Bugatti Veyron full road test?

BrianD3

I haven't been taking much notice of the car mags recently. Have any of them carried out a full road test on the Veyron? As in detailed performance data and a full evaluation of the car.

I remember back in May 1994 when Autocar magazine did the "official" road test on the McLaren F1 including detailed performance figures. It was very exciting No top speed attempt due to lack of space on the test track. IIRC top speed was measured by another mag several years later on a track in Germany.

At the time, everyone though the F1's performance would never be bettered. But it's blown away by the Veyron

drdre

i havenot heard of the full test yet. but search it on google and you should find some reviews about it and also specs.

kevmac

Autocar did their first review but not road test two weeks ago along with Evo and CAR.

ds20prefecture

BrianD3 wrote:

At the time, everyone though the F1's performance would never be bettered. But it's blown away by the Veyron

Apparently not. The Veyron is great on an Autobahn, but is too heavy to be useful in, say, the Nurburgring.

spartacus93

Bit about it in todays Times http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1890873,00.html

Seanie M

spartacus93 wrote:

Bit about it in todays Times http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1890873,00.html

Great read, thanks for posting that link! A real eye opener! :eek:

fletch

spartacus93 wrote:

Bit about it in todays Times http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1890873,00.html

My choice quotes would be

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" that is shockin!

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.

unkel

spartacus93 wrote:

Bit about it in todays Times http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1890873,00.html

Thanks for posting, nice read. But:

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

I find that impossible to believe...

ds20prefecture wrote:

Apparently not. The Veyron is great on an Autobahn, but is too heavy to be useful in, say, the Nurburgring.

I doubt that. The Veyron is only about 15% heavier than the second fastest ever production car around the ring (Porsche 911 GT2)*. I reckon the extra power and torque of the Veyron should more than make up for the difference

Anyway, Piech, get that Veyron 'round da Ring

* The Porsche was the fastest until spectacularly beaten last year by a humble Donkervoort with a 4 cylinder 1.8 Audi engine. The Porsche took over again this year and was beaten once again by the Donkervoort

ds20prefecture

unkel wrote:

I doubt that. The Veyron is only about 15% heavier than the second fastest ever production car around the ring (Porsche 911 GT2)*. I reckon the extra power and torque of the Veyron should more than make up for the difference

Dunno where you're getting only 15% heavier, Unkel. I make it about 32% at best.
A bit of perspective:
1995 Porsche 911 GT2 - 1215Kg - 353bhp/ton
2003 Porsche 911 GT2 - 1430kg - 332bhp/ton
2005 Porsche Carrera GT - 1380Kg - 438bhp/ton
2005 Bugatti Veyron - 1890kg - 522bhp/ton
2001 McLaren F1 - 1060Kg - 641bhp/ton
2004 Ariel Atom 2 S/C - 456Kg - 658bhp/ton

Of course, bhp/ton does not equate to track speed - 1890kg is a hell of a lot of weight to push through the twisties, compared to say 1060kg.

* The Porsche was the fastest until spectacularly beaten last year by a humble Donkervoort with a 4 cylinder 1.8 Audi engine. The Porsche took over again this year and was beaten once again by the Donkervoort

In fairness, the donkervoort is a stripped out track car, much like the GT2. I'd like to see it against a well driven atom.

elexes

gimmie one let me take bits out of it that are only there for comfort . and ill drive around the ring for ya .. ill even pay you 1000 euros .

unkel

ds20prefecture wrote:

Dunno where you're getting only 15% heavier, Unkel. I make it about 32% at best

Dunno where to start replying to your points, ds20prefecture

I was comparing the 911 (996) GT2 (1440KG - pretty much the same as your stats) to the Veyron. I picked up the weight of the Veyron as 1600KG (not as good as the 1550KG initially intended) but no where near:

ds20prefecture wrote:

2005 Bugatti Veyron - 1890kg

Our argument stands or falls with the weight of the Veyron. If it is indeed 1890KG here then you sure have a point about it being too heavy. If it is a mere 1600KG here or here then I reckon my prediction about a good Ring time might happen

ds20prefecture wrote:

In fairness, the donkervoort is a stripped out track car, much like the GT2. I'd like to see it against a well driven atom.

