Showing posts with label BUGGATI VERYON. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BUGGATI VERYON. Show all posts

Thursday, 7 June 2012

Latest Bugatti Car Models | Latest Bugatti Price List





Bugatti was founded in Molsheim, then Deutschland, today Author as a manufacturer of postgraduate execution automobiles by Ettore Bugatti, an European immigrant described as an outlandish talent.The unconventional assort is legendary for producing both of the most unshared cars in the humankind, as good as whatsoever of the fastest. The newfangled Bugatti name failed with the reaching of Class War II, similar some high-end marques of the minute. The end of Ettore's son Jean was also a contributory businessperson. The society struggled financially, and free one endure imitate in the 1950s, before eventually state purchased for its aeroplane parts commerce in the 1960s. Today the canvass is owned by Volkswagen Radical, who bonk renewed it as a constructor of narrow creation Rubor Ettore Bugatti was whelped in Milano, Italia, and the automobile organisation that bears his figure was founded in 1909 in the townspeople of Molsheim settled in the Alsatia.

The companion was familiar both for the direct of force of its bailiwick in its automobiles, and for the artistic way in which the designs were executed, conferred the artistic nature of Ettore's lineage (his theologizer, Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940), was an consequential Art Nouveau furnishings and adornment creator). The friendship also enjoyed outstanding success in old Lordly Prix efferent racing, winning the oldest e'er Princedom overmuch entirety of art as they were mechanic creations. Engine blocks were pointer damaged to assure that the surfaces were so flat that gaskets were not required for protection, more of the exposed surfaces of the engine compartment featured Guilloché (engine overturned) finishes on them, and safety wires threaded finished nearly every holdfast in intricately alcoholic patterns.
 Kinda than leave the springs to the axles as most manufacturers did, Bugatti's axles were imitative much that the season passed though a carefully sorted passage in the axle, a overmuch more dandified solution requiring fewer parts. He famously described his monument competitor Bentley's cars as "the earth's fastest lorries" for concentration on durability. According to Bugatti, "metric was the rival. Only a few examples of apiece of Ettore Bugatti's vehicles were e'er produced, the most famous beingness the Type 35 Piano Prix cars, the "Royale", the Identify 57 "Ocean" and the Type 55 sports car.

On 2 Jan 2009, it was revealed that a rarified 1937 Bugatti Write 57S Atlantic had been launch in the garage of a somebody sawbones in England. Exclusive 17 of this exhibit were made, all by assistance.On 10 July 2009, a 1925 Bugatti Metropolis Typewrite 22 which had lain at the lower of Lake Maggiore on the confine of Svizzera and Italy for 75 geezerhood has been raised out of the water. The Mullin Museum in Oxnard, CA bought it at sale for $351,343 at Bonham's Retromobile occasion in Paris in 2010.

Throughout the creation run of about 7,900 cars (of which active 2,000 comfort subsist), each Bugatti interpret was designated with the prefix T for Identify, which referred to the chassis and route read.

Bugatti Eclips Veyron SSC ULTIMATE AERO-II Super Sport top speed record




The new SSC Ultimate Aero II has been projected with a well-defined purpose: to beat Super Sport Bugatti Veyron top speed record. The new American supercar SSC Ultimate Aero II, announced a few months as a result of the creative spirit of Jason Castriota, is shown in all its exuberance, thanks to an exclusive photo shoot produced by Top Gear, the automotive format of British BBC network best known among car’s enthusiast.
The record for fastest production car in the world (not prototype), belonged to the previous SSC Ultimate Aero I,  recently won by Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. New Ultimate Aero II Shelby Super Cars, to bring back the record at home, relies on a 6.8-liter V8 twin turbo 1369 hp and lightweight carbon fiber shell that keep the total weight of the car within 1179 kg.
Designed by Jason Castriota, who now works for Saab, the SSC Ultimate Aero II seems to have assimilate shapes of Maserati Birdcase 75th, Ferrari 458 Italia and P4/5. The engine of SSC Ultimate Aero II is able to push the car to a top speed of 443 km/h (12 km/h more than the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport) and reaches 96 km/h (60 mph) in 2 , 8 seconds. To support these extreme performance, the SSC Ultimate Aero II is equipped with carbon-ceramic Brembo brake system, active flaps that help in braking, traction control, ABS and power steering.

