AUTOMOBILE

Bugatti Veyron's Top Speed - Strap In and Hunker Down
June 17, 2009
By James M. Clash

My goal was simple: I wanted to take the world's fastest production car, the Bugatti Veyron, to its top speed of 253 mph. After a year and a half of planning with Bugatti's staff and some heartbreaking postponements, I finally was to get my chance.

I would be the fourth - and final - journalist to try this stunt since 2005, when the Veyron was launched. Despite dozens of requests, just three journalists (from the British TV show Top Gear, Car and Driver magazine, and Germany's Auto Motor und Sport) had been granted the opportunity. Conspicuously, I would be the only writer from outside the auto industry.

That said, I'm not a complete driving neophyte, which probably had something to do with Bugatti's decision. In addition to attending a bevy of racing schools, I've driven an Indy car, Ruf Porsches, and Lamborghinis above 200 mph, without incident. But 200 is one thing; 250 mph is an entirely different, and mind-blowing, proposition. At that speed, you travel the length of one and a quarter football fields per second or, put another way, one-third the speed of sound.

Even if you secure the use of a Veyron, it is difficult to try this because of the multiple miles required to reach top speed. Most private tracks aren't big enough. The 7.8-mile circular track at the Nard proving ground in southern Italy - where Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and others test - is too bumpy, too windy, and has banking that scrubs precious miles per hour. The German autobahn, without speed limits on half of its highways, doesn't have a length of unobstructed straight road long enough to safely attain 250 mph unless - gulp - you try at night, when there's no traffic. (No, thanks.)

American superspeedways such as Daytona, Indianapolis, and Talladega, where racing cars surpass 200 mph, are less than three miles in length, with straightaways nowhere near long enough for the Veyron to reach 250 mph. Even if they were, their managers probably wouldn't be interested in taking a chance on potential lawsuits from a fatal crash. Indy and stock cars are built to safeguard their drivers in a very high-speed collision; a production sports car like the Veyron, no matter how well built, is not.

I met the Bugatti staff at Ehra-Lessien, the secretive Volkswagen test complex near Wolfsburg, Germany. It is not only big - thirteen miles around - but highly banked in the corners. Most important, Ehra is the only track that Bugatti has used for top-speed Veyron tests. A support crew of a dozen was on hand, including Bugatti engineering chief Wolfgang Schreiber, PR director Georges Keller, test racer Pierre-Henri Raphanel, and Ernst Pape, who manages the Ehra facility. ..

In all, six drivers were scheduled for top speed that day - five Veyron owners and me. Each owner had ponied up €30,000 (about $40,000) for the chance to become part of the "400 Drive" club, a select group who have reached more than 400 kph (249 mph). Each also had passed Bugatti's rigorous "Feel the Road" training program in Molsheim, France - site of the Veyron manufacturing plant.

Fewer than 8000 Bugattis have been assembled, all by hand, since Ettore Bugatti founded the company in 1909. The prestigious line includes racing cars from bygone eras (Bugatti won the first-ever Monaco Grand Prix, in 1929, and Le Mans in 1937 and '39) as well as the more recent EB line of production cars. But none are capable of the Veyron's speed, as are no other series-production cars on the planet. The closest is the McLaren F1, built from 1992 to 1998, which had a maximum speed of 240 mph. Even the newer Ferrari Enzo (217-plus mph), Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SV (213 mph), and Porsche Carrera GT (205 mph) pale in comparison. What sets the Veyron apart is a quad-turbocharged and intercooled, 1001-hp, W-16 engine that accelerates the car from 0 to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds and, get this, to 186 mph in just 16.7 seconds, according to Bugatti.

Volkswagen AG bought a financially troubled Bugatti in 1998 and then poured some half a billion dollars into developing the Veyron. "The car was not designed to be a big moneymaker," says PR man Keller, "but to put the Bugatti name back on the map with serious car enthusiasts." So far, the company has delivered about 200 of the supercars, more than seventy-five last year, but has yet to turn a profit - even with a current price of $1.6 million, before taxes.

The weather forecast for Ehra the morning of my test was foreboding. You need a dry track to run top speed, and showers were predicted. When I looked out the window of my hotel, Wolfsburg's Ritz-Carlton, at 6:30 a.m., the sky was overcast, but there was no wind - and no precipitation - yet. (If rain did arrive, the next opportunity probably would not be until the fall; the track is booked solid by VW Group testers months in advance.)

