With nearly every car out there, whenever the official debut of the production model occurs, it usually puts an end to the stream of spy photos. But the Bugatti Chiron is not an ordinary car, hence why more than two years since it’s unveiling at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, the W16 hypercar is still being tested at the Nürburgring. The elite marque from Molsheim delivered the 100th customer car about a month ago, so it begs the question: why are there two prototypes setting up camp at the Nordschleife?

There are a few plausible scenarios worth considering, with one of them being that Bugatti is tweaking the recently launched Chiron Sport. Still packing the same immense 1,500bhp output as the standard model, the first derivative of the Veyron’s successor features a number of tweaks to make the quad-turbo beast even quicker through the corners. It comes with a stiffer suspension setup, revised steering, and a tweaked rear-axle differential, while slashing weight by approximately 18kg.

More Chiron news:

If Bugatti wasn’t optimising the new bits and pieces of the Chiron Sport, maybe the test vehicles had something to do with the rumoured 'controversial' special edition said to be offered in very limited quantities. The model in question will allegedly look quite different than the normal model, but that’s all we know for the time being.

We should also take into consideration the possibility of a hotter Chiron that Bugatti could be working on as a successor to the Veyron Super Sport. While the company’s boss has said a top speed run may never happen, it doesn’t necessarily mean a faster version is not being planned. After all, the normal Chiron is electronically limited to 261mph, which is only 3mph more than the Veyron Super Sport World Record Edition.

The Veyron SS WRE special edition was launched following a top speed run with an unrestricted Veyron SS that managed to hit 267.86mph back in 2010. So, officially, the Veyron is still faster than the Chiron when you think about it. Surely the newer car must prove it’s faster and Bugatti even said back in September 2016 that an unrestricted Chiron would hit 285mph.

Bugatti through the voice of official test driver Andy Wallace has said that with the currently available tires, a Chiron is capable of more than 280mph. With more advanced rubber, hitting the magical 300mph mark could become a possibility.

Also check out: