The 2006 Bugatti Veyron is a vehicle that you would sell as much as you could to buy it just so you can take it out on the roads and show it off to everyone that passes you.It’s that powerful and having an amazing exterior doesn’t hurt any. You can beleive that it will turn the heads of many people when driving by. But the vehicle is not great just because of its looks. There is so much under the hood to consider.
On the far left of the instrument binnacle, the Veyron has a round dial with some unusual calibration. The needle begins at zero and swings around to 1001. That’s 1001 as in PS, German for horsepower. (In American units the Veyron produces a mere 987 hp.) Like the power reserve display in the Rolls-Royce Phantom, this gauge shows the immense energy produced by the awesome 8.0-liter, sixteen-cylinder, quad-turbo engine.
To reach 155 mph, where lesser sports cars throw in the towel, only 266 hp is required. When you summon the remaining 721 hp, all hell breaks loose. The only other street car that can compare is the McLaren F1, and the Bugatti is even more impressive when you start approaching the scary but scintillating 200-mph-plus speed range.
“The Veyron is a truly groundbreaking vehicle,” says Wolfgang Schreiber, technical director of Bugatti Engineering, one of only three people who regularly push the EB 16.4 to the limit. Before the Veyron, he specialized in lightweight materials and recently guided development of Volkswagen’s twin-clutch DSG transmission.
“The maximum combustion energy adds up to 3000 PS: 1000 is swallowed by the cooling system, 1000 goes through the exhaust, and 1000 is relayed to the four driven wheels;?1000 PS is a whole new dimension. “The same applies to the maximum torque of 922 lb-ft at 2000 rpm.
However, while other transmissions would go bust facing a four-figure challenge, ours can take up to 1107 lb-ft. With the ESP stability system switched off, you can even provoke third-gear wheel spin on slippery surfaces. That’s why it takes time to familiarize yourself with this machine. The Veyron is benign and relatively easy to drive by supercar standards, but it requires respect.”
You could drive down a local autobahn at speeds of up to 212 mph without breaking a sweat, but the 100-mph-plus speed differential will of course scare and amaze other drivers. Not many people check their mirrors often enough to spot the Bugatti zooming up at warp speed, despite its four glaring xenon headlights and its menacing silhouette.
coolsupercars.com