Once at Ehra, I signed a number of liability release forms, was briefed on track procedure, and was given a fitted driving suit including fireproof long underwear, shoes, gloves, and a helmet. All of the paraphernalia looked impressive and made for nice pictures, but we all knew that if anything catastrophic happened, none of it would do much good. ...

After a few laps in a red and black, Hermès-decorated practice Veyron, accompanied by Raphanel and reaching no more than 185 mph, I was ready for my big test. The clouds hung heavy, but still there was no rain. Time to go.

I climbed into the white supercar alone; there would be nobody in the passenger seat for the top-speed run. This unsettled me. For past 200-mph tests (except in the Indy car), I had a pro along for the ride. But at 250 mph, the risk is too great to unnecessarily expose another person.

Complicating matters, I was to travel clockwise around the track, unusual for me. On ovals in the United States, the preferred direction of travel is counterclockwise. That may not seem like a big deal, but when you try something this extreme, every little variation adds to your nervousness - especially when you're trying to stay calm.

I strapped on my helmet and buckled in. A slight fog had gathered on my glasses from my heavy breathing and the humidity. As Raphanel inserted a special key to put the Veyron into top-speed mode - lowering the wing and dropping the body to within a couple inches of the asphalt - he reviewed the procedure we had just practiced. I needed to paddleshift up to seventh gear at 125 mph, en route to the north corner, set the cruise control, then make my way into the outside lane.

In the corner, I would perform a series of downshifts at cones placed strategically on the track, still maintaining 125 mph. Once in fourth gear, I would wait for two cones near the end of the corner and, once there, floor it and hang on while the transmission automatically shifted back up to seventh.

To say I felt anxious at this point is an understatement. But part of the experience is exactly that feeling - that of the unknown. What would 250 mph feel like compared with, say, 200? How would the Bugatti handle, or for that matter, how would I handle it?

Once I gave it full throttle, the car lurched like a pent-up Doberman. The steering, smooth up to that point, became stiff; I had to muscle it to get onto the main straightaway and into the center of three lanes. Once I did, everything smoothed out remarkably.

After a few seconds, I glanced at the speedometer and, shockingly, it already was edging above 200 mph. Wow. I kept my eyes fixed on what seemed to be a narrowing road ahead and, after some more seconds, glanced down again. 240 mph. I'd never been anywhere near that speed in a car in my life, but this thing was somehow still accelerating!

A kind of tunnel vision took over. I stared so intently at the road that nothing registered peripherally. For an instant, I thought about what would happen if one of the Michelin tires blew - or if an animal bolted in front of me from the surrounding woods . . . or perhaps a bird darted from the sky. There was a rumor that the Germans had been hunting at the track during the days preceding my arrival, to reduce that very possibility. Earlier, I'd thought this was funny. Now, at 250 mph, it suddenly wasn't.

Up ahead, I saw the overpass and south parking lot where the photographers and the Bugatti crew were. I knew I must be near top speed, burning fuel at the rate of a gallon every 2.3 miles. But I didn't dare look again at the speedometer, just kept my eyes fixed forward. The car was incredibly stable, and it was relatively quiet inside - like driving in a silent movie ridiculously sped up. I had to suspend my disbelief that I was traveling so fast in such a surprisingly peaceful cockpit. But I can only imagine what it sounded like on the outside, with 1001 hp roaring by.

After flashing by the parking area, I kept my foot in it for a few more seconds to enjoy the sensation and then, as instructed, backed off the throttle and tapped the brakes to take the Veyron out of top-speed mode. The wing came up, the car slowed, and I felt, well, numb. I loosened my death grip on the steering wheel.

Back in the parking area, everyone was excited. As I exited the car, Raphanel hugged me. Keller gave me a 400 Drive plaque. My top speed was determined to be 407.5 kph - or 253.2 mph. Like a little kid, I asked some of the crew members to sign my driving suit, then waited around anxiously to see if the other drivers would beat the rain. Sure enough, all got their runs in, all above 400 kph.

