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Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4

Manufacturer	Bugatti Automobiles SAS
Parent company	Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG)
Production	2005–present (approx. 300 to be produced)
Assembly	Molsheim, Alsace, France
Predecessor	Bugatti EB110
Class	Sports car
Body style(s)	2-door coupe
Layout	Mid-engine, permanent four-wheel drive
Engine(s)	8.0 L quad-turbocharged W161001 hp
Transmission(s)	7-speed Direct-Shift Gearbox sequential manual
Wheelbase	2,710 mm (106.7 in)
Length	4,462 mm (175.7 in)
Width	1,998 mm (78.7 in)
Height	1,204 mm (47.4 in)
Kerb weight	2,034.8 kg (4,486 lb)
Fuel capacity	100 L (22.0 imp gal; 26.4 US gal)
Designer	Hartmut Warkuss, and Jozef Kabaň[1]

The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engine grand touring car produced by Volkswagen Group subsidiary Bugatti Automobiles SAS and introduced in 2005 as the fastest production car in the world. It is currently the fastest accelerating and decelerating production car in the world, with a 0 -100- 0 time of 9.6 seconds and, at 1.1 million Euro (1.5 million USD) , it is also one of the most expensive cars.

Powered by a 736-kilowatt (1,001 PS; 987 hp) W16 engine,^[2] it can reach 408.47 km/h (253.81 mph).^[3] The car reached full production in September 2005, and is handcrafted in a factory Volkswagen built near the former Bugatti headquarters in Château St Jean in Molsheim (Alsace, France). It is named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti company. Two examples of the Veyron are known to have been wrecked since production began.^[4]

History

Development of this vehicle began with the 1999 EB 18/4 "Veyron" concept car which itself had a chassis based on that of the Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept car. Introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show, it was similar in design and appearance to the final Veyron production car. One major difference was the EB 18/4's use of a W18 engine with three banks of six cylinders. The Veyron's chief designer was Hartmut Warkuss with exterior designed by Jozef Kabaň of Volkswagen rather than Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign who had handled the three prior Bugatti concepts too.

The then Volkswagen Group chairman Ferdinand Piëch announced the Veyron at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show. It was promised to be the fastest, most powerful and most expensive production car in history. Instead of the W18, it would use a VR6/WR8-style W16 engine. First seen in the 1999 Bentley Hunaudières concept car, the W16 would have four turbochargers and produce a quoted (metric) 1001 horsepower (see engine section for details on the power output). Top speed was promised at 407 km/h (253 mph), and the price was announced at €1 million.

Development continued throughout 2001 and the EB 16/4 Veyron was promoted to "advanced concept" status. In late 2001, Bugatti announced that the car, officially called the "Bugatti Veyron 16.4", would go into production in 2003, but significant problems cropped up during development. Achieving the required high-speed stability was difficult: one prototype was destroyed in a crash and another spun out during a public demonstration at the Monterey Historics event in Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. Production of the Veyron was delayed pending resolution of these and other problems.

A silver and black pre-production Veyron on display at the 2004 Paris Motor Show

Piëch retired that year as chairman of the Volkswagen Group and was replaced by Bernd Pischetsrieder. The new chairman promptly sent the Veyron back to the drawing board for major revisions. Neumann was replaced as Bugatti president by Thomas Bscher in December 2003, and substantial modifications were made to the Veyron under the guidance of former VW engineer, Bugatti Engineering head, Wolfgang Schreiber.

The Veyron costs €1,100,000 (net price without taxes); prices vary by exchange rates and local taxes (like value added taxes). Prices for the UK or the US are over £880,000, or around $1,400,000, and at a production cost of around £2 million are sold at a great loss to Bugatti, but is often compared to the 'concorde' as a feat of technology.

