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#97911 2nd Dec 2005 10:13am
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By Jeremy Clarkson
Utterly, stunningly, jaw droppingly brilliant

[Linked Image]

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.

[Linked Image]

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.

[Linked Image]

Of course, at £810,000, it is also jolly expensive, but when you look
at the history of its development you’ll discover it’s rather more than just a car . . .


It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, 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.

[Linked Image]

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 ******* 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.

[Linked Image]

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.

[Linked Image]

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.

[Linked Image]

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.

[Linked Image]

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
Rating Five stars
Verdict Deserves 12 stars. Simply as good — and as fast — as it gets

Google Ads
#97912 2nd Dec 2005 10:14am
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Now see how they put it together in detail

Modified - Performance & Technical Click Me

#97913 2nd Dec 2005 11:14am
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i was readin about this the other day in the dentist, they said that if a mclarren f1 was to go past it at 100 miles per hour and the buggatti floored it from 0 mph, then the buggatti would reack 200 mph than the mclarren f1


what a super car even with a 100 mile and hour head start it would still kick another really well known super cars ass.

im in love


Uncertainty or not knowing causes depression, Im happy because I know I'm going to die one day!
#97914 5th Dec 2005 12:52pm
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Its just toooooooooooooooooooooooo fast.cant wait til its on TG next week.Could run more boost tho dont u think? doh doh doh

Wondr how many of those engines are gonna melt before xmas?


[Linked Image]
#97915 5th Dec 2005 12:57pm
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18psi is already very high for a std car eek

Most cars, std, run 10ish psi with very few running more than 15psi (1BAR)

If anything, I would have thought 18psi to be very high, especially considering the size and torque the engine.


What If There Were No Hypothetical Questions?
#97916 5th Dec 2005 1:11pm
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still fast though eh stu smile

#97917 12th Dec 2005 12:34am
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Had to reserve judgement until i saw top gear. **** me is all i have to say.


And VW are LOSING over £4m every time they sell one of these?!! eek

#97918 12th Dec 2005 11:07am
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+ £100 to fill the tank.
Max Speed for only 12 mins then its empty doh
As it costs the best part of 5 million to build.

Simply amazing.

#97919 12th Dec 2005 10:27pm
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this isnt a car as we no them. this is pushing the boundries further than any1 will dare 2 go again for atleast annother 50 years!!!


ve vill not stop untill ve go sidewayz!!!!
[Linked Image]
Check out My Members Car Profile : Click me watch this space for a bavarian beast!!!!
#97920 14th Dec 2005 3:01pm
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heres a small vid of it clicky

#97921 14th Dec 2005 4:27pm
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60 - 100 - 120 - 150 - 180 - 210 "wurrro thats fast"

Nice find,
yeh its a little brown portion off a shovel.

That has to be the new dream car?

#97922 21st Dec 2005 12:09am
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Did anyone see it on tonight's Top Gear? omg eek

#97923 21st Dec 2005 12:13am
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You mean the repeat of the one a week ago last Sunday? Yeah i saw it, amazing.


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