Later, with Keller on the train to Molsheim for a visit to the factory, I confided that, as a New Yorker, I didn't own a car. The only time I drive is on the track. He didn't seem surprised until I told him that I didn't have a driver's license, either - it had expired the year before, and I hadn't yet renewed it. Again, this didn't phase Keller tremendously.

"OK," he said, "but for next time, you had better get one!" Then he laughed, and we clinked beer glasses and sped off into the dusk on a train traveling one-third the speed I'd driven earlier in the Veyron.

James Clash, a sixteen-year veteran of Forbes Magazine, plans to renew his driver's license soon. ...

_________________
Ce qui a été déjà inventé appartient au passé, seules les innovations sont dignes d'intérêt - Ettore Bugatti

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

_________________
Old name: D55L

Blowing the Roof off the Greatest Show on Earth
By Nick Hall, Contributor Email
Date posted: 06-23-2009

Edmunds – Inside Line

Bugatti's Olivier Thevenin gestures at us from the passenger seat and we come to a stop on a deserted, arrow-straight road somewhere in Sardinia. His serious look suggests he has something big to say.

"Now," he says. "Use all of the power — really. Then feel the brakes." As his was meant to be the voice of corporate reason during our drive of the 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, we could have kissed him.

We floor the throttle and the car simply takes off. Since we've got a quadruple-turbo 8.0-liter W16 behind us that pumps out 986 horsepower and 922 pound-feet of torque, we expect a battle of physics with the Haldex all-wheel-drive system and limited-slip rear differential that should leave the tarmac with emotional scars and end with the car off the road. But instead the Veyron simply leaves the vicinity like a bullet from a sniper's rifle.

The power meter on the instrument panel swings round and just for a second we are godlike, using the full force of the ultimate car.

And now it's got a removable targa-style top.

The Greatest Show on Earth
The engine of the 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport is just a collection of whistles, whines and whinnies at low speed, but now it suddenly finds its turbocharged W16 lungs and roars next to my head. The 100 km/h (62 mph) mark falls in 2.7 seconds and then 200 km/h (124 mph) arrives in just 7.3 seconds. With every flick of the shift paddles, the seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual transmission punches us forward and the W16 sucks a fresh gulp of air into those perfectly sculpted airboxes above my head.

Were there space, the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport would blast through 300 km/h (186 mph) in just 16.7 seconds. This is pure, unadulterated power. And with the roof removed and the engine now exposed and nestling right next to the luxuriously trimmed sport seats, it's an even richer experience.

Of course you don't just chop the roof off a 250-mph car. That's why the Veyron's carbon-fiber monocoque has been strengthened by reinforcing the B-pillars, door sills and the transmission tunnel, while there's a structural plate beneath the transmission. The doors are now made from carbon-fiber and a crash-protection beam of aerospace steel lies within. The engine's exposed airboxes are also reinforced so they'll provide rollover protection.

What makes this a convertible is the targa-style transparent polycarbonate roof. You'll also notice the Grand Sport's slightly higher windshield and the LED running lights.

The Car of Our Times
The exposed engine of the Grand Sport means that the one-dimensional mechanical roar of the coupe has been supplanted by a tapestry of W16 noises, as the sound of the fuel injectors and the four turbos join the fray of those perfectly engineered pistons at work. Every fiber of this grand construction that the cynics decried as an act of madness, every moment of the five years of agony that went into creating what could just be the best car of our lifetime, comes to the fore. This isn't just an exhaust note but instead a symphony from Bugatti's quad-turbo masterpiece.

The Grand Sport screams forward at a stupidly fast pace. Well beyond 150 mph and at a point when this is highly inadvisable, we stomp on the middle pedal with all the finesse of a drunken elephant as instructed and send the eight-piston front calipers slamming into 15.7-inch carbon-ceramic front brake discs. The car just stops. With only two almost undetectable moments of wheel lockup, the Veyron slams to an eye-popping, stomach-rupturing halt in a perfectly straight line.

And right here, when confronted by such transcendent engineering, the $1.9 million asking price for the 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport seems almost cheap. This is a car, but it's so much more as well. It is a defining moment in engineering, a landmark happening. We can barely resist the temptation to clap our hands, giggle and lick the window.

