F1_Master
10-01-2005, 10:56 PM
Long read, but worth. Anyone feel free to get the pics. :D
When you're ripping along at 253Mph, your mind is not drifting aimlessly. Your senses are cranked up to the full volume to detect any hint of impending catastrophe in the maelstrom of wind rush, tire thrum, mechincal trash, and exhuast roar that surrounds you.
Is that slight shift in the whistling wind caused by a body panel coming loose? Does that vague vibration signal a tire starting to delaminte? Does that subtle new mechnical whine presage a failing bearing that's about to lock up the powertrain?
No such problem developed on the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, because it is not a half-baked aftermarket or boutique road burner. It is a production car developed and tested to the standards of Volkswagen, Bugatti's parent company. With a top speed of 253Mph, it is also the fastest production car ever built.
Production, of course, is a relative term. In the case of the Veyron, Bugatti plans to build about 50 cars a year at a price of $1,250,000 as this is written. To this rarefied market Bugatti has brought an unusual level of sophistication and engineering necessitated by the promise of 1001 metric horsepower (or 987 American horses) and a top speed of 252Mph, a pledge from the former VW boss Ferdinand Piech when he unveiled the production-intent Veyron at the 2001 Geneva auto show.
Achieveing 1000 horsepower in a racing engine is one thing, but to do so in a reliable, refined, durable, and emissions-legal configuration is much harder. The energizer in the Veyron is a WR16 displacing 7998cc and turbocharged with 15.8 psi of boost. You can think of it as two Passat WR8 engines put together and pumped up by four turbos.
But the Bugatti engine has more cylinders, more displacement, more power per liter, and more output overall than any other engine in the WR family tree. When I ask Bugatti development boss, Wolfgang Schreiber to explain how the same engine can be rated at 1001 SAE net but only 987 horsepower (1001 PS) for Europe, he laughs, saying, "The production engines are all putting out between 1020 and 1040 PS - enough to cover both promises."
The engine's torque peak is equally mighty at 922 pound-feet, developed between 2200 and 5500RPM. The four small turbos minimize throttle lag, and the 9.3:1 compression ratio ensures reasonable torque even before boost develops.
All the twist required a dedicated transmission. The Veyron gets a King Kong seven-speed version of VW's twin-clutch gearbox, called DSG available in the Audi TT, it operates with an automatic mode or a full manual mode via paddle shifters. Because gearchanges occur with one clutch disengaging as the other engages, shifts are uniformly smooth and swift.
With about as much engine output as two Corvette Z06 V-8s, it's no surprise that Bugatti engineers decided to go with all-wheel drive. We don't have many details about the driveline, but the front-to-rear torque split is automatically adjusted to suit dynamic conditions and can range from 100 to 0 percent at either end.
And engine-particularly a turbocharged one-that develops four-digit power throws off more heat than a dozen pizza ovens. Consequently, in the nose of the Veyron are three coolant radiators, one heat exchanger for the twin air-to-liquid intercoolers, and two air-conditioning condensers. There are also transmission and differential oil coolers on the right side and a large engine-oil cooler in the left-side air intake. To help heat escape from the engine compartment, the big WR16 sits in the open, enclosed by noe cover of any kind. This powertrain propels the 4300-pound Veyron as effortlessly and gracefully as Tiger Woods belts a 300-yard drive.
My experience with the car took place at Ehra-Lessien in Germany, Volkswagen's test track and high-speed theme park not far from VW headquarters in Wolfsburg. At least it will soon become a theme park because Bugatti plans to let Veyron owners being their cars to this 13.0-mile circuit to explore the top speed of their cars. In addition to finding out how fast the Veyron can go, I was a guinea pig for this ultimate high-speed thrill ride.
We started with two famailirization laps to get a feel for the track and the car. The track is simple, with a pair of high-banked, 150-mph corners connected by two five-mile-long straights-one of which has a slight bend so that it touches a common parking area.
With the Veyron's high beltline, I couln't see any of the front bodywork from the driver's seat, but the view of the pavement immediately in front of the car isexcellent. The driving position is comfortable, with a snug sport seat that provides great lateral support and manual fore-and-aft and seatback-angle adjustments (a plusher power seat will be optional).