Monday, 4 June 2012

Bugatti Veyron by SkinzWraps | Latest Bugatti Price List


Bugatti Veyron by SkinzWraps 
Bugatti Veyron by SkinzWraps 


Bugatti Veyron is one of the fastest cars in the world and anybody could say that it doesn’t need any tuning improvements. Well, SkinzWraps and Epson printer Ink Company made a special design for this supercar.

I know that a supercar like Bugatti Veyron doesn’t have the smallest fuel consumption, but with the FastSkinz vehicle wrap material it will have improved fuel consumption and reduced emissions.

Monday, 21 May 2012

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport: First Drive

Vikram Gour drives the epitome of modern day motoring in the form of the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, and is smitten not just by the outrageous nature of the vehicle but what the brand stands for



It’s 0 to surrealism in nanoseconds in a car that boasts of a 1001BHP output and a mind numbing 1250Nm of torque. Add to that, its driven by a W16 engine that displaces 8 liters and requires 10 radiators and over 36 liters of engine and gear oil to keep it in tip top condition. A 100 litre fuel tank that offers an average range anywhere from 200-300 kilometers depending on how fast you go.  A seven speed DSG gearbox that allows the car to harness and propel power to the all-wheel drive system in order to take the car all the way up to over 400 kilometers per hour. At top speed the car is capable of finishing a tank of fuel in approximately 12 minutes! It’s unreal, absolutely impractical and outrageously absurd, but then again there is only one manufacturer that can and could have pulled this off, and that name is Bugatti.

Bugatti isn’t just a brand, it's an actual way of life, a thought that dwells within an auto enthusiast and to really understand the Bugatti Veyron, one must understand the name, the heritage and the principle behind such an outrageously awesome idea.

Heritage

The story starts with Ettore Bugatti, a businessman, an eccentric and to an extent a genius. Italian by birth, Ettore moved to the little town of Molsheim in the Alsace region of France, which was then actually a part of Germany to set up a car manufacturing facility. This location was chosen on the simple pretext that the land was cheap and so was labour. Thus in 1909 was founded Bugatti.

Ettore Bugatti took to making cars in a style that few manufacturers could match. His vehicles were known for their quality, high level of engineering and a level of detail that can only be described as artistic. In fact it is said that for Ettore, making cars was an art form and less of a manufacturing process. With his involvement in every stage of the process the end result was usually a work of art as each Bugatti that rolled out could be termed as a wonderful mechanical creation. Ettore's attention to detail and constant urge to push the design scope further resulted in many innovations that made Bugatti stand out from the competition. Prime examples include the hand scraped engine surfaces in order to do away with the use for gaskets, the forged axles that allowed the spring to pass through an opening in the axle in order to do away with the need to bolt on the springs to the axles and the constant tooling reduce weight and drag.





What all this resulted in was the fact that Bugatti customers were a happy lot who enjoyed the reliability and performance of their machines. This lead to a lot of owners taking their cars to the races and the Company enjoyed a great deal of success in the early years of Grand Prix racing with many thousand wins in a span of just a few decades. In the height of Bugatti's racing success it was probably the Type 35 model of 1924 that won the most races. In fact that car is touted to be the most successful race car of all time!  Though the accolade list is endless and people have written books on Bugatti's motor racing success, the races that stand out include the win at the first ever Monaco GP, the numerous wins at the France GP and of course the culmination of this illustrious motor sport career at the 1939 24 hour Le Mans race, where Jean Pierre Wimille and Pierre Veyron piloted a Type 57C to victory lane.



1939 also marked the year that Ettore lost his son Jean Bugatti in an accident while testing the Bugatti Type 57 'Tank' race car near the factory in Molsheim. This loss obviously slowed Ettore down a bit, however it was World War II that took the final toll and the factory premises were destroyed and Bugatti lost control of the property. Ettore had a plan to shift the factory closer to Paris during the war, but that never materialized and Ettore finally passed away in 1947. With Ettore gone, the company just went downhill. Ronald Bugatti tried his luck in the 1950s to no avail and finally the company ceased to function.  

Finding a new home

It was in 1987 that the Bugatti name surfaced again in the automotive world. An Italian entrepreneur by the name of Romano Artioli had acquired the brand and the company was christened as Bugatti Automobili SpA. A new factory was set up near Modena in Italy and by 1989 the plans for a new Bugatti were presented and consequently the first completed car was named Bugatti EB110GT and according to the company it was the most technically advanced car ever produced in its time. The EB110 was witness to some illustrious owners however when the company looked at entering the US market, it was unfortunately badly timed as the market was in a recession at the time and finally the company had to close its doors by late 1995. In 1997, Dauer Racing, a German manufacturer, bought the EB110 license and remaining parts stock in order to produce just five more EB110SS units before selling the factory. The true revival of Bugatti began in 1998 when the Volkswagen Group purchased the rights to the brand. 


