Bugatti's planned 1,341-hp MegaWatt Veyron would have preceded Koenigsegg One:1, scrapped after Piëch insisted on 1,479 hp and 279 mph capabilityVeyron Super Sport achieved 267 mph in 2010, extracting additional 12 mph needed massive redesign, Bugatti decided waiting for Chiron made more senseChiron Super Sport eventually delivered 1,578 hp and 304 mph in 2019, Rimac considering 500 km/h attempt with Tourbillon if suitable tires exist The Veyron spent a decade in production spawning endless special editions along the way. The entry model delivered a paltry 987 horsepower, though later versions cranked the quad-turbo 8.0-liter W16 significantly higher. Peak output eventually reached 1,183 horsepower in Super Sport and Grand Sport Vitesse configurations. Tremendous by any measure, yet apparently not tremendous enough. Bugatti design chief Frank Heyl revealed to Top Gear that Molsheim had developed plans for one final Veyron variant as a proper sendoff. The proposal called for extracting 1,341 horsepower from the sixteen-cylinder engine, delivering 158 horsepower more than the hottest existing specification. Quite the retirement party. VW ruins everything by wanting more They intended calling it the MegaWatt Veyron, which would have stolen Koenigsegg's thunder entirely. The Swedish manufacturer launched its One:1 in 2014 with exactly one megawatt of output of 1,341 horsepower in old-fashioned terminology, about one year before Bugatti retired the Veyron altogether. Imagine the satisfaction of beating them to that particular milestone. Here's where things get properly absurd. Despite the Veyron being Ferdinand Piëch's most outrageous vanity project, the VW Group CEO's insatiable appetite for excess actually murdered the MegaWatt edition. Piëch examined the 1,341-horsepower proposal and decided it wasn't bonkers enough. He demanded cranking output to 1,479 horsepower while achieving 279 mph flat out. Because why stop at merely insane when you can demand completely unhinged? The Super Sport variant had already hit 267 mph during June 2010 testing at Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien facility. Piëch wanted another 12 mph extracted, but achieving that required fundamentally re-engineering the entire car rather than just tweaking boost pressure and hoping for the best. Even Ferdinand Piëch couldn't simply wish physics away. Bugatti concluded that abandoning the MegaWatt project and waiting for the all-new Chiron made considerably more sense, which would launch at exactly the 1,479-horsepower figure Piëch originally demanded.The Chiron eventually received even more ridiculous outputs. The Super Sport variant cranked out 1,578 horsepower, returning to Ehra-Lessien in August 2019 to achieve 304 mph during testing. Production versions got electronically limited to 273 mph because tires have this inconvenient tendency to explode when subjected to sustained triple-digit speeds. The Veyron Super Sport faced identical restrictions, capped at 258 mph to prevent catastrophic rubber failure. After the Chiron Super Sport breached 400 km/h, Bugatti announced it had finished chasing outright velocity records. Under new CEO Mate Rimac however, that position appears negotiable. He's acknowledged interest in potentially pursuing 500 km/h—310 mph for anyone still measuring speed in bald eagles per football field—though the Tourbillon would require tires that probably don't exist yet. There's also the minor problem of Bugatti no longer accessing Ehra-Lessien, meaning any record attempt needs alternative venues. Options include Johnny Bohmer's Florida facility where SSC pushed a Tuatara to 295 mph in 2022, or perhaps closed public highways like Koenigsegg used for various Agera RS records in Nevada. Volkswagen still owns 45 percent of Bugatti through Porsche, so maybe someone can negotiate access if they grovel sufficiently. The Veyron remains monumentally significant despite never receiving that ultimate MegaWatt edition. Its numerous records established it as the apex of internal combustion excess. The Chiron built upon that foundation, but none of it happens without Piëch's pathological refusal to accept reasonable engineering limitations or acknowledge budgetary constraints.