Topless Motoring
With the Grand Sport's transparent polycarbonate roof in place, the targa car will hit 253 mph, just like the coupe. Once you take the roof out, then top speed is limited to a mere 217 mph. If you get caught in a rain shower, the Grand Sport packs a carbon-fiber contraption that can be snapped into place (it's no more than a ridiculous umbrella, really), and then 100 mph is as fast as you can go.

There are three chassis modes to allow you to set your top-speed ambitions for the day. The standard setup is good for 137 mph. If you're going faster, the performance mode drops the ride height closer to the pavement and deploys the rear spoiler at an angle of 15 degrees. If you're driving while topless, the rear wing is deployed at an angle of 20 degrees to maintain the car's aerodynamic balance.

If ultimate top speed is your goal, then you have to use a special key to unlock the electronics before you start the engine, and the car drops practically to the pavement while the wing is trimmed out to just 2 degrees.

The Nature of Speed
We're here on sunny Sardinia to enjoy the view from an open car, although Bugatti might also hope that the island's twisty roads will encourage us to keep the machinery on the ground instead of in flight. It takes a special staccato rhythm to drive quickly, shoving hard on the gas and then a confidence lift before the next brow or bend. You drive this way not because this 4,387-pound car can't take the speed into the corner, as, in fact, you never think about the weight because the car handles with sublimely sensitive fingertip control, almost like a Lotus. You lift simply because you're traveling so damn fast. There isn't quite the feedback of supercars as we know them, but then that is the payback for such supreme control.

Only once did the Grand Sport slip wide on the way into a corner thanks to us braking too late and too hard, but once we were on the gas again, the all-wheel drive sorted everything out. This incident aside, there was not one corner on the island that ruffled the car's feathers. No matter what it encounters, the chassis simply hunkers down on its epically proportioned 265/680R20 front and 365/710R21 rear Michelin Pilot Sport Pax run-flat tires.

Naturally, overtaking is a cinch, as every single gap in traffic becomes a red carpet. Just twist the wheel, tromp on the gas and pass two, three, four, even 10 cars at a time. It is an all-enveloping feeling of superiority and nothing — literally nothing — can stand in its way. Other cars come blessed with monster power, but you cannot access it in the same way. This is a rocket that your old gran could drive quickly.

Enjoy the View
The 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport simply goes, turns and stops faster than you can imagine possible. You can't manhandle it; the thing is too damned good. When the Veyron comes knocking, your every preconception of fast cars goes into the bin.

And yet this car might be even better at low speed. We drove through the slow-moving traffic along the harbor in Porto Cervo and then into neighboring villages, places that would have ripped the nose off a Ferrari. The Veyron just glided through the potholes in the cobblestones and across fallen branches.

With the Ricardo-engineered dual-clutch automated manual transmission in automatic mode, the Bugatti is as easy to drive as a Volkswagen Golf. No jerking recalcitrance in the usual supercar style.

Automotive Royalty
While the Bugatti Veyron has been with us since 2005, this unique shape still has an incomparable impact. Kids run to wave, tourists pull out cameras, the super-rich look on thoughtfully and beautiful women suddenly seem interested.

As Thevenin, a former racing driver as well as a hired gun for Bugatti, smiles and waves at passersby from the right seat, we shrink a little behind the steering wheel, unused to the movie star treatment.

"Look," Thevenin explains. "Some of them don't know what the car is; they just know it is special. But when you are driving the Veyron and you go past a guy in another supercar — any supercar — you just look at each other. They know, and you know."

Deliveries of the 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport begin in July. And this has drawn 30 customers already for one of the 150 examples of this $1.9 million creation that are scheduled to be built. The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport is an automotive artwork and an engineering masterpiece the likes of which we will almost certainly never see again. It's the chance to feel like a bizarre combination of a Greek god and a giggling teenager, if only for a few seconds at a time.

Edmunds attended a manufacturer-sponsored event, to which selected members of the press were invited, to facilitate this report.

_________________
Ce qui a été déjà inventé appartient au passé, seules les innovations sont dignes d'intérêt - Ettore Bugatti

And I thought it was about a drive in the T253....

_________________
www.BugattiPage.com
www.BugattiRevue.com
www.BugattiAircraft.com

I have to wonder just how good a car really is when 001 is for sale with only 600kms on the clock ! It cannot have impressed the owner very much can it?