Brand revival and the birth of the Veyron

The then Chairman of Volkswagen AG, Ferdinand Piech was adamant on building a Bugatti in the same manner that Bugatti's were originally built. To do so, he insisted on moving back to Molsheim, Alsace in France to set up the workshop there.  The company purchased the 1856 Château Saint Jean, formerly Ettore Bugatti's guest house in Dorlisheim, a small locale near Molsheim, and began refurbishing it to serve as the company's headquarters. The original factory was still manufacturing airplane parts for a company named Snecma, and they didn’t want to part with the facility, so Volkswagen decided to build a new factory next to the Chateau. This facility was finally inaugurated in 2005.  That's it on the real estate front, however on the vehicle production plans Volkswagen commissioned ItalDesign to come up with an up market coupe under the code name EB 118. This concept was followed by the EB218 touring sedan in 1999 and in the same year Bugatti also showcased the 18/3 Chiron, a sports car that had an 18 cylinder engine laid out in the 'W' configuration. The final concept, namely the EB 18/4 GT was designed by Volkswagen and showcased at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1999. All these concepts had one thing in common and that was the W configuration 18 cylinder engine. This was the first ever W configuration on a passenger vehicle and Volkswagen was adamant on taking this W engine layout forward. 





All this experimentation, if you can call it that, finally culminated in the project known as the Bugatti EB 18/4 Veyron. Project work began in late 1999 and under the leadership of Ferdinand Piech who wanted to build a true Bugatti and in 2000 he announced to the world the final concept that would go into making a production car. This machine marvel was christened as the Bugatti Veyron 16.4.  During development, Volkswagen had done away with the idea of an 18 cylinder engine and had settled for the 16 cylinder W layout engine, basically a combination of two V8 engines connected at the crank that would generate over 1001 brake horse power and would be the fastest and most expensive car ever. The production ready car was set to roll out in 2003, however Ferdinand Piech was up for retirement and the new Chairman,  Bernd Pischetsrieder sent the car back to the drawing board in order to make a number of changes. It was in 2005 that the first production ready Bugatti Veyron rolled out of the new plant and the world has never been the same since.

Named after the Pierre Veyron, the Le Mans driver in 1939 who won in an original Bugatti, the Veyron epitomizes everything that the brand stands for. It’s a work of art, it's powerful and fast and there is nothing like it on this planet. Incidentally the inspiration to make such a car was a throwback to the Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic, which in its time was the fastest car that could peak over 200 kilometers per hour. In today’s day and age when a hatchback can touch 200 km/h it was time to take the level up a notch and who better than Bugatti to do it with a car that has been recorded to cross the 400 kmph barrier! Never is such a car going to be repeated and if you ask the blokes at Bugatti why is it that they did it and nobody else, the answer comes as simply as the fact that this could have only been achieved by Bugatti for such a car needs a lot of support. Bugatti had Ferdinand Piech’s vision and passion, a heritage to build upon and a large conglomerate like Volkswagen AG to provide the allowance for such extravagance. Logic has it that most car companies spend millions in developing race cars to showcase their technical prowess, the Bugatti Veyron is a driving testament to the prowess of the Volkswagen Group and how! Despite criticism, the car was born and the company only intends on making 300 Veyrons and an additional 150  Super Sport models. It’s as elite as elite can get on four wheels and getting a chance to even sit in one of these cars is about as good as winning the lottery.


Without too much of a struggle, I had managed to ease my 6 foot 2 inch frame into the confines of the Veyron’s driver seat. For a car that is 4462mm in length, 1998mm in width and 1204mm in height, it is a bit of a struggle for tall people, but once you are in and buckled up the Veyron feels pretty functional. Nothing on the interior boasts of extravagance, yet in its own way it is opulent. A point in case being the fact that the snug fitting racing seats are manually adjustable only! Functionality is key to such sports cars and every little measure to save weight has been addressed. Believe me, you won’t miss the seat adjust buttons on this car. Having said that, fit and finish is excellent and the finest of materials have been used to lay out the 2 seater cabin space including the fine touch of an 'EB' logo embossed between the two seats.

