McLaren Speedtail Drag Races Bugatti Chiron in a battle of 2,536 hp

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The McLaren Speedtail and the Bugatti Chiron are two of the fastest hypercars the world has ever seen. Despite their similarities, they develop strength and speed in dramatically different ways. But when they go head-to-head in a drag race, the results are incredibly close.

Brooks of DragTimes teamed up with The Triple F Collection for this four-race series 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 significantly more horsepower, at 1,500 horsepower, but it also weighs a lot more, at 4,236 pounds (1,921 kg). It also builds all that power solely 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 racing from a dig and instead let the cars go off a 40 mph (64 km/h) roll. In that format, the first three races are incredibly close. At the finish of the first race there is less than half a car length between them and the McLaren is the one taking the win.

Read more: Blue McLaren Speedtail exudes style and speed

 

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On the second attempt, the Speedtail initially seems to take a huge lead before the Chiron pulls it in and takes the win at what appears to be less than a quarter of a car length. During the third race the cars are not as close and the Bugatti manages to take a victory of about a full car length. At this stage, the guys decide to try a real drag race from a standstill.

The results are a dramatic victory for the French hypercar and then we get an idea why. According to both presenters, the battery pack in the Speedtail was very empty. Apparently the battery needs to be around 90 percent for the car to run at full power, but in these races it was somewhere around just 15 percent.

To confirm the issue, data from a day earlier when the Speedtail’s battery was topped up is compared and indeed it was much faster in that state. We just hope we can see how it goes when both cars are fully prepared.

Image credit: DragTimes on YouTube



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