Top Gear takes Veyron to its top speed (video)...amazing

**Goodspeed** · 02-06-2007, 12:49 AM

Heres an exellent video I saw today, James May of Top Gear takes the Bugatti Veyron to its top speed of 407 km/h, or 252.89 mph around VW's test track in Germany. My fire suit is donned, say what you will but the car is an amazing engineering achievement anyway you look at it 8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGww3qGC5CU

Some cool facts stated in the clip, don't know if they are true but...
- At top speed, it will run out of fuel in 12 minutes
- At top speed, the tires will burst after 15 minutes theoretically
- At top speed, the car ingests as much air in one minute as a human breathes in in four days

**G.Irish** · 02-06-2007, 02:04 AM

Goodspeed Wrote:Heres an exellent video I saw today, James May of Top Gear takes the Bugatti Veyron to its top speed of 407 km/h, or 252.89 mph around VW's test track in Germany. My fire suit is donned, say what you will but the car is an amazing engineering achievement anyway you look at it 8) ...

Its an exercise in excess but it doesn't really amaze me at all as far as engineering achievement goes. Producing 1000 horsepower out of a quad turbo 8.0L engine isn't terribly impressive to me nor is the 4000 lbs curb weight of the car. I mean shit, F1 cars were making 1500 hp from 1.5L engines in the 80's (granted that was qualifying trim using toluene...).

VW did a lot of engineering work to sort out the aerodynamics of the car and there is some nice trick stuff in there like the rear spoiler airbrake and titanium brake caliper pistons. And supposedly from articles I've read its not a total dog in the twisties.

Still it just doesn't strike me as impressive the way the McLaren F1 did. Both of them were $1 million cars but the McLaren did it in an efficient, elegant manner whereas the Bugatti starts with "lets put a big mfn' engine in there," and then tries to figure out how to keep the thing from crashing and killing its occupants.

250 mph is nothing to sneeze at in a street legal vehicle but for my meellion dollars I'll take the McLaren. Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing what kind of time the Veyron could do at Nurburgring.

**JustinG** · 02-06-2007, 07:37 AM

it has a freaking key, for "top speed mode", that is fucking awesome

white_2kgt · 02-06-2007, 09:23 AM

G.Irish Wrote:Producing 1000 horsepower out of a quad turbo 8.0L engine isn't terribly impressive to me ...

Is this?

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159833">http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/show ... p?t=159833</a>

HAULN-SS · 02-06-2007, 09:51 AM

Heh, that's the biggest motor I've seen in a car. I used to have some pics of a chevy Bel-Air with a Rolls Royce P51 Mustang V12 in it. And if that thing is only making 1000hp, something is wrong, lol.

white_2kgt · 02-06-2007, 10:00 AM

HAULN-SS Wrote:Heh, that's the biggest motor I've seen in a car. I used to have some pics of a chevy Bel-Air with a Rolls Royce P51 Mustang V12 in it. And if that thing is only making 1000hp, something is wrong, lol.

Well, the motor was rated at 550hp, but 1,050tq. Remember this is a TANK engine. I'm sure with a little work he can double if not triple those numbers.

HAULN-SS · 02-06-2007, 10:04 AM

Yeah, i read down a bit, says he has a blower setup for it. He should be able to get like 2000hp from it. I guess it depends on how fast he wants it to burn fuel. Top fuel dragsters with less displacement are getting 1000hp per cylinder. I think they usually run less than 800ci, but I'm not sure. Seems like 2hp per ci is a reasonable goal. If you're gonna have an engine in excess like that, might as well go all out

white_2kgt · 02-06-2007, 10:08 AM

HAULN-SS Wrote:Yeah, i read down a bit, says he has a blower setup for it. He should be able to get like 2000hp from it. I guess it depends on how fast he wants it to burn fuel. Top fuel dragsters with less displacement are getting 1000hp per cylinder. I think they usually run less than 800ci, but I'm not sure. Seems like 2hp per ci is a reasonable goal. If you're gonna have an engine in excess like that, might as well go all out

yea and top fuel's consume 5gal/ .25 MILES of alchol and have to be rebuilt between runs. That's not much of a comparison.