The exterior skin is also a work of art for its not very Sports car like in design. There are no large air intakes, no wings and not too many ducts in sight. The Veyron's chief designer was Hartmut Warkuss, and the exterior was designed by Jozef Kabaň of Volkswagen. The adaptation of the horseshoe grille up front and the flowing style that the Veyron distinctly presents is true craftsmanship. In fact it makes the car look bigger than it really is. Images don’t do justice to the size of the car, in fact you would expect it to be huge, however to give you a measuring scale, the Veyron is just about the same length as the current generation Honda City sold in India. 

Fire up the 8 litre W 16 cylinder engine that boasts of 64v DOHC layout with four turbochargers and a total of 10 radiators and all you hear is an aircraft engine like whine. If you happen to be outside the car, then it's a low burble, however inside its rather silent, despite the engine being located right behind your head. Accelerate. In this car, acceleration is everything that describes it. The surge of power sent to the four wheels through one of the most refined all wheel drive systems just launches this car forward at a pace that most probably matches a fighter jet, for commercial airliners feel a lot slower than the Bugatti Veyron. It’s plain brutal power being unleashed and within 2.6 seconds you’ve reach 100kmph. Keep the pedal pressed and you are likely to be traveling at speeds that F1 cars drive at within a couple more seconds. Having said that, Bugatti has installed a special lock in order for owners to switch on the ability to touch the 400 plus top speed. I wasn’t going to get a chance to unleash that amount of craziness on the streets of Molsheim, however the sheer adrenaline rush that the car provides while accelerating away from standstill proved to be enough of a demonstration as to its abilities. 





Incidentally, and the part that most people don’t like to hear about the Bugatti Veyron is that it can also be driven very comfortably at 'normal' speeds. Driving around town at 50 km/hr or cruising down the freeway at a 110 km/hr isn’t a task and the driver is not fighting to keep the engine in check. It’s here that you realize that all that power is absolutely in your control to tap. You want the car to just drive around lazily in town-she’ll do it, and just in case you wish to smoke that McLaren F1 that passed you, guess what, you can do that too! Anyways, I am no owner of the Bugatti and I was not going to waste my drive puttering around town, so I headed out to hills in order to see what this 1888kg piece of metallic marvel can do around bends.

As I thrust the accelerator pedal towards mother earth, the Veyron unleashes its distinct airy scream within the confines of the cabin, my sunglasses slide off my head just from the burst forward and within seconds I am about 180 kmph and heading straight for a sharp left turn, I ease of the gas, get on the brake and guide the car through the bend at an easy 90 kmph. That was too easy I say to myself, this baby can handle a lot more than that.  So, on the next turn I push even harder and guess what, the Veyron takes it without even a squeal from the wheels. There is almost no body roll thanks to the stiff suspension and the feeling of going around corners is a very lateral experience. Where other cars would have required a master driver to take corners at such pace, I, a novice, was doing it in style without a worry in the world. Ok, I also knew that a Bugatti Veyron can come to a halt from 100kmph in just about the same time it takes to get up there, and control as well as steering feedback is just out of this world, but the car demands respect like no other for it’s a true blooded engineering marvel.




A case study on the epitome of car engineering fitted with an internal combustion engine is what the Veyron is. Everything about it works in unison to an extent that you as a driver are left wondering just how much more could this car actually take if say a professional drove it? Answering my question was none other than Bugatti's official test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel, a former F1 driver, an avid racer and also the record holder for driving the fastest car in the world.  Pierre is probably the best person on the planet to explain the Veyron and its versions to you, and in his typical style he elaborates on how each component is built from the highest grade materials, how the tyres are specifically designed for Bugatti Veyrons and that level of top speed. How the 4 turbochargers work in unison and the various elements that keep the car on the road at such high speeds. Unlike most sports cars that have a front air intake, the Bugatti Veyron is pretty much sealed up front, so creating the cooling system was an innovation in itself. The result is that there are many attributes to a Veyron, and if individually looked at, you might not understand it, however the answer is actually simple, just like the original Bugattis, this car is a work of art, and if you are to study it, you will be hard-pressed to find imperfections for everything comes together in order to create this fine masterpiece.

Incidentally it is Pierre who holds the record for piloting the world's fastest car to a top speed of 431 kilometers per hour in the Super Sport Version of the Bugatti Veyron.



