Bugatti Veyron - A Driving Experience of a Lifetime

For many years the Mclaren F1 was the fastest road car in the world, but changes have been a foot over the last few years. The latest to challenge this top spot is the Bugatti Veyron. Made by Volkswagen this is likely to be the best driving experience from a road car you will get in your lifetime.

Ferdinand Piech the boss of VW came up with the idea of producing a car with 1000 horsepower that could do over 200mph, for those where money was no object. The outrageous price tag of £700,000 or approx $1,100,000, is only compounded by the fact it costs considerably more to make. Yes VW, will be loosing millions of dollars to sell this car, which is why the opinion is, that no other manufacturer would build a road car you could buy, that would match this performance and style.

Lets look at a few figures then:

1001, Horsepower!
14 radiators, Yes 14!!
$3,200 to make an indicator stalk!
Tyres specially developed by Michelin, $1800 each!
922lb of torque!
229 miles per hour or 370kph (believe it or not the normal configuration is restricted)

But tweak the engine and you can get:

253mph, which is 407.5mph
Ten seconds to stop from 250mph!
100ltr fuel tank that can be emptied at top speeds within 12 minutes!

This is a major achievement in engineering, especially from a manufacturer that does not have a background in Formula One like Mclaren and Ferrari and it makes you wonder what they could achieve if they were to enter that field.

The car also looks stunning. Without the badge, you would not be able to tell if it was Italian or German, but you would know it couldn't be anything else but these two. At certain angles it looks like a teardrop, with only its open grill that looks like a goldfish's open mouth to break that line. I fact if I had anything bad to say about the car it would be that I am not sure about this front grill. There are some that would say front grill gives it a "growl", maybe so. But to me the growl is too polite, it either shouldn't be there, and had kept more of its lines or it should have been a "roar"; after all this is the fastest road car in the world.

The aerofoil at the back, keeps this monster on the road, and automatically raises itself at certain high speeds, a bit of a give away if you are speeding down a motorway and the policeman following you knows you are breaking the speed limit for no other reason than your aerofoil is up. However the good news is there is no police car on earth going to catch you, the bad news is it wouldn't be hard to track down the owner. First, there isn't going to be many of these is any neighborhood and second even your Granny would turn her head to see one of these beauties driving down the road.

Used Ford Ka Vs Bugatti Veyron - And The Winner Is?

Aren't dreams great? Just this week, I've scored a hat-trick for Manchester United on my debut, married Holly Willoughby and played guitar with Metallica to 100,000 people. I'd be willing to bet that something amazing has happened to you this week too, (obviously not Holly, you bigamist) - we all love dreaming. I must admit however that as I reach the peak of my REM each night, the last thing I dream of is a used Ford Ka. I've fallen off pavements lots and buildings for that matter, but I've never found myself with both hands behind the wheel of a blue ovalled used Ford Ka.

With Ford priding themselves on making affordable, yet well-built, reliable cars, our car-loving sub-consciousness heads to 0-60 in 0.000005 second land. You see, owning a Ford isn't dream material, you can actually have one yourself and it's precisely because of that, we all wish we had something different. To put it another way, your boyfriend or girlfriend may be decent looking and nice company, but Johnny Depp or Cameron Diaz and their like would lead you astray in two seconds. It's the attraction of wanting something you can't have that is so appealing. Tell you what though, after Cameron's been in bathroom for 3 hours putting on layer ten of her make-up, you'll wish you had your old partner back to cook your dinner. In short, don't desire what you can't have, make sure you choose wisely what you can. The end...except I should probably tell you why I think the Ford Ka is (arguably!) better than the Bugatti Veyron I left Holly washing at Old Trafford.

The Ka I drove was, in short fabulous. Despite the design being 12 years old, it still looks very funky, hence the large influx of young females that carry them around in their handbags. The model I drove was a 2004 registration 'style' - one up from the bottom of the range and with body-coloured bumpers to distinguish this hierarchal advantage. Inside, my six foot and a bit frame had no trouble fitting in and my legs remained comfortably below my waist, rather than around my ears as first feared.

The dashboard was well laid out and the driving position was versatile enough to cope with my lanky arms. The highlight though, was Ford's pandering to my neon light fetish, with beautiful green light bathing the white speedometer dials. I was also pleasantly surprised with the engine the car had tucked away in front of me. All Ka's come with a nippy 1.3 litre engine and when you combine this with the car's diminutive proportions, 0-60 is achieved in 0.000005 seconds.

On my travels, I encountered all the obstacles and pitfalls you'd expect to find when driving around town: roundabouts, road-works and Reliant Robins. The Ka swiftly dealt with these with well-weighted steering and decent grip from it's titchy 13 inch wheels. Considering the Ka is essentially a bubble on these little wheels, the lack of body roll was arguably the car's most impressive achievement as I slipped in and out of boy racer mode. Boot space is atrocious mind. A quick stop at the corner shop will have your passenger holding the milk and groceries, as there is no room in the boot for a flea. Also the gearbox is a tad clunky on occasion, but these are minor issues in what is a truly superb car, that is head and shoulders above the competition. Besides, if you wanted a car with boot space, you'd buy a Volvo estate - or a hearse - if they are mutually exclusive.

