Bugatti Veyron: Road test

Another lucky guy who had the chance to road test the Bugatti Veyron, the uber car. And we agree with him: "It achieves 60 mph in 119 feet. It costs $1.7 million. What else do you need to know?".

It takes five weeks to build each car. Counting the heater core, the Veyron has 12 radiators. Sixty mph is yours in 2.5 seconds. The Bug will reach 150 mph 8.3 secondssooner than a Nissan GT-R. At its top speed of 253 mph [as tested by C/D, November 2005], it is traveling 371 feet per second and will empty its 26.4-gallon tank in 19 minutes. If you can’t locate fuel of 93 octane or higher, your dealer must detune the engine. Service, in general, will be expensive because it takes two persons—one of whom won’t be you—to remove the rear bodywork just to getat the engine. Four of this car’s Michelin PAX Pilots will set you back $25,000. If they’re mounted on wheels—a process undertaken only in France—well, that’s $70,000. The hydraulic rams that raise the rear wing at 137 mph are identical to those that raise flaps on aircraft. During the Veyron’s prototype days, a bird crashed through its aluminum grille—the car was humming along at 205 mph—so now the grille is titanium. The windows automatically rise and lock in place at 93 mph so your dog doesn’t lose his tongue. You thought the engine made 1001 horsepower? Nope. “They all make more than 1010,” says Bugatti’s Jens Schulenburg, who works in the “Gesamtfahrzeugentwicklung” department.

Related news: GermanCarBlog, P4MR, Bugatti Veyron

Source: Car and Driver

Bugatti Veyron: Road test

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