Special editions

Pur Sang

On 10 September 2007, a special version of the Veyron called the "Pur Sang" (French for thoroughbred) was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The only difference from the standard Veyron is the body finishing: the Pur Sang has none, revealing the Veyron's pure aluminium-carbon fibre body. Production of the Pur Sang will be limited to five cars, which will have high-gloss aluminum wheels with a diamond cut finish.^[5][6]

Fbg par Hermès

At the Geneva motor show in 2008 Bugatti announced a partnership with the French fashion house Hermès, resulting in the "Fbg Par Hermès" trim. This has several new features as well as a redesigned front end. The interior is trimmed in Hermès leather and it comes with a specially designed Hermès suitcase to fit in the trunk. Built for Rodrigo Cañizares,^[7] Bugatti later made four new color schemes available for order with the Hermès Veyron: called "Indigo Blue and Vermilion", "Indigo Blue and Lime Green", "Black and Garance Red", and "Prussian Blue and Blue Jean". The cars will also come with the bespoke luggage, special 8-spoke rims, and an H-pattern grill.^[8]

Grand Sport

Bugatti announced the production of a targa top version, called Grand Sport. The car was unveiled at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on August 15, 2008, with production set to begin in spring 2009.^[9] The Grand Sport comes with small tweaks to the windshield and running lights, and two removable tops. The second is a temporary roof fashioned after an umbrella and inspired by pictures of classic Bugatti racers with umbrellas in hand. The Grand Sport can reach 407 km/h (253 mph) with the hardtop in place, the same top speed as the coupé version. With no roof the top speed is limited to 367 km/h (228 mph), and to 130 km/h (81 mph) with the temporary soft roof. The Grand Sport has extensive reinforcement beyond the standard Veyron.

The First Grand Sport (Code named Chassis 001) was sold at the 2008 Gooding & Company Pebble Beach Auction with a winning bid price of $2.9 million. Approximately $900,000 of the auction price went to charity.^[10]

Specifications and performance

The quad-turbocharged W16 engine used in the Veyron

Veyron's W16, 8.0 litre engine with 4 turbochargers

The Veyron's hydraulic rear spoiler

Inside the spoiler's recess

The Veyron features a W16 engine — 16 cylinders in four banks of four cylinders, or the equivalent of two narrow-angle V8 engines mated in a "W" configuration. Each cylinder has 4 valves for a total of 64, but the narrow V8 configuration allows two camshafts to drive two banks of cylinders so only 4 camshafts are needed. The engine is fed by four turbochargers and displaces 8.0 L (7,993 cc/488 in³) with a square 86 mm by 86 mm (3.4 in. × 3.4 in.) bore and stroke.

The transmission consists of a dual-clutch Direct-Shift Gearbox computer-controlled manual gearbox with seven gear ratios, with shifter paddles behind the steering wheel boasting an <150 ms shift time. This is designed and manufactured by Ricardo of England (and not Borg-Warner who designed the 6-speed DSG used in the mainstream marques of the Volkswagen Group). The Veyron can be driven as a full automatic transmission. It also features full-time four-wheel drive, utilising the Haldex Traction system. It uses special Michelin run-flat tires, designed specifically for the Veyron to accommodate its top speed, which reportedly cost $25,000 per set.^[11] Curb weight is 2,034.8 kg (4,486 lb).^[11] This gives the car a power to weight ratio of 4.5 lb (2.0 kg)/1 bhp (0.7 kW).

The car's wheelbase is 2710 mm (106.7 in). Overall length is 4462 mm (175.7 in), width 1998 mm (78.7 in) and height 1204 mm (47.4 in).

The Bugatti Veyron has a total of 10 radiators.^[12]

• 3 radiators for the engine cooling system.
• 1 heat exchanger for the air-to-liquid intercoolers.
• 2 for the air conditioning system.
• 1 transmission oil radiator.
• 1 differential oil radiator.
• 1 engine oil radiator.
• 1 hydraulic oil radiator for the spoiler.
• 7 coolers for the engine.

It has a drag coefficient of 0.36,^[13] and a frontal area of 2.07 m².^[14] This gives it a CdA ft² value of 8.02.