The reason I drove a used Ford Ka rather than a sparkly new one is simple. If Ford are selling their cars so cheaply, then the build quality must suffer as a result too. By driving a four year old version, I wanted to see if the joints were creaking and a hip operation was required. As the above road test clarifies, Ford seem to have cracked the impossible - the ability to cheaply build a reliable car, that is fun to drive. The Ka can comfortably compete against the other rivals in it's class and stacks up very favourably - that's why they are so popular with so many people - owning a good, reasonable car is not the stuff of dreams.

So next time you are lusting after what you can't have remember this: you can have 333 of these fun cars for the price of my Bugatti and for that you get a cool little car that is so light on your wallet, you needn't dream of owning one. The boot is larger than the Bugatti's too.

The All New 2010 Bugatti Veyron to Feature the W16 Engine and 4 Turbochargers!

The Veyron from the house of Bugatti is expected to come in the 16 cylinder W16 engine mounted in separate two banks of eight cylinders. The engine features with the 4 turbochargers and displaces 8.0 liter with the stroke and the bore of 86 mm and the 86 mm respectively. The vehicle is designed by Ricardo.

The transmission in the vehicle consists of Direct Shift gearbox with dual clutches, manual gearbox controlled by the computer with the 7 gear ratios, magnesium paddles next to the steering wheel and has the shift time of 150 Ms. The vehicle uses the Haldex traction system and provides the 4-wheel drive. The new Veyron uses the flat tires from the Michelin, which are specially designed for the Veyron to provide the maximum speed. The curb weight of the vehicle will be 2034 kilo grams.

The wheel base of the Veyron is about 2710 mm, while the length, width and the height of the model are 4462 mm, 1998 mm and 1204 mm respectively. The Bugatti Veyron has 10 radiators in total - 1 hydraulic oil radiator for the spoiler, 3 radiators for the engine cooling system, 1 engine oil radiator, 1 heat exchanger for the air-to-liquid intercoolers, 1 differential oil radiator, 2 for the air conditioning system and 1 transmission oil radiator.

The engine in the vehicle produces 746 kilo watts of power and a massive 920 lb ft of torque. The maximum speed of the vehicle is about 400 kilo meters per hour, and the most fascinating part of the story is that the Bugatti Veyron is capable of reaching the speed of 200 kilo meters per hour in just 7.3 seconds.

Bugatti Veyron - The Fanatic Grand Tourer

The current generation Bugatti Veyron is a grand tourer vehicle, manufactured by the German automobile manufacturer, Bugatti Automobiles SAS, a subsidiary of Volkswagen and it has its headquarters located in Molsheim, France. The model is named after the French racing driver, Pierre Veyron, who in 1939 won the 24 hours of Le Mans, while racing for the company.

The production of the new Bugatti Veyron model was started in late 2008. Some of the models in the Veyron include Veyron 16.4, Targa, Bleu Centenaire, Veyron, Pur Sang, Sang Noir and Hermes Edition. It also has also been sold under labels like the grand sport model, and Veyron convertible.

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 model is the most powerful model and it also happens to be the 2nd fastest car in the world. The current Veyron 16.4 model can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilo meters of speed in a time of just 2.6 seconds. The racing car is powered by W16 engine that has 16 cylinders, partitioned four cylinders in four banks. The cylinders in the engine are also fed by 4 turbo chargers. The engine in the car is mated to a dual clutch DSG computer controlled manual transmission. The engine can produce power up to 1001 hp at an angular speed of 5000 rpm and torque of 920 lb ft.

Looking at the dimensions of the Bugatti Veyron, it has the length of 175.8 inches, height of 47.5 inches and width of 1998 mm. To cool up the engine, it is supported by 10 radiators, and it comes with several high end features.

How to Beat a Bugatti Veyron

The Bugatti Veyron...An engineering masterpiece. You will need a few things to be able to outpace this amazing piece of machinery.

Lose Some Weight:
The Bugatti Veyron has a gross weight of 4850 lbs. You would need a vehicle much lighter in comparison. Something in the neighborhood of about 4000 lbs. should do. After all you can't just expect to stuff more power into the engine and win. The car already has an insane powerplant....you can only do so much to get more power out of it.

Shrink:
This will help you out with the above mentioned requirement. The Bugatti Veyron has a height of 47.4 in. We should trim our vehicle down to about 45in even. This will reduce weight, lower the center of gravity, and increase stability around corners.

Power:
Even though you've lost the weight and lowed the center of gravity that is not enough to fly past the Veyron. Let go all out and add a 500 shot of nitrous to our beast. This way when we're neck and neck we can hit that little button and say good buy. Unfortunately, I think our imaginary car would be a "single race" car.

....Its a nice thought though.

Fun Fact:
The Bugatti Veyron was designed by Hartmut Warkuss, who was the chief designer, and Jozef Kaban, which designed the exterior. Bugatti named the car after French racing driver Pierre Veyron. The Veyron was introduced in 2005 as the fastest production car in the world, where it stands today,neck and neck with the SSC Ultimate Aero TT.