Yep bring it on. Has the Atom been tested on the Ring yet?

ds20prefecture

unkel wrote:

Our argument stands or falls with the weight of the Veyron. If it is indeed 1890KG here then you sure have a point about it being too heavy. If it is a mere 1600KG here or here then I reckon my prediction about a good Ring time might happen

For sure. I read (CAR magazine) that the actual weight is closer to 2ton than 1890. I believe the target was 1600. I will continue the research, smithers.

I must admit I'm not a fan of the Veyron. It is a bit of a sledgehammer, seemingly lacking any elegance in execution at all. It is just a wall of horsepower, and the rest of the design seems to be the compromises involved in keeping the car on the road. For me it doesn't compare to the F1 at all in terms of engineering. And it only has 2 seats

A tuned 1000bhp Corvette has as much elegance as a Veyron, at 1/10th the price. It would also be a lot prettier.

impr0v

Fifth gear also have a road test of sorts, here. I didn't read the one linked to above, but they quote the same stat about the Mclaren F1 and getting to 200mph quicker, so they might perhaps be from the same source.

They also have a mini feature, here, querying whether there will ever be a faster supercar built.

EDIT: Just saw that the article linked to a few posts up the page is from Clarkson, so they most certainly aren't from the same source.

kevmac

Full AutoCar article from two weeks ago by Steve Sutcliffe - my favourite car journalist.

http://www.autocarmagazine.com/FirstDrive_Summary.asp?RT=217427

Highlights

Bugatti Veyron Coupe 8.0 2dr
Test Date 24/10/2005 09:00:00
Price when new TBA

Bug off





16 cylinders and four turbochargers for 8.0 Veyron
So picture this. A long, long stretch of dual carriageway, two cars simmering beside each other at one end of it; a McLaren F1 plus a weird, insect-like machine with four huge tyres, an absurd number of scoops and winglets along the flanks and across the roof, plus a distinctive white-and-red badge on the nose that reads ‘Bugatti.’

On the tail are written the letters E and B. On top of the engine, which has no cover and is exposed directly to the air for cooling purposes, are the numbers 16 and four; 16 cylinders, four turbochargers. Which, in case you were wondering, equates to 987bhp and 922lb ft.

Out of nowhere the McLaren’s rear tyres suddenly light up and, after an eruption of V12 engine wail and wheelspin, it is gone, accelerating towards the far horizon. After 3.2sec it hits 60mph, after 6.3sec it reaches 100mph and after 10sec it passes 135mph. At which point the Bugatti sets off.

There is virtually no wheelspin whatsoever: the Veyron is four-wheel drive. What there is is noise – a peculiar kind of signature that sounds a bit like two TVR Griffiths on full reheat plus an industrial-strength air hose, all at once. And to accompany this cacophony there is mind-bending, heart-stopping acceleration the like of which has never been felt before in a road car.

After just 2.46sec the Veyron reaches 60mph, and barely a couple of seconds after that it bursts into three figures. But the thing you’ll really struggle to get your head round, the statistic you’ll be boring your mates with for some years to come, is this; despite setting off 10 seconds after the McLaren – when the F1 is already travelling at 130mph – the Bugatti reaches 200mph at exactly the same time as the F1. Think about that. I have. And I still can’t quite fathom how rapid the Veyron must be to pull it off.

Actually, I can, because I’ve just driven it. For one full day around Sicily. And I can tell you it is sensational. Incredible. Unbelievable. Not merely the fastest and most powerful car the world has ever known but also, possibly, the best car ever.