Power

According to Volkswagen (and approved by TÜV Süddeutschland), the final production Veyron engine produces 1,001 PS (736 kW; 987 hp) and 1,250 N·m (920 ft·lbf) of torque.^[2] The horsepower figure is believed by some to actually be conservative, with the real total being 1001 or more.^[15]

Top speed

Top speed was initially promised to be 260 mph , but test versions were unstable at that speed, forcing a redesign of the aerodynamics. In May 2005, a prototype Veyron tested at a Volkswagen track near Wolfsburg, Germany recorded an electronically limited top speed of 400 km/h (249 mph). In October 2005, Car and Driver magazine's editor Csaba Csere test drove the final production version of the Veyron for the November 2005 issue. This test, at Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track, reached a top speed of 417.5 km/h (259.4 mph). The top speed was verified once again by James May on Top Gear, again at Volkswagen's private test track, when the car hit 407.9 km/h (253.5 mph), which equated to precisely one-third of the speed of sound at sea level. When getting close to the top speed during the test, May said that "the tyres will only last for about fifteen minutes, but it's okay because the fuel runs out in twelve minutes." He also gave an indication of the power requirements, at constant 250 km/h (155 mph) the Veyron is using approximately 270 to 280 horsepower (200 to 210 kW)^[16], but to get to its rated 407 km/h (253 mph) top speed required far more from the engine. Once back in the Top Gear studio James was asked by co - presenter Jeremy Clarkson what the Veyron felt like to drive at 253mph, James replied that it was "completely undramatic", and very stable at speed.

Aerodynamic friction or drag is proportional to the square of the speed; for example doubling speed quadruples drag. Work is a product of force applied over a distance travelled. Comparing a vehicle travelling at 160 km/h (99 mph) with one travelling at 320 km/h (200 mph), over a given time (e.g. 1 second), the faster vehicle must overcome 4 times the aerodynamic drag, and travel twice the distance of the slower one. Thus it does 8 times the work of the slower vehicle in that time. As power is work done in time taken it follows that the swifter vehicle, travelling at twice the speed requires 8 times the power of the slower one. German inspection officials recorded an average top speed of 408.47 km/h (253.8 mph)^[3] during test sessions on the Ehra Lessien test track on 2005-04-19.

The car's everyday top speed is listed at 375 km/h (233 mph). When the car reaches 220 km/h (137 mph), hydraulics lower the car until it has a ground clearance of about 8.9 cm (3½ inches). At the same time, the wing and spoiler deploy. This is the "handling mode", in which the wing helps provide 3425 newtons (770 pounds) of downheft, holding the car to the road.^[12] The driver must, using a special key (the "Top Speed Key"), toggle the lock to the left of his seat in order to attain the maximum (average) speed of 407 km/h (253 mph). The key functions only when the vehicle is at a stop, when a checklist then establishes whether the car—and its driver—are ready to enable 'top speed' mode. If all systems are go, the rear spoiler retracts, the front air diffusers shut and the ground clearance, normally 12.5 cm (4.9 in.), drops to 6.5 cm (2.6 in.).

Acceleration

The Bugatti Veyron has the greatest acceleration of any production car to date, reaching 97 km/h (60 mph) from a standstill in 2.4 seconds.^[17] It reaches 100 km/h (62 mph) in approximately 2.45 seconds, which equates to an average acceleration of around 1.18g. The car is greatly aided in achieving such times by the presence of a four-wheel drive system that permits the transmission of such great amounts of power in the initial stages of acceleration.

The Veyron reaches 200 km/h (124.3 mph) and 300 km/h (186.4 mph) in 7.0 and 16.2 seconds respectively. According to the February 2007 issue of Road & Track magazine, the Veyron accomplished the quarter mile (~400 m) in 9.0 seconds at a speed of 143.6 mph (231.1 km/h).

