show it off to potential customers: “This car is so special that you can hardly see it for normal test drives,” is how Monsieur Pierre justifies his job. He has therefore explained to the world’s super-rich over 10,000 times how the miracle, which cost five million euros, works. He has driven ancient US billionaires to over 250 km/h for the first time in their lives, left young Chinese entrepreneurs speechless with sprints from 0 to 100 in less than three seconds, traveled with Moscow oligarchs and Arab sheiks, and even a After the test drive, a dozen Germans signed a purchase contract with the ex-Formula 1 professional and transferred the deposit. “Toi, toi, toi – over 10,000 trips in two dozen countries and not a single scratch,” says the instructor proudly. “It was damn close at times,” he admits. He himself learned to control the car. Especially since the Bugatti can be driven as easily as a VW Polo if you have enough self-control. After a quarter of an hour he lets the potential customers get behind the wheel and then sometimes dies a thousand deaths. Especially when he’s on the road where the Chiron is sold most: in California, in China, in the Emirates, in Macao or in Mumbai. It was very close… Even there, he drives it before every test drive Routes vary, but when overwhelmed drivers are driving a car with the performance data of a fighter jet in chaotic traffic conditions, “then things can get tricky,” admits Raphanel, remembering with a shudder an incident in India. There, his protégé chased the million-dollar car past a house wall so closely that Raphanel even grabbed the steering wheel and just managed to prevent the worst from happening: the tires were white from the house’s plaster, but the body had no scratches. A few lucky ones in a heapTo fully exploit the potential of the hypercar, Bugatti invited two dozen customers to a high-speed experience for the first time since the end of the pandemic this year and let them take part in aerodynamics and performance tests at the Kennedy Space Center – under the guidance of chief tester Raphanel.The location is exotic, but it was chosen carefully. Not only because the Rocket Coast of Florida stands like no other area in the world for speed and for how humans push the boundaries of what is imaginable, making it a perfect fit for the Bugatti. But above all because they also concreted one of the longest concrete runways in the world into the swamps here for the landing of the space shuttle. 91 meters wide and almost half a meter thick, it is 4.6 kilometers long – not counting the two run-off zones, each a good 300 meters long. This makes it one of the ten longest runways in the world – and the ideal playground for the hellish ride in the Chiron. Raphanel is now sitting there in the Chiron Super Sport and becomes the fastest driving instructor in the world. Because here he’s supposed to show a few rich racers how they can reach speeds that even Formula 1 drivers and the vast majority of pilots are denied. It’s not for nothing that they embroidered “Mission 400” in Molsheim on the tailor-made racing suits that the participants of this exclusive event had to squeeze into. Step by step on speedThe first lap around the almost five kilometer long track he gives the chauffeur and explains the route. Then he switches to the right and lets the customer take the wheel for the first time. 150 miles per hour or the equivalent of 240 km/h – which gets you straight to jail everywhere else in the USA, feels like crawling here and the Chiron doesn’t need much more than idle. The 320 km/h after that is also more like it a confidence-building measure rather than a challenge. Yes, a commercial airliner will have its nose in the sky at this speed, but the Chiron drives so steadily that you could probably even take your hands off the steering wheel. The further the speedometer climbs, the more his pulse calms down and Raphanel looks satisfied. The fact that he then quits before the next run because no salary in the world justifies this risk may sound like a good joke to him, but it is his own However, self-confidence collapses again like a house of cards. But now there is more time for doubts. After all, there are still a few items on the checklist to complete before the trip and the countdown has long since begun. The customers can’t manage 490. Because the developers are very aware of their responsibility, they have built in a corresponding safety loop. It starts with a second, plain key that you have to insert to the left of the driver’s seat and turn once to activate the top speed mode. While the electronics check all systems again and call up the tire pressure, the huge spoiler at the back flattens out and you can feel the car ducking a few millimeters lower onto the asphalt. Then the Chiron is sharp – and if the driver now If in doubt, if you don’t tap the brake briefly or turn the steering wheel more than a few degrees, in theory 440 km/h is possible – Raphanel’s colleague Andy Wallace even managed 490 km/h in a record run and put the Super Sport back in first place in the Guinness Book. During the first two attempts the driver lost his nerves and lifted his foot too early. But Raphanel speaks patiently and good-naturedly to him every time and on the third attempt everything falls into place perfectly: the sensors signal approval, Mission Control raises its thumb, the Chiron shoots over the concrete and is not affected by the thick white stripe The runway markings are still irritating from the crosswind that keeps waking up between the few bushes. The four turbos now blow 60,000 liters of air per minute into the cylinders, the crankshaft rotates at over 7,000 revolutions and every second 100 meters of concrete tape disappear under the four driven wheels. As powerful as the Bugatti initially pushes when it accelerates from 0 to 100 in 2.4 seconds, the analog needle wipes over 200 km/h after 5.8 seconds and over 300 km/h after a total of 12.1 seconds, the officially last 28 .6 seconds to 400 km/h takes what feels like an eternity. Speedometer is taboo. “Don’t look at the speedometer,” Raphanel calls to the driver over the radio, “but always look at the white line to the right of you.” But the closer the finish line comes, the greater the temptation to look down – and the more reassuring it is to realize that the digital display is bravely climbing. 380, 390, 395 and still a few hundred meters to the flag. Stay on it, stay on it, step on it, step on it harder and take another deep breath, then the 400 km/h is actually reached and shortly afterwards the flags fly past left and right that mark the braking point – and with it the most dangerous phase of the journey. Because now Just don’t panic and get all worked up, otherwise you’ll be torn like the space shuttle pilot when the orbiter throws out the braking parachute. It’s just that they’ve trained for months for such extreme stress. So slowly but steadily build up the pressure and watch as the crazy energy melts into the heat that shimmers from the carbon discs the size of a pizza plate in the wheel arches, while the rear wing pushes itself into the picture to fill the entire frame. And then you can legally take a look at the speedometer, which has long since fallen back into the comfort range. 380, 360, 340, 320, 300 km/h – even laypeople feel comfortable behind the wheel again. It’s just a good thing that the maximum speed of each trip is saved on the small additional display in the center console and the driver can now look at the number again very carefully: it says 400 km/h and you need the entire five kilometers back until you get there Yes, at the end of this event a few more people will be able to add themselves to the short list of drivers who have actually reached this speed range and Raphanel will lose a little more of its uniqueness again. But that doesn’t bother the horsepower professional and there is therefore no doubt about the honest, sincere joy with which he greets and high-fives every driver after the finish. In any case, the fastest driving instructor in the world has maintained his critical distance from the speed his rich eleven. As soon as he gets out, he keeps the necessary distance and doesn’t mix with the rich and famous. Of course, there are also occasional invitations to customers on the Cote d’Azur, for a few quick laps to Beijing, Moscow or Miami. But he politely declines. “The best weekend I can imagine doesn’t take place on a race track.” The man who, after almost 20 years in the service of the fastest brand in the world, sits in a Bugatti more often than we do in a VW, has a lot after all the madness More down-to-earth desires: “I’m looking forward to a Saturday at home with the children on the sofa in front of the TV.” (Benjamin Bessinger/SP-X)
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