And yet… I’m not 100 per cent sure it is the car I’d put in my all-time fantasy garage if literally it came down to a choice of just one. It should be, given that it costs £839,285 after tax, does 252mph and is technically the single most impressive car the world has ever seen. But for curious reasons there’s also something clinical about the mighty Veyron that separates it from perfection, something almost too refined about its delivery that prevents it from wrenching on your heart strings in the manner that, say, a Ferrari F40 might or, whisper it, a Lamborghini Murciélago.

We’ll come to why a little later, but for the moment let’s savour the Veyron for what it is; undoubtedly the world’s most advanced car and certainly its fastest.

What’s also changed along the way, however, is the brief behind the brief. Yes, the Veyron can achieve its legendary top speed of over 250mph, and yes it has 1001PS (although the real figure is higher than this; even on a hot day at high altitude the quad-turbo V16 develops a minimum of 1001PS; in perfect conditions it’s nearer 1100 (1085bhp). But despite the monumental engine and seven-speed gearbox, the engineering focus has shifted away from a pure sports car experience towards a more refined, all-round machine.



So what’s it like, driving the world’s fastest car? In truth it’s nowhere near as scary as it sounds, which is testament to what Bugatti wanted to achieve. When you climb aboard there are no particular physical contortions required, as there are in so many so-called supercars. You pull on the beautifully crafted aluminium doorhandle, open the door wide and, once you’ve negotiated the highish, thickish sill, insert yourself easily into the seat, crafted from carbonfibre and covered in thick leather.

First thing you notice is the beautiful centre console with its gorgeous turned aluminium fascia. To achieve the desired consistency of finish they had to use a highly expensive and rare blend of aluminium and magnesium and to fashion just the indicator stalks alone out of this material costs four-and-a-half grand a time. The Veyron, you soon conclude, is not a car VW will make money on, even at £800k a pop.


As ever there’s a starter button to press, and when you press it there’s the inimitable whirr of a supercar’s high-pitched starter motor, followed by what sounds remarkably like a big V8 firing up behind you. Except in this instance there’s a whole range of other noises to take in, including numerous whistles and fizzes from four big turbos and their collective wastegates. It is not, however, a bullying, all encompassing noise, not like it is in a Lamborghini or Ferrari. The Veyron announces itself to the world in a more subtle manner than that.

Move away and immediately you notice how smoothly weighted the steering is, how easy the accelerator is to modulate, how unbelievably fast and slick the gearbox is as it moves seamlessly up and down the ratios, and how calm the ride is; also how good the visibility is out of the back, and how bad it is out of the front.

Out onto the road and, let’s face it, everything else you do in this car is merely part of the process of waiting to see what happens, what it feels and sounds like when, finally, you weld the accelerator to the floor. During that wait I realized Bscher wasn’t exaggerating when he claimed the Veyron is as easy to drive as a Bentley.

It’s so soothing, so calm and so quiet I begin to wonder whether it really can do what they say it can do: namely, eat McLarens for breakfast. So as the road begins to open out I press the button marked ‘handling’ and the ride height drops a few millimetres and a huge wing appears out of the tail. A slightly deeper squeeze on the throttle in fourth gear and although there’s at least another half of the total travel to go there’s also a monumental whoosh from behind as, metaphorically, the Veyron reveals its fangs. Which, just for half a second or so, appear to be dripping with raw flesh and blood.

I back off pretty much immediately, astonished by what just happened. It takes a while to work it out what went on. Which was this; I pressed the accelerator maybe halfway to the floor in fourth at no more than 45mph and for no more than two seconds, at which point the Veyron took off like a Porsche 911 takes off when you dump the clutch at 7500rpm in first gear. Even now, two days later, I can vividly recall what that felt like. I couldn’t believe it then, and I still can’t quite believe it now.

When The Moment finally arrived it was so far beyond anything I’d expected I can’t really remember what happened, mainly because it happened so fast. We entered a motorway via a long slip road and when it straightened out I selected third gear, slowed to around 40mph, gulped and then buried the throttle. There was another huge swoosh from behind and a distinct sensation of being at the very end of something strong and elastic which then unleashed itself violently in the opposite direction.