Even after it was lowered to me preferred position, the steering wheel did not obstruct my view of the instrument cluster. And despite the Veyron's low, 47.5-inch height, there was plenty of clearence between my helmeted head and the headliner. Schreiber promises the car will accomodate drivers as tall as six foot seven.
Although the Veyron idles with a quiet murmur, as soon as it starts rolling, you hear a symphony of mechnical music that gives way to tire thrum when you get above 100 mph, which doesn't take long. We had no opportunity to perform acceleration testing, but the ease with which the Bugatti blows past the speed is astonishing. We predict about six seconds flat from a dead stop.
What's more, the acceleration doesn't slacken when you hit triple-digit speeds. In my first lap, I took the car up to 185Mph, at which point the tire noise was fairly loud but the Veyron otherwise calm and relaxed. One reason it felt so secure is that when you hit 137 mph, the Bugatti hunkers down, lowering its normal ride height of 4.9 inches to 3.1 in front and 3.7 in rear. At the same time, a small spoiler deploys from the rear bodywork and a wing extends about a foot, perched at a six-degree angle. Two underbody flaps ahead of the front tires also open up. This configuration produces substaintial downforce-about 330 pounds in front and 440 in the rear at 230Mph.
Given that it only takes about 500 horsepower to overcome the prevailing drag at 185, that leaves the 500 horses remaininig for acceleration duty. So when you plant your right foot at 185, the Veyron's surge of power shoves you into the driver's seat about as hard as a Corvette's does at 100Mph, or a Ford Five Hundred's does at 40Mph. Accelerating from 185 to 230 on my next lap didn't take very long, and the car remained glued to the pavement, although wind roar overcame tire thrumming to become the predominant sound.
But 230mph is about as fast the Veyron will go until you put the car into top-speed mode. This involves coming to a stop and, while the car is idling, turning a key in a lock on the floor to the left of the driver's seat. When you do that, the car sinks down even lower on its suspension, until ground clearence has been reduced to a mere 2.6 inches in front and 2.8 in the rear. This setup also causes the front underbody flaps to close and the rear spoiler and wing to retract, although the wing remains tilted out of the body at a slight two-degree angle. These changes reduce the car's drag coefficient from 0.41 to 0.36, and they reduce the peak downforce from 770 to 120 pounds.
Before proceeding further, the driver is urged to verify visually that all these aerodynamic changes have taken place, as well as to check the pressure in the special Michelin PAX System Pilot Sport tires and inspect them for any damage. Developing tires that could withstand 250-plus pounds of car, occupants, and downforce was one of the major technical challenges of the Veyron, and judging by the comparative lack of concern about the tires during my run, I'd say this problem has been solved.
Beyond this suggested checklist, there are a few catches in the procedure that will make it hard to perform a top-speed run on public roads. Once the Veyron exceeds 35Mph, if you turn the steering wheel more than 90 degrees, or so much as touch the brakes, the car's configuration reverts to the handling mode.
The reasons for this became clear during my first top-speed lap. With downforce reduced, the Veyron no longer cutting through cut through the air like some hyperkinetic fastball. Instead, it meandered slightly, something akin to a swift knuckle ball.
I barely touched the car's top-speed govenor that was set at 253Mph (407.5 kilometers per hour) on that first lap, but on the second I held the car there for at least three of the back straight's five miles. The combination of driveline noise, tire noise, and hurricane-force winds rushing over the car must have been deafening, but I don't remember it, as I concentrated on keeping the gently meandering car within the center of the track's three lines.
The straightaway was only 32-feet wide, with a low highway-type guardrail at each edge and dense forest beyond. One stretch of the straightaway didn't even have a guardrail on the outside of the track, just a grassy embankment that sloped up at about 20 degrees for about 30 feet toward the trees. Leaving the pavement and ending up in the trees was only a twitch of the steering wheel away.
Fortunately, the Veyron's steering is ideally set up for such fast running. There's absolutely no slack on-center, and the steering responds with a gentleness that makes it easy to feed in the delicate corrections needed to keep the Veyron between the center lane's dotted lines without overcorrecting. Still, I can see why Bugatti engineers don't want their customers to be passing semis on the autobahn at 200-mph plus in this low-downforce mode.
