Story :  Dr. Iain Corness   
Images : courtesy of Bugatti
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At the end of 2007 Thailand saw its first Bugatti Veyron introduced to the country by SEC, importers of automotive exotica. The price ticket read 165 million THB! Please return to the seat you just fell off!

There is no doubt that the designers of the Bugatti Veyron were given a very concise and precise brief. More than 1000 horsepower; more than 400 km/h; a price tag to blow your mind: 1 million USD.

Ettore Bugatti

Given such a clean sheet of paper the Volkswagen engineers set to and the result is called the Bugatti Veyron, named after Pierre Veyron who drove a Bugatti to victory in the 1939 Le Mans 24 Hour race. Yes, you read the above correctly too – Volkswagen engineers; Bugatti is owned by VW.

Step Back in Time

It’s not the first time that the name Bugatti has been associated with a car with specifications that surpassed anything ever imagined at the time of its launch. In an age of different, but just as groundbreaking, technological advances, the carmaker unleashed upon the world the Bugatti Royale.

The Royale was huge. In fact it was a monster of a car. With the most powerful engine ever installed in an automobile - a whopping 13 litres - it needed a motor car almost 6 and a half metres long to accommodate it. Think of two Honda Jazz, end to end, and you’re beginning to see the monster taking shape. Even the wheels were colossal; 38 inches.  Ettore Bugatti had decided, despite making his name with small cars, that now was the time to make the ultimate car.

Released in 1932, what Mr Bugatti didn’t count on was the Great Depression, and it remained an automotive anachronism of which only a handful were built, and most remained unsold. Not even the Royals bought the Royale!

More than 1000 horsepower; more than 400 km/h; a price tag to blow your mind: 1 million USD.

The New Order

Fast forward to 1998 when Volkswagen AG decided to revive the legendary Bugatti name by purchasing all trademark rights, and Bugatti Automobile S.A.S. was founded. 

In 2000 VW announced the Bugatti Veyron concept to the world, although the first production model was not unveiled until 2005 at the Tokyo Motor Show.

The intervening five years were not trouble free. One prototype spun out and another was destroyed in a crash during a public demonstration at Monterey in America. The enormous W16 engine with its four turbochargers did indeed develop 1001 horsepower and the first item of the brief had been achieved. Reaching the target speed of 400 km/h was not so easy and aerodynamic instability was the problem. Remember that this car would travel faster than a Formula 1 single seater!

Rocking the World

By May 2005 a prototype Veyron tested at a Volkswagen track managed the magic 400 km/h (249 mph). In October, 2005, the final production version of the Veyron reached a top speed of 407.5 km/h (253.2 mph) at Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien test track. They had done it!

The Veyron in its final form is certainly not a French tour de force as it has a real international flavour. The seven speed gearbox is made by Ricardo in the UK, as are the bespoke carbon-ceramic brakes by AP Racing, while the unique 16 cylinder 8.0 litre engine comes from the Volkswagen engine plant in Salzgitter in Germany. Teutonic engineering is also responsible for the front and rear-structures in forged aluminium, courtesy of Heggemann, and Italy’s ATR build the carbon fibre monocoque.   With German paint work, Austrian leather, and a windscreen manufactured in Finland, there is little of the French touch left. However the tyres – the first production tyres homologated for speeds above 400 km/h – are jointly developed with Michelin.

The end result is a vehicle which will reach 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds, 200 in 7.4 and 300 km/h in 16.7 seconds. This really is a car in a hurry. It’s also a car for the fanciful, rather than the practical.  It gulps fuel at 125 litres per 100 km, and at full throttle empties its fuel tank in 12.5 minutes! Just as well, as the tyres only last 15 minutes at top speed!

It was Max Born, the 1954 Nobel Prize winner in physics, who said of space travel that it was “a triumph of intellect but a tragic failure of reason”. In some ways this could sum up the Bugatti Veyron, but it makes up for it all in looks.