I remember a flashing yellow light on the dash, indicating that the ESP had cut in momentarily as we went over a small bump in fourth gear on the other side of 130mph. And then there was a sense of relief as a corner appeared on the horizon, which meant I could back off and put a stop to this relentless, ridiculous thrust. I think I saw 185-190mph on the speedo having put my foot down for no more than 10 seconds.

Later in the day I found a great road up in the hills and realised that, despite weighing nearly 1900kg and having more power than any modern F1 car, the Veyron isn’t the liability you’d expect it to be on twisty roads. This car handles; really handles. And boy does it stop and steer incisively as well. If you really start to lean on it there’s a whiff of understeer engineered into the chassis to prevent the tail from taking over; eye-watering body control, too, which is astounding considering how much mass there is to keep in check. What’s most impressive, however, is the pure composure it has, even over difficult surfaces.

So why is it not my favourite car in the world? In many ways it is, and you have to admire Bugatti and VW for a) having the guts to conceive such a monster in the first place and b) for summoning the engineering nous and commitment to produce it. But in trying to be the best at everything, which it pretty much is, the Veyron fails in the one key area that has defined the great supercars over the years; despite the titanic performance and refinement it doesn’t grab you emotionally like it should. Not like an F40, F1 or even a Murciélago does.

Bugatti’s argument is that it isn’t meant to. The Veyron, says Bugatti, is the supreme technical creation – as refined on the road as it is relentless against the stopwatch – and therefore it isn’t concerned with matters as trivial as emotional involvement or a ripping exhaust note. And as an engineering achievement that means it will remain unrivalled for years to come, and possibly forever. But that doesn’t automatically make it the best supercar in the world. The most impressive, yes, undoubtedly. But the most memorable? Not for me. Not quite.

Steve Sutcliffe

unkel

kevmac wrote:

Full AutoCar article from two weeks ago by Steve Sutcliffe - my favourite car journalist

Thanks kevmac. Nice read

The skeptic in me feels that the 0-200mph stuff is probably mediafeed from VAG. I'd love to see someone independently verifying that data

ds20prefecture wrote:

It is a bit of a sledgehammer, seemingly lacking any elegance in execution at all. It is just a wall of horsepower, and the rest of the design seems to be the compromises involved in keeping the car on the road

Yes, it was always going to be a tour de force. A Ferry diktat that it had to do 400km/h. His desperate attempts to get into the history books although he must realise the other Ferries did better

Above article mentions the 1890KG weight (as you stated) and that is a lot. Although Sutcliffe was pretty impressed with the handling

This sums the Veyron up quite nicely imho:

the supreme technical creation – as refined on the road as it is relentless against the stopwatch – and therefore it isn’t concerned with matters as trivial as emotional involvement or a ripping exhaust note. And as an engineering achievement that means it will remain unrivalled for years to come

Indeed forget about triviality. If it breaks the production car record on the Nurburgring, that'll be good enough for me

Will it though - or will it ever try?

bmoferrall

Look forward to seeing this unleash its gazillion ponies on the M50 autobahn :v:
Or is 'Luke Lawlor' just dreaming
"1.4 gigaponies! Where am I going to get 1.4 gigaponies"

kevmac

Jeremy Clarkson last week's Sunday Times:

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1890873,00.html

Bugatti Veyron
By Jeremy Clarkson of The Sunday Times



Utterly, stunningly, jaw droppingly brilliant


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 you look at the history of its development you’ll discover it’s rather more than just a car . . .



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

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.

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.

Jeremy Clarkson

Page 1 || Page 2


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

TCP/IP

oh god give this to the stig and also a run on the gumball. Can not wait for this to be on top gear

hardCopy

bmoferrall wrote:

Look forward to seeing this unleash its gazillion ponies on the M50 autobahn :v:
Or is 'Luke Lawlor' just dreaming
"1.4 gigaponies! Where am I going to get 1.4 gigaponies"

Had to laugh at carzones nice finance options:

€20,588.32 over 60 months, €24,718.61 over 48 months, €31,636.53 over 36 months, excluding payment protection, based on a rate of 9%

merlinsmerryman

TCP/IP wrote:

oh god give this to the stig and also a run on the gumball. Can not wait for this to be on top gear

Next Sunday Top Gear. They are doing a race across Europe with Clarkson in the Veyron. Cann't wait:D

fletch

merlinsmerryman wrote:

Next Sunday Top Gear. They are doing a race across Europe with Clarkson in the Veyron. Cann't wait:D

Me 2!!!!