When you're ripping along at 253Mph, your mind is not drifting aimlessly. Your senses are cranked up to the full volume to detect any hint of impending catastrophe in the maelstrom of wind rush, tire thrum, mechincal trash, and exhuast roar that surrounds you.
Is that slight shift in the whistling wind caused by a body panel coming loose? Does that vague vibration signal a tire starting to delaminte? Does that subtle new mechnical whine presage a failing bearing that's about to lock up the powertrain?
No such problem developed on the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, because it is not a half-baked aftermarket or boutique road burner. It is a production car developed and tested to the standards of Volkswagen, Bugatti's parent company. With a top speed of 253Mph, it is also the fastest production car ever built.
Production, of course, is a relative term. In the case of the Veyron, Bugatti plans to build about 50 cars a year at a price of $1,250,000 as this is written. To this rarefied market Bugatti has brought an unusual level of sophistication and engineering necessitated by the promise of 1001 metric horsepower (or 987 American horses) and a top speed of 252Mph, a pledge from the former VW boss Ferdinand Piech when he unveiled the production-intent Veyron at the 2001 Geneva auto show.
Achieveing 1000 horsepower in a racing engine is one thing, but to do so in a reliable, refined, durable, and emissions-legal configuration is much harder. The energizer in the Veyron is a WR16 displacing 7998cc and turbocharged with 15.8 psi of boost. You can think of it as two Passat WR8 engines put together and pumped up by four turbos.
But the Bugatti engine has more cylinders, more displacement, more power per liter, and more output overall than any other engine in the WR family tree. When I ask Bugatti development boss, Wolfgang Schreiber to explain how the same engine can be rated at 1001 SAE net but only 987 horsepower (1001 PS) for Europe, he laughs, saying, "The production engines are all putting out between 1020 and 1040 PS - enough to cover both promises."
The engine's torque peak is equally mighty at 922 pound-feet, developed between 2200 and 5500RPM. The four small turbos minimize throttle lag, and the 9.3:1 compression ratio ensures reasonable torque even before boost develops.
All the twist required a dedicated transmission. The Veyron gets a King Kong seven-speed version of VW's twin-clutch gearbox, called DSG available in the Audi TT, it operates with an automatic mode or a full manual mode via paddle shifters. Because gearchanges occur with one clutch disengaging as the other engages, shifts are uniformly smooth and swift.
With about as much engine output as two Corvette Z06 V-8s, it's no surprise that Bugatti engineers decided to go with all-wheel drive. We don't have many details about the driveline, but the front-to-rear torque split is automatically adjusted to suit dynamic conditions and can range from 100 to 0 percent at either end.
And engine-particularly a turbocharged one-that develops four-digit power throws off more heat than a dozen pizza ovens. Consequently, in the nose of the Veyron are three coolant radiators, one heat exchanger for the twin air-to-liquid intercoolers, and two air-conditioning condensers. There are also transmission and differential oil coolers on the right side and a large engine-oil cooler in the left-side air intake. To help heat escape from the engine compartment, the big WR16 sits in the open, enclosed by noe cover of any kind. This powertrain propels the 4300-pound Veyron as effortlessly and gracefully as Tiger Woods belts a 300-yard drive.
My experience with the car took place at Ehra-Lessien in Germany, Volkswagen's test track and high-speed theme park not far from VW headquarters in Wolfsburg. At least it will soon become a theme park because Bugatti plans to let Veyron owners being their cars to this 13.0-mile circuit to explore the top speed of their cars. In addition to finding out how fast the Veyron can go, I was a guinea pig for this ultimate high-speed thrill ride.
We started with two famailirization laps to get a feel for the track and the car. The track is simple, with a pair of high-banked, 150-mph corners connected by two five-mile-long straights-one of which has a slight bend so that it touches a common parking area.
With the Veyron's high beltline, I couln't see any of the front bodywork from the driver's seat, but the view of the pavement immediately in front of the car isexcellent. The driving position is comfortable, with a snug sport seat that provides great lateral support and manual fore-and-aft and seatback-angle adjustments (a plusher power seat will be optional).
