The 1001 Horsepower Volkswagen - That'll Do

[hech54]

The Bugatti brand is one of the automotive industry's oldest marque's, and it has plans to make a public and very loud comeback with what could well be the fastest production car to ever hit the blacktop.

After what seems like years of teasing us with prototypes, mock sketches and the odd mention of a 1001 brake horsepower engine, the Bugatti Veyron is finally finished and will be sold to European markets late in 2006, and America and Asia Pacific territories after that.

While the Bugatti name is essentially Italian, Carlo Bugatti (father of Ettore Buggati) left Milan for France in 1904, and the marque has since built its cars in Molsheim, France.

Today, the Bugatti name is owned by Volkswagen, and the new Veyron supercar has also been styled by the Germans, yet despite this many of the die-hard Bugatti fans are still pleased with the car's appearance.

The Bugatti Veyron was formally announced as ready-to-go by Volkswagen in Monte Carlo recently.

The automaker also released offical images of the production car, which is slightly different from the Veyron shown at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show.

Volkswagen's goal was create the world's fastest production vehicle, something that could be driven on the road smoothly, or right-royally thrashed.

As such, one of the first hurdles the company faced, after developing a killer 16-cylinder engine, was to make sure it was aerodynamically sound.

To be able to reach speeds of more than 400km/h and still provide linear handling characteristics, the Veyron's body had to be sleek, but under the car and out of sight are the kind of ground effects more commonly seen on Formula One cars.

The most impressive aspect of the new Bugatti supercar has to be the 16-cylinder engine, which is located behind the driver (mid-mount) for a low centre of gravity, ergo improved turn-in and general handling characteristics.

Rather than try and squeeze 16 cylinders into a vee format, Volkswagen came up with a much more compact idea a few years ago - the 'W' configuration. In layman's terms, it's basically two 4.0-litre V8s sharing the same crankshaft, which makes it more compact than similarly sized V12s.

This gargantuan 8.0-litre W16 has four valves per cylinder - for a total of 64 valves - and together with a supremely sophisticated forced induction system, it belts out 1001 horsepower, or 736kW @ 6000rpm.

Just to put that in perspective, the Veyron generates more power than four of Subaru's potent WRXs put together.

Made of aluminium and magnesium (to keep weight down), the 7993cc W16 powerplant has four turbochargers and four camshafts, one for each bank of four cylinders respectively.

With a 9.0:1 compression ratio and variable valve timing, the quad-turbo system helps boost the car's low end, while providing a fatter torque curve at the same time: 1250Nm of torque @ 2200-5500rpm. The closest any other production car comes to this staggering figure is Mercedes' CL 65 AMG, which pumps out 1000Nm from its 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12.

The new Bugatti is fitted with a brand-spanking new 7-speed semi-manual transmission, which is operated by paddle shifters located behind the tanned leather steering wheel. On average, the twin-clutch system takes just 0.2 seconds to change gears, which is quicker (on average) than a traditional manual.

In the real world, this 736kW and 1250Nm combines with the 7-speed, all-wheel drive transmission and a 1600kg kerb weight to propel the Bugatti Veyron to 100km/h(62MPH) from rest in 2.9 seconds. That's very quick.

If that isn't enough, the four-wheel drive chunk of exotica will hit 300km/h(186MPH) in 14.0 seconds flat and can cruise at 400km/h with ease. The car is electronically limited to 400km/h (248 mph), though if de-restricted the 8.0-litre coupe would be capable of at least 450km/h, perhaps more if the final-drive ratio and fuel-injection mapping was tweeked.

To safely and reliably accelerate to 400km/h, the Veyron makes use of custom-designed Michelin tyres, which utilise what has termed the Pax system. The tyres are capable of dealing with the stress of 400km/h speeds, and they also have a special pressure monitoring system and run-flat capability, so that even in the event of a high-speed puncture, things won't go all pear shaped.

So, at the end of the day, Volkswagen has not only built one hell of a coupe, but it now also has bragging rights to the world's fastest car - and a direct swipe at the likes of McLaren's F1, Lamborghini's Murcielago and Ford's GT.

The Bugatti Veyron is expected to cost roughly €750,000.

