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Bugati Veyron Review
Long Read, well worth it though.
> When you push a car past 180mph, the world starts to get awfully fizzy > and a little bit frightening. When you go past 200mph it actually > becomes blurred. Almost like you're trapped in an early Queen pop > video. At this sort of speed the tyres and the suspension are reacting > to events that happened some time ago, and they have not finished > reacting before they're being asked to do something else. The result > is a terrifying vibration that rattles your optical nerves, causing > double vision. This is not good when you're covering 300ft a second. > > Happily, stopping distances become irrelevant because you won't see > the obstacle in the first place. By the time you know it was there, > you'll have gone through the windscreen, through the Pearly Gates and > be half way across God's breakfast table. > > It has always been thus. When Louis Rigolly broke the 100mph barrier > in his Gobron in 1904, the vibration would have been terrifying. And I > dare say that driving an E-type at 150mph in 1966 must have been a bit > sporty as well. > > But once you go past 200mph it isn't just the suspension and the > tyres you have to worry about. The biggest problem is the air. At > 100mph it's relaxed. At 150mph it's a breeze. But at 200mph it has > sufficient power to lift an 800,000lb jumbo jet off the ground. A > 200mph gust of wind is strong enough to knock down an entire city. So > getting a car to behave itself in conditions like these is tough. > > At 200mph you can feel the front of the car getting light as it > starts to lift. As a result you start to lose your steering, so you > aren't even able to steer round whatever it is you can't see because > of the vibrations. Make no mistake, 200mph is at the limit of what man > can do right now. Which is why the new Bugatti Veyron is worthy of > some industrial strength genuflection. Because it can do 252mph. And > that's just mad - 252mph means that in straight and level flight this > car is as near as makes no difference as fast as a Hawker Hurricane. > > You might point out at this juncture that the McLaren F1 could top > 240mph, but at that speed it was pretty much out of control. And > anyway it really isn't in the same league as the Bugatti. In a drag > race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the > Veyron. And you'd still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way > faster than anything else the roads have seen. > > Of course, at 810,000, it is also jolly expensive, but when youlook > at the history of its development you'll discover it's rather more > than just a car . . . > > It all started when Ferdinand Pich, the swivel-eyed former boss of > Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. > "This," he said, "is what the next Bugatti will look like." And then, > without consulting anyone, he went on. "And it vill have an engine > that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph." > > His engineers were horrified. But they set to work anyway, mating two Audi V8s to create an 8 litre W16. Which was then garnished with four > turbochargers. Needless to say, the end result produced about as much > power as the earth's core, which is fine. But somehow the giant had to > be cooled, which is why the Veyron has no engine cover and why it has > 10 - count them - 10 radiators. Then things got tricky because the > power had to be harnessed. > > For this, VW went to Ricardo, a British company that makes gearboxes > for various Formula One teams. > > "God, it was hard," said one of the engineers I know vaguely. "The > gearbox in an F1 car only has to last a few hours. Volkswagen wanted > the Veyron's to last 10 or 20 years. And remember, the Bugatti is a > damn sight more powerful than any F1 car." > > The result, a seven-speed double-clutch flappy paddle affair, took a > team of 50 engineers five years to perfect. > > With this done, the Veyron was shipped to Sauber's F1 wind tunnel > where it quickly became apparent that while the magic 1000bhp figure > had been achieved, they were miles off the target top speed of 400kph > (248mph). The body of the car just wasn't aerodynamic enough, and > Volkswagen wouldn't let them change the basic shape to get round the > problem. > > The bods at Sauber threw up their hands, saying they only had > experience of aerodynamics up to maybe 360kph, which is the effective > top speed in Formula One. Beyond this point Bugatti was on its own. > > Somehow they had to find an extra 30kph, and there was no point in > looking to the engine for answers because each extra 1kph increase in > speed requires an extra 8bhp from the power plant. An extra 30kph then > would need an extra 240bhp. That was not possible. > > The extra speed had to come from changing small things on the body. > They started by fitting smaller door mirrors, which upped the top > speed a bit but at too high a price. It turned out that the bigger > ones had been keeping the nose of the car on the ground. Without them > the stability was gone. > > In other words, the door mirrors were generating downforce. That > gives you an idea of how much of a bastard the air can be at this > speed. > > After some public failures, fires and accidents, and one chief being > fired, they hit on the idea of a car that automatically changes shape > depending on what speed you're going. > > At 137mph, the nose of the