Built out of sheer passion, I doubt any other car manufacturer will ever attempt to make a car as outrageous as the Veyron. From the lavish use of carbon fiber in the body to the magnesium and titanium alloy nuts and bolts, the Veyron boasts of the highest quality of materials for handling such power requires materials to withstand the pressures that are thrust upon them. The transmission has a shift time of less than 150milliseconds and has been developed and supplied by Ricardo, England. The car utilizes the Haldex Traction system and the tyres are special Michelin PAX run flat tyres that cost a cool 5,000 Euro to be replaced! A regular service usually costs 10,000 Euros and most customers usually get their car back to Molsheim for service, no matter where they are in the world.

No matter how long you spend with the vehicle, you will be in awe of this creation. It’s robust, outrageous, highly impractical yet the desire to own one has got to rank at the top of your wish list. For those who want more, there is the Super Sport version which incidentally churns out 1200 bhp and 1500Nm of torque and goes up to a Guinness record certified 431 kmph.

What’s more? Bugatti is coming to India and though a select few will ever get to own this legend, us mere mortals can rejoice in having the opportunity to site one on our city streets in the near future. And before I forget, the Veyron will most probably be priced upwards of Rs. 17 Crore, ex-showroom, New Delhi, and the Super Sport will have a price tag in the region of Rs 23-25 Crore, ex-showroom, New Delhi. As a parting line, I request you to follow this one instruction. If you ever come across a Bugatti Veyron or Super Sport, please, for the love of God, don’t ask the owner "Kitna Mileage Hai?"

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport launched in India!

World's fasted car, the Bugatti Veyron gets launched in India and can be bought at Rs. 16 Crore onwards.



Yes, the big bad boy of motoring is finally here. The world’s fastest fully street-legal production car can be yours for Rs. 16 crore onwards! It's one of the most desirable cars in the world and why not – with 1001 bhp pumping out of its 16 cylinder, quad-turbocharged engine, the Bugatti Veyron has been the fastest production car on the planet. Even after the SSC Ultimate Aero beat the original Veyron to claim the title, Bugatti then came up with the Veyron Super Sport – 1200 bhp of power that decimated any of the competition! Enough of the history lesson – but the big news is that the Veyron is now in India! And we’re not talking about grey imports. It’s officially here! Jaws dropped and hyper ventilations put aside, Bugatti has launched this exquisitely crafted piece of machinery through Exclusive Motors – the wonderful guys behind the fully legal Lamborghini line up available in India as well.


The Veyron that will be sold in India through Exclusive Motors' showroom in New Delhi, is the 16.4 Grand Sport – yes, the same car that Vikram Gour drove in Italy a couple of weeks back. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Satya Bagla, Managing Director, Exclusive Motors said "We are pleased to launch Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport in India; the car is a modern statement of ultra luxury, speed and extraordinary style. We have introduced this car in the Indian market for the super premium luxury and sports car aficionados. We are thrilled with the launch of the Bugatti and are confident that the car will receive an overwhelming response from the customers of luxury. The model is a pure evidence of the brand's technological expertise. This hand crafted car is sure to provide the Indian audience with an unparalleled driving experience." Present at the launch Mr. Julius Kruta, Head of Tradition, Bugatti Automobiles SAS said, "Indians have always been great car enthusiasts, they know a lot about cars, so we are sure that they will appreciate the uniqueness of this car."




Great news this as far as the Indian automotive enthusiast is concerned and before so many of you go on commenting about the lack of roads and space and infrastructure and what not in India to drive this car – who really cares! Because if you want one of these beauties in your garage you're going to have to shell out an awesome Rs 16 crore for the base version – optional equipment and add-ons will obviously cost extra!

Friday, 18 May 2012

BUGGATI Grand Prix



 