Fuel consumption

The Veyron consumes more fuel than any other production car, using 40.4 L/100 km (6.99 mpg_-imp; 5.82 mpg_-US) in city driving and 24.1 L/100 km (11.7 mpg_-imp; 9.76 mpg_-US) in combined cycle. At full throttle, it uses more than 115 L/100 km (2.46 mpg_-imp; 2.05 mpg_-US), which would empty its 100 L (22 imp gal; 26 US gal) fuel tank in just 12 minutes.^[18][19]

Braking

The Veyron's brakes use cross-drilled, radially-vented Carbon fibre-reinforced Silicon Carbide (C/SiC) composite discs, manufactured by SGL Carbon, which have a much greater resistance to brake fade when compared with conventional cast iron discs. The aluminium alloy monobloc brake calipers are made by AP Racing; the fronts have eight^[12] titanium pistons and the rear calipers have six pistons. Bugatti claims maximum deceleration of 1.3 Gs on road tyres.

Prototypes have been subjected to repeated 1.0G braking from 194 to 50 MPH (312 to 80 km/h) without fade. With the car's acceleration from 50 to 194 mph (80 to 312 km/h), that test can be performed every 22 seconds. At speeds above 124 mph (200 km/h), the rear wing also acts as an airbrake, snapping to a 55-degree angle in 0.4 seconds once brakes are applied, providing 0.68 Gs (4.9 m/s²) of deceleration (equivalent to the stopping power of an ordinary hatchback).^[12] Bugatti claims the Veyron will brake from 400 km/h (249 mph) to a standstill in less than 10 seconds.^[12]

Final numbers

Production figures

• 2005: 5 ^[25]
• 2006: 44 ^[26]
• 2007: 83 ^[26]

Critics and comments

Previews

Gordon Murray, designer of the McLaren F1 (which for many years was the fastest production car ever built) said the following about the Bugatti Veyron in UK auto magazine evo during its development period:

However, Murray was impressed with the Veyron after he test drove one although still apprehensive about it in an article he wrote for Road and Track magazine.^[27]

Reviews

After the car had reached production, Murray went on to write an article for another UK auto magazine, Top Gear, retracting a lot of his past criticism of the car.

He also declared in the article that "The braking is phenomenal. ... And the primary ride and body control are impressive too" and "It's a huge achievement."

The trend of backtracking on negative comments about the Veyron continued when prominent UK car show host Jeremy Clarkson declared on Top Gear that it was "The best car ever made" after initially saying it was ridiculous and would never exist.^[28] In his Times Online review, his conclusion is that "[The Bugatti Veyron] is a triumph for lunacy over common sense, a triumph for man over nature and a triumph for Volkswagen over absolutely every other car maker in the world".^[29]

The Veyron was proclaimed the Top Gear Magazine Car of the Year for 2005, along with the Toyota Aygo. The Veyron was also declared the Grand Award winner for the Autotech category of 2006 by Popular Science magazine.

Top Gear also managed to get it on the track for a power lap in 2008. Surprisingly, it was only fifth on the Power Lap board, getting round the track in 1.18.3, slower than the Gumpert Apollo. The track time might be attributed to its weight (the Veyron has a listed curb weight 750kg higher than any of the cars that posted a faster lap time and 930kg more than the Gumpert).

References

Citations

This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bugatti Veyron

• Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. Web Site
• Bugatti Veyron Test Video
• Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermes

Bugatti road car timeline, 1910–present – a marque of the Volkswagen Group since 1998
Type	1910s										1920s										1930s										1940s										1950s										1960s			1963–86	1980s			1990s										2000s
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2		7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Company	Bugatti																																																						Bugatti Automobili S.p.A											Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.
Owner	Ettore Bugatti / Roland Bugatti																																																						Romano Artioli											Volkswagen AG
Touring car													Type 30 / Type 49													Type 57
																				Type 46
Limousine																		Type 41 Royale
Roadster											Type 13 / Brescia Tourer												Type 55
Coupé																																										Type 101
Sports car	Type 13		Type 18 Garros																																													Type 252											EB110														Veyron
Founder: Ettore Bugatti • Bugatti corporate website • A marque of the Volkswagen Group

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