car is lowered by 2in and the big rear > spoiler slides into the slipstream. The effect is profound. You can > feel the back of the car being pressed into the road. > > However, with the spoiler in place the drag is so great you're > limited to just 231mph. To go faster than that you have to stop and > insert your ignition key in a slot on the floor. This lowers the whole > car still further and locks the big back wing down. Now you have > reduced downforce, which means you won't be going round any corners, > but you have a clean shape. And that means you can top 400kph. > > That's 370ft a second. > > You might want to ponder that for a moment. Covering the length of a > football pitch, in a second, in a car. And then you might want to > think about the braking system. A VW Polo will generate 0.6g if you > stamp on the middle pedal hard. You get that from the air brake alone > on a Veyron. Factor in the carbon ceramic discs and you will pull up > from 250mph in just 10sec. Sounds good, but in those 10sec you'll have > covered a third of a mile. > > That's five football pitches to stop. > > I didn't care. On a recent drive across Europe I desperately wanted > to reach the top speed but I ran out of road when the needle hit > 240mph. Where, astonishingly, it felt planted. Totally and utterly > rock steady. It felt sublime. > > Not quiet, though. The engine sounds like Victorian plumbing - it > looks like Victorian plumbing as well, to be honest - and the roar > from the tyres was biblical. But it still felt brilliant. Utterly, > stunningly, mind blowingly, jaw droppingly brilliant. > > And then I reached the Alps where, unbelievably, it got better. I > expected this road rocket to be absolutely useless in the bends but it > felt like a big Lotus Elise. > > Occasionally, if I accelerated hard in a tight corner, it behaved > strangely as the four-wheel-drive system decided which axle would be > best equipped to deal with the wave of power. I won't say it's a nasty > feel or dangerous. Just weird, in the same way that the duck-billed > platypus is weird. > > > You learn to raise an eyebrow at what's only a foible, and then, as > the road straightens out, steady yourself for Prince Albert's boiler > to gird its loins and play havoc with the space-time continuum. No, > really, you come round a bend, see what appears to be miles and miles > of dead straight road, bury your foot in the carpet and with a big > asthmatic wheeze, bang, you're instantly at the next bend, with your > eyebrow raised again. > > From behind the wheel of a Veyron, France is the size of a small > coconut. I cannot tell you how fast I crossed it the other day. > Because you simply wouldn't believe me. I also cannot tell you how > good this car is. I just don't have the vocabulary. I just end up > stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone > thinks I'm on drugs. > > This car cannot be judged in the same way that we judge other cars. > It meets drive-by noise and emission regulations and it can be driven > by someone whose only qualification is an ability to reverse round > corners and do an emergency stop. So technically it is a car. And yet > it just isn't. > > Other cars are small guesthouses on the front at Brighton and the > Bugatti is the Burj Al Arab. It makes even the Enzo and the Porsche > Carrera GT feel slow and pointless. It is a triumph for lunacy over > common sense, a triumph for man over nature and a triumph for > Volkswagen over absolutely every other car maker in the world. > > VITAL STATISTICS > > Model Bugatti Veyron 16.4 > Engine 7993cc, 16 cylinders in a W > Power 1001bhp @ 6000rpm > Torque 922 lb ft @ 2200rpm > Transmission 7-speed DSG, manual and auto Fuel 11.7mpg (combined) CO2 574g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 2.5sec Top speed 253mph Price 810,345 Verdict Deserves 12 stars. Simply as good - and as fast - as it gets |
#2
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#3
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Holy crap!!
I'll take two |
#4
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Are those plenum looking things on the top intercoolers? I remember Jeremy Clarkson saying it had like 11 radiator/intercoolers.
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Ho's gotta eat too |
#5
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Ahh.. 10 (just read the artical)
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Ho's gotta eat too |
#6
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great story....where is it from?
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#7
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mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
someone wanna get this for me as a present |
#8
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Do you think they'll take CASH?
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#9
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I'm waiting for the top gear episode to come on sbs about it
they played the chrissy 04 last monday 05 season should start soon
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ALLSTARGARAGE.COM.AU ANYTIMETOWING.COM.AU WHEELSWORLD |
#10
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Quote:
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https://www.facebook.com/JanGlovacPhotography MY05 STI track car | VF Clubsport |
Tags |
bugati, review, veyron |
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