Pierre-Henri Raphanel is a craggy faced French guy who has crow’s feet bordering his eyes. Perhaps it’s just the amount of time he spends in Veyrons, but they look like speed lines. When he isn’t driving all carbon fibre Veyrons to impossible velocity, or driving them to tune up the handling he’s usually demonstrating the car to prospective customers. Customers who have entire banks in their pockets. And to wide-eyed journalists like me.
His spiel is tremendous too. He explains with practiced eloquence for instance that the Veyron required three things to come together precisely. It needed someone with a vision - enter Ferdinand Piech. It needed a company with pockets deep enough to afford a project of this scale, complexity and expense. Piech had Volkswagen. And it needed a brand that had the history a car like it would need to be recognised as more than a powerful engine in a chassis. Which it found in Bugatti. That this confluence is impossible, unrepeatable. That’s why there will never be another Veyron-like automobile.
The other star in Bugatti’s people line-up is an unassuming man named Julius Kruta. Kruta is an automotive historian but is modest to the point where he will rattle off a museum’s worth of car history from memory. And you won’t notice how effortless his knowledge is in expanse and depth until you realise that he appears to know not only all the nuggets of information you’ve looked up earlier, but also adds to them the little details. Sometimes it feels as if he sat for high tea with Ettore Bugatti on a regular basis. The man is an author of gigantic volumes on auto history. All of which are impossible to purchase because they’re all sold out. And Kruta, being himself, blames a short print run rather than take credit. Kruta’s superb one-liner is, “Ettore wasn’t meant to be an employee. He was meant to be a boss. When hired by a lorry company, Bugatti spent his days sketching fast cars. There was little his boss could do.”
The other stars in the Bugatti show are the brothers Schlumpf - Fritz and Hans. They were utter, besotted petrolheads who also ran a successful textile business. It’s perhaps ironic that it was India’s emergence as a textile power that led directly to their ruin, remarks Kruta. But in better times, they resolved to buy every single Bugatti ever made. They told their suppliers to keep an eye out for old cars all over Italy and Europe and buying cars here and there for small pittances, amassed a collection that is deeply impressive. And valued at over ₨312.43 billion euros today.
The 580- car collection includes all manner of exotics, including an unrivalled 120+ Bugattis. They have two of the three Bugatti Royales - the only other one belongs to Bugatti themselves. They have two of the only Silver Arrows outside Mercedes-Benz, a full-on racing SLR300 and much more. The Schlumpf Museum in Mulhouse, close to Molshiem is so large that it’s easy to forget that this was the work of two men.
Pierre-Henri continues his spiel. We’re driving at about 140kmph, illegal already in seventh gear. And he says, “We’re using just 50 horsepower. That means we have another 950 in reserve.” I lean over and crane my neck to see the meters. He’s been waiting for this. The speed lines deepen, a smile breaks out and the Piloti Officiale of Bugatti plants his driving shoe into the carpet. The accelerator pedal is well sandwiched. And I’m stuck. The acceleration is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. In sheer force terms, The g forces lock me into my seat, neck craned and all. It’s not until the car rockets past 250kmph that he lets off and I straighten my neck out. It took barely an instant to do this. Raphanel then demos the most evil brakes on the planet. You almost hear the blood sloshing in your head as it slams, first against the back of your skull under acceleration. And then pooling at the tip of your nose when he starts to brake. A more scarlet demonstration of the law of inertia, I have never seen. He reminds me with a beaming smile that this is fully functional street car and pulls over.
Then it’s my turn in the driving seat. For the scariest, most thrilling half hour of my life. We roll off, I wear the Veyron like a borrowed Armani suit for an evening at the awards - gingerly. My apprehensions are allayed quickly. The Veyron is incredible easy to trundle around in. Hell, it even seems to absorb the bumps in the road like a normal car might be expected to. That, Raphanel points out, is part of the charm of the car. The test phase included rush hour runs to ensure nothing overheated and there are, evidently, customers in Germany who think nothing of clocking commuting miles on their Veyrons regularly.
But I’m not here to commute, I’m here to scare the bejesus out of myself. So as soon as I hit the motorway and receive the nod from the man, I plant the throttle with intent. Acceleration in the Bugatti is unreal. The noise, for instance, is not mechanical, it’s all air. The sound of air being tortured, routed (both in the sense of defeated and channelled), torn apart and consumed. The intakes sit just over your head. It sounds like an Airbus started up just behind your shoulder. Engines running. The throttle planting is accompanied by an almighty sucking noise. The rest is a series of whooshes, roars and hums.
In the meantime, driver and passenger are first firmly pressed into the carbon fibre seat. And then they slowly begin to climb the seat backs under the fury of the immense engine. When I let off the throttle, I’m for a moment, properly giddy. There’s a wobble in my knee and tremors in my hands. Raphanel shrugs and says I didn’t actually floor it all the way. That there is still more power to be had.
