253 MPH and Still a Little Late

253 MPH and Still a Little Late (click here for the complete article)

The Bugatti Veyron is a superlative on wheels. But for VW, which spent six years and about half a billion dollars, it may be obsession run wild.

By Dan Neil, Times Staff Writer

PALERMO, Sicily — At 200 mph, the Bugatti Veyron pounds a beautiful, howling hole in the sweltering haze hanging over the motorway.

This, the fastest production car in the world, is broad and low, an enameled ellipse in a spiffy two-tone paint scheme. By comparison, its now-vanquished supercar rivals, such as the Ferrari Enzo and McLaren F1, are all edges and blades and angles, like F-16 fighter planes or Japanese stunt kites.

A superlative on four wheels, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is not only the world's fastest production car but also the most expensive: $1.25 million before taxes and richly deserved gas-guzzler penalties. Also, the most powerful: Its 8.0-liter 16-cylinder quad-turbo engine produces about 1,000 horsepower and churns it through a high-tech all-wheel-drive system and gob-smacking foot-wide tires. Also, the quickest: The Veyron accelerates to 60 mph in 2.1 seconds, faster than a Formula 1 car, but then it's just getting started. In 20 seconds — about the time it takes a fast reader to get through this paragraph — it reaches 200 mph. In 53 mind-blowing seconds, the Veyron reaches its marquee speed: 253 mph.

At that speed, the tires would begin to soften in about half an hour. Fortunately, at top speed, it runs out of gas in 12 minutes. "It's a safety feature," Wolfgang Schreiber, the Veyron's chief engineer, says with a smile.

Meanwhile, back at 200 mph, technical director Schrieber is urging me on. "This makes fun, doesn't it?" he asks.

The main autostrada of Sicily is not exactly glass-smooth, nor particularly straight, and as I bend the car into a sweeping right-hander at about 205 mph, a flock of butterflies the size of vampire bats alights in my solar plexus. The suspension is working hard and I can feel the static of the tires coming through the stitched-leather steering wheel. I am very curious to see if the car will hold the line in the corner or slide off into the heavenly yonder.

When the car reaches 137 mph, hydraulics lower the car until it has a ground clearance of about 3 1/2 inches. At the same time, the wing and spoiler deploy. This is the "handling" mode, in which the wing helps provide 770 pounds of down force, holding the car to the road. This drag-limits the car to about 230 mph.

To go faster, drivers have to stop the car and activate the top speed mode with a special key in a lock to the left of the driver's seat. This lowers the car to a ground-skimming clearance of about 2 1/2 -inches and retracts the rear wing so that it just peeks out over the bodywork. At 250 mph, a little wing angle is all you need. At the same time, openings for aerodynamic tunnels built into the car close, creating a fully flat-bottom car.

The Veyron has a lot of other tricks up its carbon-fiber sleeve. When the brakes are activated at high speed, the rear wing tilts to 70 degrees, creating what is effectively an air brake — should the 15-inch carbon-ceramic disc brakes not prove to be enough. Here is a fun fact: In a panic stop from 253 mph, the Veyron comes to a halt in less than 10 seconds — hard enough to pull the sunglasses off your face.

Bugatti has said it will build no more than 300 of the cars, optimally 50 to 80 per year. There will be 20 dealerships worldwide, including O'Gara Coach Company in Beverly Hills. Ehren Bragg, president of O'Gara, says the dealership has four orders in hand. The down payment is $413,000, enough to buy six Chevrolet Corvette Z06s.

 

It is "only" £810,000 according to The Sunday Times (London):

Bugatti Veyron; Utterly, stunningly, jaw droppingly brilliant

P.S. Even though we do not have a "£" key, that symbol can copied and pasted from any other web page.