The new all-wheel drive Veyron has more power than the current crop of Formula One cars, and with its massive 8.0-litre, quad turbo engine, carbon fibre-reinforced chassis and aluminium body panels, there are few cars out there today that combine such technical sophistication with a look that's quite unorthodox, yet strangely appealing.

[MackemX]

funnily enough I mention the Veyron in these 2 posts quoted below from the Concept car thread (I cut out the rest of the crap ) and there are some links for anyone interested in this car. I saw it on Top Gear a few months ago and Jeremy Clarkson loved it and his piece was both interesting and amusing 8)

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1483861#1483861

click the names to see the car page as there's some pretty cool images on that site

the Bugatti Veyron kicks ass as I saw it on Top Gear when Jeremy clarkson drove it. I did a search for 'top gear veyron review' in Google and I'm not sure if it's allowed to link to the Jeremy Clarkson review I can see so I won't but if it's on the Top Gear site somewhere I couldn't find it after a quick check. It well worth watching but I did find a story http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2005/12/stories/03/1.html but the site is real slow for me

Didn't they make that car just to make a point about performance as it cost far more to develop per car (£7,000,000?) than they are going to get back in sales?

Displacement 7.993 liter / 487.8 cu in
Power 1001 bhp / 747 KW @ 6000 rpm
Torque 1250 Nm / 922 ft lbs @ 2200 rpm
BHP/Liter 125 bhp / liter
Power to weight ratio 0.53 bhp / kg
Top Speed 406 km/h / 252 mph
0-60 mph Acceleration N/A (:edit: I know it's bloody fast in something like 3 seconds)

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1484064#1484064

I think my BMW 2.8i is probably the same as your Almera regarding bhp/litre but the greedy thing guzzles more gas . Did you see the Veyron was quoted as drinking something like 80 gallons an hour when you push it? That would cost you well over £300 an hour driving the damn thing or £5 a minute

I also just found this link looking for the Bugatti's fuel consumption which is interesting to those wanting to know more as I find that car amazing

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/bugatti1.htm

I know I just want to have a drive in a Veyron

WeedVender & BJ_M actually mentioned it 2 years ago as I didn't realise it had been out that long

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=850437#850437
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=855921#855921

on record -- the The McLaren F1 was officially the fastest street legal car for a standard production car up to 2003..

officially as of now:

1) Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (2003)
0 - 60: 2.9 sec [1st Tie]
Top Speed: 252 mph [1st]
Weight to Power Ratio: 3.5 lb/hp [2nd]
PRICE: $1,153,000

[Cobra]

The new all-wheel drive Veyron has more power than the current crop of Formula One cars

Really?!

F1 cars use very small engines (like, 1.0l), don't they? Tuned to run at very high RPM to provide a lot of power for their size. I don't think they'd develop anywhere near the power of an 8.0l W16, so they're sort of stating the obvious there...

[BJ_M]

bigger than that


The 'power battle' of the last few years saw outputs creep back towards the 1000 bhp barrier, some teams producing more than 300 bhp / litre in 2005, the final year of 3 litre V10 engines. From 2006, the regulations require the use of 2.4 litre V8 engines, with power outputs likely to fall around 20 percent.

Revving to over 19,000 RPM a modern Formula One engine will consume a phenomenal 650 litres of air every second, with race fuel consumption typically around the 75 l/100 km (4 mpg) mark. Revving at such massive speeds equates to an accelerative force on the pistons of nearly 9000 times gravity. Unsurprisingly, engine failure remains one of the most common causes of retirement in races.

[Doramius]

Does it have cup holders? If it doesn't have cup holders, I'm not buying it. :P

[MackemX]

no cup holder

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/popup?id=1405184&content=&page=8

[Doramius]

Damn Germans!

[MackemX]

looking at that pic you can't even stuff it anywhere nor anything else for that matter. Many a time I managed to squeeze my McDonald's cup somewhere

I could see myself putting spare change in the dials

[Doramius]

I wonder what it'd be like to eat a Big Mac driving over 200MPH. Fast Food is Mm Mm Good!

[BJ_M]

where is the ashtray ?

though i could screw my ipod over that clock