The one thing stopping record-setting 500km/h top speed for new Bugatti Tourbillon hypercar is tyre technology... and a big enough proving ground: Report

Bugatti is looking to develop a production car capable of hitting 500km/h and its new V16 powered Tourbillon could be the hypercar to do it — it’s just the tyres they need to get right according to the brand’s boss.

Only this month Bugatti’s 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 powered Mistral reached out and touched 454km/h, well 453.9km/h, and you’d think that would be fast enough, but Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac wants to go faster according to an interview recently with Top Gear magazine.

At the speed test for the Mistral Top Gear spotted Rimac chatting to the engineers from Michelin, the tyre supplier. When questioned if Rimac was asking Michelin about the requirement needed for a tyre to withstand 500km/h, the answer was a surprising yes.  

“That was exactly our discussion,” Rimac told Top Gear. 

“I figured out that the guys who are here are actually responsible for this kind of high performance and racing tyres. And I'm like 'Can you do this? Can you do that? Where's the limit?'

“One of the questions was, “What's the maximum static load at zero kilometres per hour on the front and rear axle of the Turian tyre? And they were like “What? Why are you asking that?” Some of the very technical customers might know why I'm asking that.

“So it's those kinds of things. And the next question was “Can we put the ‘five’ in front of the top speed record?”

Tyre durability is a major concern in high-speed testing. At speeds approaching 400km/h the temperature of the air inside the rotating tyre increases putting enormous pressure on the tyres from the inside that could see it delaminate.

Michelin has long had a connection with Bugatti and develops a bespoke carbon fibre compound for the brand that is lightweight but strong enough to withstand the enormous speeds and monstrous internal force. 

The tyres are expensive, with four Michelin Pilot Sport Pax tyres designed for a Bugatti Veyron, for example, costing about $60K. And they'll only last you 15 minutes at the Veyron's 410km/h top speed — lucky you'd run out of fuel after 12, then.

But the price for tyres is peanuts when you consider the price of a Bugatti, with the Mistral costing almost $8 million.

The other big issue is space, and without access to the Volkswagen Group's proving grounds anymore, Bugatti will have to look elsewhere for a long enough straight stretch to hit 500km/h in two directions for an official record.

It probably won't be the Mistral which hits the magic 500km/h for Bugatti — that honour could be taken by its next hypercar, the mid-engine hybrid V16 Tourbillon which was revealed this year. Able to sprint from 0-100km/h in 2.0 seconds the Tourbillon could just reach 500km/h, given the right tyres... and enough space.