Now I have rolled the throttle to the stop on a litre-class superbike occasion, so I have at least been here before. But the Veyron is just relentless. Whenever you plant the throttle, no matter what speed, revs or gear you’re in, it makes superbikes looks achingly slow.
Then just for kicks I shift it into Sports mode. Which, I firmly believe, is an inside joke that the engineers at Bugatti are playing on the world. The performance of this car is explosive. It brought 1001PS - Bugatti believes it’s closer to 1020, but the officially certified figure is the lower one - to production when 500PS was considered epic. And it isn’t a sportscar either. It’s a two-tone GT that just happens to have the Herculean might. 
As many have noted, the Veyron isn’t pretty. It doesn’t have that classical lilt of the Pininfarinas. In the pictures it looks less spectacular than it is as well. But when those twin intakes are vacuuming up whatever they possibly can, it matters not a whit. People cheer when Ferraris go by. People forget to when a Bugatti does. Note the singular reference - the Veyron is far rarer, far more exotic and a whole scale or two faster.
As I realised later, Pierre-Henri talked through most of the drive and the conversation wasn’t yelled over the roar of the humongous engine, its double digit radiators and its various turbos. The cabin at street speeds and small throttle openings is quiet. Normal autoroute driving is calm and even the ride quality is great.
Then you open the gates to hell and stare at the leering face of the brute as soon as you depress the accelerator pedal. On the autoroute, in fact, driving the Veyron is much like a video game. You keep imagining what would happen if you planted the throttle. No matter how far the next car is, this always ends up with the other car being destroyed.
Destroyed is a word a lot of experienced journalists use to describe formerly superb-handling coupes that have recently had their roofs removed. The Grand Sport, on the other hand, has lost its roof, but nothing else. Bugatti has employed (still more) carbon fibre to restore the chassis stiffness and handling to its full glory despite the loss of the roof, a  critical structural element. Bugatti say that the top speed is the same and the acceleration is exactly as fierce and astounding as the older, roofed car, despite the slightly increased weight. However, for safety’s sake, with top off, you can only hit 347kmph. The roof itself is a la targa - you simply remove the panel and let the sunshine in. There is, it goes without saying, no space to store the panel in the car, so it’s topless, but one moving, not convertible. To take care of stray showers, Bugatti has included a cloth roof, which they charmingly refer to as an umbrella, so your expensive bouffant remains in place.
Of course we never got to drive with the top down - it wasn’t sunny enough to guarantee a dry day. Kruta later smiles and says that driving the Grand Sport with the roof on is not the full experience. With the roof off, it’s a fighter jet, afterburners howling, sitting just over your shoulder.
The problem with the Veyron is that the intensity of the engine overshadows just how well-rounded a car it is. Sirish punted the car about on mountain roads near the factory over two years ago and he came back singing. This is despite everyone at Bugatti re-iterating at every step that the Veyron was not a Lambo-bashing, Ferrari-baiting supercar. That it has no racetrack intent. But a 2-tonne go-kart, is how Sirish describes it. Which it really is. It’s flat, sticky and blazing quick around corners. Behaviour is impeccable and in feel, more early-30s than bashful early-20s in nature.
But the very nature of the car means that owning a Veyron is a considerable exercise. Read Sirish’s article from two years ago (or at overdrive.in) and you’ll note quirks like replacing tyres and rims at 15,000km and so forth. The Veyron may look like it will earn more frequent flyer miles than you - they can only handle the tyre-rim bit at Molshiem - but it’s such an epic automotive experience that if I had the unfathomable riches that the average Bugatti buyer has, I wouldn’t think twice. You can, of course, buy the Grand Sport in India starting at Rs 16.5 crore. Or the even more hardcore Super Sport for a mad Rs 23 crore.
Why? Because there will never be a street car that will do the straight line like the Veyron does. That I summitted - without much effort on my part, I’ll admit - an automotive peak. I didn’t earn a Veyron. But I did floor it.



























Sunday, 13 May 2012

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse coming in Geneva Show

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse

Bugatti will unveil their 1217PS, 1500Nm Grand Sport Vitesse in next month’s Geneva Motor Show. The new Vitesse (French for speed) mates the 16 cylinders, 8-litre, quad turbochargers and ten radiators of the Veyron Super Sport with the convertible stance of the Grand Sport. To support the increment in power, Bugatti have modified the chassis of this car. Bugatti says that they have enlargened the intercoolers and turbochargers to bring about the power hike from 1015PS of the Super Sport version.

Bugatti claims that the Vitesse will hit a top speed in excess of 400kmph, making it the most powerful roadster of all times.

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse