Remember that old Top Gear episode where Richard Hammond raced a Eurofighter Typhoon in a Bugatti Veyron? Well, the French carmaker has recreated the head-to-head challenge with the newer Chiron and a Dassault Rafale Marine.
The former should be familiar to most, as it’s the successor to the Veyron and first arrived back in 2016. This particular unit is the special edition Chiron Sport Les Légendes du Ciel, which is meant to celebrate Ettore Bugatti’s involvement in French aviation, and gets a host of unique aesthetic touches to make it distinctive. It’s not cheap, coming in at 2.88 million euros (around RM14.6 million), and only 20 will be built.
Meanwhile, the Rafale is a French fighter aircraft that is used by the French Air and Space Force as well as the French Navy. Its dual Snecma M88 turbofan engines produce a total of 58,550 newtons of thrust, or 5,727 PS (5,649 hp), which dwarves the car’s 8.0 litre turbocharged W16 engine with its 1,500 PS (1,479 hp).
The race is certainly entertaining to watch, as the special edition Chiron Sport manages to get the jump on the plane, but once the afterburners kick in, the car is left trailing, just like in Hammond’s race. Of course, these are two different machines, and the plane also wins in terms of top speed, capable of hitting a top speed of 1.6 Mach or around 1,975 km/h – the Chiron Sport maxes out at 420 km/h.
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