Bugatti Veyron

Satisfying the Need for Speed... and then some

There are certain cars on the road that constantly beg for a racing invitation. There are those that intimidate, making anyone who dares offer a challenge, think twice before engaging the opposition.

And then there’s the Bugatti Veyron, a car that strikes fear not only in the hearts of those who love a good challenge, but in the soul of its very own driver. With a 1,001-horsepower, 16-cylinder engine and a quartet of turbochargers; the Veyron isn’t just fast, it’s obscene. With speeds comparable to a Formula 1 race car, the Veyron accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds with an independently verified 253 mph top speed, making it one of the fastest production cars ever!

Though relatively unknown to most drivers, the Bugatti name is a legend in its own right, cementing its place in racing history by winning the first ever Monaco Grand Prix and twice taking the checkered flag at the 24 hours of Le Mans. Founded by Italian born Ettore Bugatti in the town of Molsheim, France in the year 1900, Bugatti’s were built for sheer eccentricity and speed, elements which inevitably drove the original brand into financial struggle throughout most of its existence. The company suffered during World War II and endured further hardships in the 1960s, when it was purchased for its airplane parts business. In 1998, Bugatti was once again revived with its acquisition by the Volkswagen Group in their desire to build a limited number of production supercars, including the highly acclaimed flagship named after Bugatti’s most celebrated driver, Pierre Veyron.

Handcrafted in Alsace, France, near the former Bugatti headquarters in Molsheim, the Veyron reached full production in the fall of 2005 with development beginning in 1999 on the Bugatti EB 18/4 Veyron concept car. With its official announcement at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show, Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piëch promised the Veyron would be the fastest, most powerful and most expensive production car in history. And he was right. Today the Veyron still holds two out of three of those distinctions. It’s still the most powerful, most expensive production car in the world with an MSRP of $1,500,000, though it recently lost its title as the fastest production car in the world to the SSC Ultimate Aero, which beat the Veyron by just 0.2 seconds.

What does 253 mph in a car feel like? Getting there isn’t as simple as placing the Veyron in top gear and flooring it. As the supercar takes off, pushing you deep into the fine leather seats as you reach the 137 mph mark, the hydraulics lower the vehicle to a ground clearance of three and a half inches. The wing and spoiler also deploy, providing 770 pounds of pavement sticking down-force in what Bugatti engineers call its “handling mode.” To push the Veyron to its end, the driver must use a special “top speed” key which will run a checklist on whether the car and its driver are ready to “launch” into asphalt-peeling territory. Once all systems are go, the rear spoiler retracts, the front air diffusers close and the ground clearance drops even further, down to 2.6 inches. At top speed, the Veyron feels surprisingly solid, with its handling intact, but even so, you can’t help but feel some degree of fear as the trees on both sides of the highway fly by like strobes. At this point, it’s time to stop or at least slow down considerably, maybe down to 100 mph or so, not because we’ll run out of gas – which the Veyron will do within 12 minutes at top speed – but more so because we’re running out of something a little more important…road.

The Veyron’s brakes are another technological anomaly, using distinctive cross-drilled, turbine-vented carbine rotors, drawing in cooling air to reduce fade. Snapping into place within 0.4 seconds at a 55-degree angle, the rear wing acts as an air-brake. With this innovative technology, Bugatti claims the Veyron will brake from 249 mph to a standstill in less than 10 seconds!

For the fuel conservationist, the Veyron is not the ideal car, as it consumes more fuel than any other production car in history. Driving in the city gives you 5.82 mpg and 10 mpg in a combined, city/highway driving cycle, which for a car of this magnitude is rather generous.

Maintenance on a Bugatti is surely a production in and of itself. Scheduled maintenance can be performed at the dealership, though further repairs will require a flown-in mechanic made available to owners 24 hours a day. The high level of maintenance usually associated with the cost of driving an exotic brings to mind the stigma that says these cars should only be driven “once in a blue moon” and admired as works of art as opposed to driving machines. One might think the Veyron would lead that argument. Bugatti however states you can drive the Veyron as if it were your everyday car, for both work and play. Though I am sure a Bugatti owners definition of “everyday” means something other than the usual nine to five.