Are Chaplygin gases serious contenders to the dark energy throne?

We study the implications on both background and perturbation evolution of introducing a Chaplygin gas component in the universe's ingredients. We perform likelihood analyses using wide-ranging, SN1a, CMB and large scale structure observations to assess whether such a component could be a genuine alternative to a cosmological constant, $\Lambda$. We find that current data favors a cosmological constant thus not motivating further studies of such a component.