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www.QV500.com - Bugatti Veyron Part 4: 16.4 Veyron |
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After the most protracted development saga of modern times, Bugatti officially presented the production-ready Veyron at Molsheim on September 3rd 2005. Volkswagen chairman, Ferdinand Piëch, had announced Bugatti would build customer Veyron's way back in March 2001 at the Geneva Salon, promising it to be the fastest, most powerful and most expensive car in history. At the time it was thought production would begin in late 2003, but the project suffered a number of setbacks. Chief among these were keeping the car stable right up to 250mph and cooling the Veyron's complex 16-cylinder quad-turbo engine. Furthermore, being part of the Volkswagen |
Audi Group (VAG) meant Bugatti would have to meet the same safety and reliability requirements as any other VAG product. With development costs running tens of millions of Euros over budget, it looked as if Piech's ambitious targets would not be met, the initial launch date being missed and later postponed several times. Piëch retired as chairman of VAG at the end of 2003 and was replaced by Bernd Pischetsrieder. The new chairman quickly installed Thomas Bscher as president of Bugatti and he sent the Veyron back to the drawing board for substantial modifications to be made. The new car was officially presented in September 2005, ready for production. All the safety systems have been designed to cope with the Veyron's extraordinary performance, the single-piece carbon fibre monocoque scoring maximum points in crash tests. Full-time four-wheel drive is necessary given the prodigious output of the engine, an electronically controlled Haldex system usually distributing 30% of the output to the front wheels and 70% to the rear. It can send 100% to either end if the situation demands it. The suspension is fairly conventional in that it relies on a combination of double wishbones, springs, dampers and anti-roll bars. However, an interesting feature is a hydraulic system that varies ground clearance in three stages. Normally the bodywork sits five-inches off the ground and the rear spoiler is flush with the rear bodywork. At speeds between 135 and 230mph, the Veyron automatically switches to Handling mode. Handling mode can also be manually applied via a button on the centre console and drops the body down to 3.1-inches above the tarmac at the front and 3.7 at the rear. |
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At the same time, the rear spoiler extends into the airflow and deploys at an angle of between six and 26°. The third setting is known as Top Speed mode. It involves coming to a stop and while the car is idling, turning a floor-mounted key to the left of the drivers seat. This has the effect of closing the front underbody flaps, retracting the rear spoiler to a two-degree angle and further reducing ground clearance to 2.6-inches at the front and 2.8 at the rear. Thankfully, Bugatti have developed a few safeguards that will make it difficult to perform a top speed run on public roads. Once the driver has exceeded 35mph in Top Speed mode, should he or she either turn the steering more than 90° or |
| touch the brakes, the Veyron automatically reverts back to Handling mode. Braking comes courtesy of huge carbon-ceramic discs, these measuring 15.7-inches at the front (with eight-piston four pad calipers) and 15-inches at the back (with six-piston twin pad calipers). Pressing hard on the brake pedal at high speed has the effect of rapidly tilting the rear spoiler to an angle of 55° . Amazingly, the Veyron is capable of generating 2g of initial deceleration. The high geared steering benefits from variable power assistance while if you're too enthusiastic with the gas pedal, Bugatti have also fitted the latest generation electronic stability control (ESP). Lightweight alloy wheels are the widest ever to be fitted to a standard production car, these being shod with special Michelin PAX System run-flat tires capable of running at speeds in excess of 250mph. At the heart of the Veyron is a mid longitudinally mounted 72º W16 engine. Put simply, it's two slender 4-litre V8s sharing the same crankshaft. More compact than similarly sized V12s, this 8-litre quad turbocharged unit is the most powerful production road car engine ever used. Displacing 7993cc thanks to a square 86 x 86mm bore and stroke, it boasts four valve cylinder heads, dual overhad camshafts, four small turbos to minimise lag and a 9.3:1 compression ratio. All this equates to an unprecedented 1001bhp at 6000 rpm and 922 lb/ft of torque at 2200rpm . Transmission is via an innovative directshift dual-clutch DSG computer-controlled sequential transmission with seven forward gears. There's no clutch pedal, the gears being shifted either by F1-style paddles attached to the steering wheel or completely automatically. |
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Furthermore, the dual-clutch system means there's no interruption in power flow. Visually the Veyron remains remarkably close to the original 18.4 concept car shown way back in 1999. As you would expect, some refinements have been made and a number of safety features built in. For example, as well as providing the necessary downforce during high-speed travel, the rear spoiler acts as an air brake during emergency braking. The nose contains three separate radiators, one for the air-to-liquid intercoolers and two for the air-conditioning condensers. There are also transmission and differential oil coolers on the right side and a large engine oil cooler in the left |
side air intake. To ensure adequate cooling for the 16-cylinder engine, the whole thing is exposed to the elements and fed by a couple of distinctive snorkels finished in a contrasting shade to the bodywork. The Veyron's all-carbon fibre shell is normally supplied in a classical two-tone colour scheme, buyers being able to choose from just about any combination imaginable. Inside, the cabin mixes art deco styling with state of the art technology and exceptional craftsmanship. An oasis of fine leather, highly polished metals and carbon fibre trim, nice details include an output gauge calibrated from 0-1001bhp. This is housed in the main instrument binnacle. Mild complaints are the poor rear visibility (due to the back-end styling) whilst the think windscreen pillars have the effect of obscuring vision partway through some corners. By contrast, the steering is perfectly weighted to give great feel and there's enough space for drivers up to 6.7ft. Weighing in at 1888kg (a little less than expected), the Veyron's incredible specification translates into equally spectacular performance figures. Its top speed of 252mph has garnered most headlines, but even more impressive are the acceleration times; 62mph in 2.5 seconds, 125 in 7.3 and 187 in 16.7. They make the Veyron the quickest-accelerating production vehicle in history. A launch control facility can be employed by pressing a button on the centre console, applying the footbrake, flooring the throttle and then slipping off the brake. Even quicker than it goes, the Veyron stops, those massive carbon-ceramic brake discs being able to despatch all 252mph inside ten seconds. Production began in late 2005, each car coming with a €1m pre-tax price tag. 50 will be built each year and 300 sold in total, all of which will be left-hand drive. |
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