HashSlinging

Me 4!!

MrPudding

Stig Stig Stig.

MrP

TCP/IP

i can not wait a week i need to see this ha ha. Hope they dont bring it into any tight carparks

spartacus93

Don't forget this tomorrow night! Also the last two months Top Gear mags have a good bit about it if anyone's interested. Including a review of it by the creator of the McLaren F1.

merlinsmerryman

bmoferrall wrote:

Is 'Luke Lawlor' just dreaming

Hope not, my dad is friends with the guy so I might get him to bring me up and have a gander at it.

Big Balls

Good show this week.. amazing car. Nice blonde Nigel too

scojones

I just saw this car on Top Gear on bbc. I'm totally in awe, what a machine.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

The sound off it was unreal!

fletch

I have to say I was very disappointed with the feature....I don't really care it if it can beat a few people across Europe in a race staged purely for effect....I wanna know what the sensation of the speed is like, the in-gear acceleration figures....none of which was portrayed.....oh and why wasn't it driven around the track by sTig?

Ernie Ball

I was also disappointed in the feature. I wanted to see the stig do his thing in it. Also, we got far too many shots of Clarkson (as usual) and not near enough of the car. For example, the tyres on it are apparently the widest tyres ever put on a production car. I'd like to have seen them.

spartacus93

Ya Top Gear is turning into more Entertainment than facts and figures about cars. If they had all them figures and stuff I dont think as many people would watch it.

I enjoyed it anyways.

OfflerCrocGod

The power and speed of the car were not really shown.........that was disappointing why didn't they race it on the Autobahn!

Standard Toaster

http://movies.autoexpress.co.uk/evo/261005bugatti.mov

I think I let out a little bit of wee....:eek:

merlinsmerryman

That is one quick car.

spartacus93

bmoferrall wrote:

Look forward to seeing this unleash its gazillion ponies on the M50 autobahn :v:
Or is 'Luke Lawlor' just dreaming
"1.4 gigaponies! Where am I going to get 1.4 gigaponies"

Sold! (Apparently) :eek:

OfflerCrocGod

spartacus93 wrote:

Sold! (Apparently) :eek:

Oh my, I am looking forward to spotting it

johnny_rambo

I'm not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, but here's the link for the top gear show with the veyron race....
Bugatti Veyron on Top Gear (Full Show)

Very good episode!

unkel

ds20prefecture wrote:

Apparently not. The Veyron is great on an Autobahn, but is too heavy to be useful in, say, the Nurburgring.

Via another post here, I came upon this by chance

As I expected, it was useful enough (7:40) around the Ring. Faster than any production Ferrari or Lamborghini ever

You were right about the weight though. Had VW somehow managed (I know it's impossible) to stick to the originally intended weight, I reckon the fastest ever production car record would now be firmly in their hands

ds20prefecture

unkel wrote:

As I expected, it was useful enough (7:40) around the Ring. Faster than any production Ferrari or Lamborghini ever

Dude - I think these are GT4 lap times. I did a 7:50 in a modified Jaguar e-type in GT4, so it's hardly relevant.

unkel

ds20prefecture wrote:

Dude - I think these are GT4 lap times

d'oh

techguy

Is There any owners pics not just the mainline media ones?

drdre

hakko1872003 wrote:

Is There any owners pics not just the mainline media ones?

Here we go!!the beast is here

http://exoticspotter.com/list.php?page=0&batch=bt00083/bt00083_198670.jpg&model=all&make=all&location=all&frm=batch_listing