[Auto] What’s the most Bugatti car in the back catalogue?

[El Máster Edwin]

Think Bugatti, and you can think of only one car: this Noughties speed freak

 

People must’ve been confused in 1998 when Volkswagen snapped up the high-performance European trio of Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti like it was playing a round of Monopoly, but there wasn’t too long to wait. The Veyron was previewed by the third of three concepts trailed by VW during 1999, the 18/3 Chiron appearing at that year’s Frankfurt motor show. A sports car, rather than a saloon like the others, it was immediately the more enticing option.

The 18/3 (18 litres, three turbos) Chiron would become the 16/4 Veyron by the Tokyo show, a format that would stick. VW supremo Ferdinand Piëch wanted the first car with over 1,000 metric horsepower (the production car in 2005 managing 1,001PS [986bhp]), and his engineers in essence fused two V8s to create the W16 format engine with its 8.0-litre capacity.

The seven-speed twin-clutch auto sounds quaint by today’s standards, but Piëch ensured the prototypes were punishingly tested to ensure the car was tough enough to meet its full potential. Like the brakes – the Veyron didn’t just rely on discs. Slam on the anchors at high speed and the air brake would deploy, contributing a third of the stopping power by rotating the rear wing to create massive drag. The car needed the extra help – official top speed was 213mph, but a special ‘speed key’ would unlock a further 40mph if you were good.

The Veyron kicked off a speed race that’s only got more intense with the advent of overblown electric hypercars that seemingly anyone can knock together, but the Veyron showed finesse in its crass display of excess, a commitment to the fine art of engineering. Almost everything about it is pub quiz material – for instance, it was named after a real racing driver, Pierre Veyron, who raced for Bugatti in the Thirties and won Le Mans in 1939 then joined the French resistance. Or the fact Bugatti reportedly lost just over £3m on every Veyron sold, having spent over £1bn on developing the car and selling 450 of them. Or maybe that the Veyron needed 10 radiators to keep the 8.0-litre W16 quad-turbo engine from blowing up.

 

 

 

Link