Even after it was lowered to me preferred position, the steering wheel did not obstruct my view of the instrument cluster. And despite the Veyron's low, 47.5-inch height, there was plenty of clearence between my helmeted head and the headliner. Schreiber promises the car will accomodate drivers as tall as six foot seven.
Although the Veyron idles with a quiet murmur, as soon as it starts rolling, you hear a symphony of mechnical music that gives way to tire thrum when you get above 100 mph, which doesn't take long. We had no opportunity to perform acceleration testing, but the ease with which the Bugatti blows past the speed is astonishing. We predict about six seconds flat from a dead stop.
What's more, the acceleration doesn't slacken when you hit triple-digit speeds. In my first lap, I took the car up to 185Mph, at which point the tire noise was fairly loud but the Veyron otherwise calm and relaxed. One reason it felt so secure is that when you hit 137 mph, the Bugatti hunkers down, lowering its normal ride height of 4.9 inches to 3.1 in front and 3.7 in rear. At the same time, a small spoiler deploys from the rear bodywork and a wing extends about a foot, perched at a six-degree angle. Two underbody flaps ahead of the front tires also open up. This configuration produces substaintial downforce-about 330 pounds in front and 440 in the rear at 230Mph.
Given that it only takes about 500 horsepower to overcome the prevailing drag at 185, that leaves the 500 horses remaininig for acceleration duty. So when you plant your right foot at 185, the Veyron's surge of power shoves you into the driver's seat about as hard as a Corvette's does at 100Mph, or a Ford Five Hundred's does at 40Mph. Accelerating from 185 to 230 on my next lap didn't take very long, and the car remained glued to the pavement, although wind roar overcame tire thrumming to become the predominant sound.
But 230mph is about as fast the Veyron will go until you put the car into top-speed mode. This involves coming to a stop and, while the car is idling, turning a key in a lock on the floor to the left of the driver's seat. When you do that, the car sinks down even lower on its suspension, until ground clearence has been reduced to a mere 2.6 inches in front and 2.8 in the rear. This setup also causes the front underbody flaps to close and the rear spoiler and wing to retract, although the wing remains tilted out of the body at a slight two-degree angle. These changes reduce the car's drag coefficient from 0.41 to 0.36, and they reduce the peak downforce from 770 to 120 pounds.
Before proceeding further, the driver is urged to verify visually that all these aerodynamic changes have taken place, as well as to check the pressure in the special Michelin PAX System Pilot Sport tires and inspect them for any damage. Developing tires that could withstand 250-plus pounds of car, occupants, and downforce was one of the major technical challenges of the Veyron, and judging by the comparative lack of concern about the tires during my run, I'd say this problem has been solved.
Beyond this suggested checklist, there are a few catches in the procedure that will make it hard to perform a top-speed run on public roads. Once the Veyron exceeds 35Mph, if you turn the steering wheel more than 90 degrees, or so much as touch the brakes, the car's configuration reverts to the handling mode.
The reasons for this became clear during my first top-speed lap. With downforce reduced, the Veyron no longer cutting through cut through the air like some hyperkinetic fastball. Instead, it meandered slightly, something akin to a swift knuckle ball.
I barely touched the car's top-speed govenor that was set at 253Mph (407.5 kilometers per hour) on that first lap, but on the second I held the car there for at least three of the back straight's five miles. The combination of driveline noise, tire noise, and hurricane-force winds rushing over the car must have been deafening, but I don't remember it, as I concentrated on keeping the gently meandering car within the center of the track's three lines.
The straightaway was only 32-feet wide, with a low highway-type guardrail at each edge and dense forest beyond. One stretch of the straightaway didn't even have a guardrail on the outside of the track, just a grassy embankment that sloped up at about 20 degrees for about 30 feet toward the trees. Leaving the pavement and ending up in the trees was only a twitch of the steering wheel away.
Fortunately, the Veyron's steering is ideally set up for such fast running. There's absolutely no slack on-center, and the steering responds with a gentleness that makes it easy to feed in the delicate corrections needed to keep the Veyron between the center lane's dotted lines without overcorrecting. Still, I can see why Bugatti engineers don't want their customers to be passing semis on the autobahn at 200-mph plus in this low-downforce mode.