HAULN-SS · 02-06-2007, 10:14 AM

Well I only suggest he should get 1/4 of that type of performance...not actually making it a top fuel car. He already said it was using a ton of fuel, so might as well be getting something for that bad mileage

ScottyB · 02-06-2007, 10:18 AM

G.Irish Wrote:250 mph is nothing to sneeze at in a street legal vehicle but for my meellion dollars I'll take the McLaren. Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing what kind of time the Veyron could do at Nurburgring.

i think the scope of both cars is significantly different, though. the veyron coddles you in luxury and gives you 2 more tires to put power through. its a stable land missle whereas the big Mac is, for all it's engineering, a lightweight sprinter on a knife edge from what i've read from reports, when it's at maximum attack on a course.

sure, the veyron is about performance but ultimately it's about much more, which i'm not sure the Mac is. i know they are both equally capable of driving around town in a subdued manner, and unleashing split personalities but that's about it.

and for the record, i wouldn't take either...i'd take an F40 8)

white_2kgt · 02-06-2007, 10:19 AM

HAULN-SS Wrote:Well I only suggest he should get 1/4 of that type of performance...not actually making it a top fuel car. He already said it was using a ton of fuel, so might as well be getting something for that bad mileage

He's using a ton of fuel b/c it's a huge hunk of innefficient piece of shit. Incredibly cool huge hunk of shit though.

WRXtranceformed · 02-06-2007, 11:38 AM

Any car that is street legal and can put you at 250+mph while wrapping you in luxury is pretty impressive to me. Sure, they could have done it with a lighter, more efficient engine, but why? You just paid over a million dollars for a car, wouldn't you like to be able to say "Oh, you have a supercharged V8? Cool, well my car has two V8s and 3 more turbos" :lol:

**G.Irish** · 02-06-2007, 11:49 AM

ScottyB Wrote:
G.Irish Wrote:250 mph is nothing to sneeze at in a street legal vehicle but for my meellion dollars I'll take the McLaren. Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing what kind of time the Veyron could do at Nurburgring.

i think the scope of both cars is significantly different, though. the veyron coddles you in luxury and gives you 2 more tires to put power through. its a stable land missle whereas the big Mac is, for all it's engineering, a lightweight sprinter on a knife edge from what i've read from reports, when it's at maximum attack on a course.

sure, the veyron is about performance but ultimately it's about much more, which i'm not sure the Mac is. i know they are both equally capable of driving around town in a subdued manner, and unleashing split personalities but that's about it.

and for the record, i wouldn't take either...i'd take an F40 8)

That's a good point. The Veyron purports to be luxurious and opulent as well as incredibly fast whereas the McLaren was all about performance. The thing about the McLaren that separates it from all of the other modern supercars is that it is the only production car in at least the last 50 years to win Le Mans overall.

The F40, F50, Enzo, Koenigsegg, Pagani Zonda, and the S7 were all great cars but none of them achieved much motorsport success. I think the S7 could have gotten there but it got saddled with an uncompetitive rule set due to its trouble meeting homologation requirements.

**G.Irish** · 02-06-2007, 12:02 PM

white_2kgt Wrote:
G.Irish Wrote:Producing 1000 horsepower out of a quad turbo 8.0L engine isn't terribly impressive to me ...

Is this?

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159833">http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/show ... p?t=159833</a>

I think the word I'd use would be 'crazy' Tongue

ScottyB · 02-06-2007, 12:27 PM

i bet if you put fatter front tires on there and some real brakes, it could do a stoppie :lol:

**Mike** · 02-06-2007, 12:51 PM

that video was not "amazing" at all, but i had ten minutes to burn, so thanks.

ultimagtrlover · 02-10-2007, 11:51 PM

What most people fail to realize is the fact that the Mclaren F1 had a different intention then the Bugatti. The Mclaren was supposed to be an everyday sports car while the Bugatti was supposed to be a GT car. More importantly though, what makes the Bugatti so impressive is the drivability of the car. About everyone on this forum can point out a car (Supra) that can easily beat the Bugatti in a straight line or a corner (Lotus Elise). But the fact is, the Bugatti is much more userfriendly and not as terrifying to experience as is the case with every 1000-plus horsepower tuner car I've seen on the road. The Bugatti is an engineering masterpiece in it's ability to combine raw speed with such ease of drivability. For reading pleasures, there's an article out from Evo Magazine that compares the Enzo Ferrari, Porsche Carrera GT, Pagani Zonda C12S, and Bugatti Veyron. It's an interesting read for those who are interested in knowing the comparisons between the four supercars.

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