The beating heart of the Bugatti Chiron is an engine of almost unfathomable power.

The 16-cylinder, 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged “W-16” engine—so named because of the alignment of the four banks of four cylinders each—first found fame in the Molsheim company’s ground-breaking Veyron.

The earliest examples of the landmark hypercar coaxed just shy of 1,000 horsepower from the powertrain and, over time, the engine was honed for further iterations of the model.

When the Chiron arrived in 2016, the heavily revised engine produced a staggering 1,500 horsepower—some 296 horsepower more than the most powerful Veyron.

The Chiron Super Sport 300+ took things a step further, drawing from the phenomenal engine and advanced aerodynamics to become the fastest Bugatti ever made.

The stage was set for Bugatti to reveal its special edition Super Sport 300+ in 2019, by which point the Chiron had been in production for three years.

The French marque continued to realise the performance potential of...