Bugatti Veyron Review
March 17, 2008 by Anthony Crawford
2008 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 review
“Nothing, absolutely nothing other than a Formula One car on a hot lap, can prepare you for the time warping acceleration of the Veyron at full throttle. This car is disturbingly fast”
Model tested: 2008 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 – Black Metallic
Price as tested: AUD$2.7 million
Bugatti has created the automotive Holy Grail
I can’t afford one – yet!
CarAdvice rating: 
(six stars!)
By – Anthony Crawford & Alborz Fallah
After twenty-three gruelling hours in a seriously packed economy class cabin, we arrived in Frankfurt via Abu Dhabi, ready for what we thought was a well earned luxury business class flight to Strasbourg in France.
Turns out, our double degree IT guru and fellow motoring journalist Alborz, (who said his friend at flight centre had it sorted), had completely misread the ticket. Bus – actually meant BUS – the road going version. All sorted?
By some stroke of luck though, the bus company had grossly overbooked both Strasbourg bound buses, and Bruno, the guy at the Lufthansa desk, worked some magic and presto, we had a Ford Mondeo TDCi for twenty-four hours, at no cost. Gold, we thought.
The diesel powered Mondeo is no slouch, within moments we are sitting on a comfortable 200km/h as we head towards Molsheim, the home of Bugatti.
It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes into the trip and bugger, something felt badly out of whack with the front end. What we found, was a dirty great big hole in the middle of the right front tyre tread, which meant we weren’t going anywhere fast. That is, until we got the spare on and rebooted to that blissful 200km/h.
The look of disappointment on our faces, when we lifted the boot lining and saw that 125-width space saver, said it all. And it was a Sunday!
Rather than push on at an impossible 80km/h (its downright dangerous on the Autobahns) we stopped in at Hertz in Heidelberg and switched over to a little Peugeot 307 1.6L diesel powered wagon, which believe it or not, was good for a steady 190km/h and that’s hauling the four of us, with a stack of luggage and camera equipment!
Alborz also forgot to download the Euro maps on our Mio Sat Nav and we were damn too tired to figure out the road map. Lots of stops to ask directions in my half decent French (the other’s will surely deny me that credit) eventually paid off.
Molsheim is not a big place, and when we saw the Bugatti sign inside a high security compound, smiles were a plenty. We were less than twelve hours away from an event, few in the world will ever claim.
I believe that it’s luxurious like a Maybach and the automated seven-speed makes possible everyone to drive it. In a world full of expensive caprices you may have a wild dream with Bugatti Veyron 16.4.
Those photos are amazing. thank you for them. I had never seen the veyron so close in some places, like the back of the bucket or the pedals, and i had searched a lot. thank you
Good onya boys! :) Nice website you’ve got here…so how do you think the Merc SL 55 driver (that wanted to take on the Veyron) must’av felt when VW spooled up and boosted into the next country?
Now, any chance of a ‘Veyron Title Battle’ :)
vs
CaparoT1
Quote=”You can sit in peak hour traffic or travel between countries faster than France’s TGV (very fast train) listening to…”
Regarding the TGV it set the train speed record at 515km/h some years ago. It has since broken it’s own record, but regularly travels between 300 and 400km/h. The Veyron drinks the whole tank in less than 20mins on speed runs, but I take your point. ;-) It’s damn fast and is just as happy dawdling down to the corner shop.
I’d be over the moon for a “ride” in a Lambo let alone driving a Veyron. Lucky buggers and thanks for the great review.
Fascinating article and a truely peerless car. It’s close to perfection with the letdown being the interior. Not so much retro as dated. Why make a modern technological wonder and give it a 50s look inside??!
its a god dam looking car and a fast beuty
Who is this other AW. WTH using my username.
I will never EVER be able to describe how much I love that car.
I am willing to have my life cut short for 3 years just to get a taste of this damn thing!!!
Hello my good guys,
I think about how would you feel and write if you could drive my Bugatti Linea Vincero Mansory. Your review is ok, thanks for normal people that you can give them that idea of feelings. Good night my dear fellow, good night…
thank’s for any information
I think other than sheer fascination with this thing, I hope that one day Australia with our own imagination, can build a machine like this. Once we get over our John Simpleton mindset and lack of motivation to succed as a country not just as individuals then we will be on the right path, we do not have the capability now but we do have the capability to gain that capability. Most of us also dont have the capability to start a car company but those who do in this country also just cant be bothered it seems, this is the naive, take-it-for-granted mindset that we can just continue this western way of life without making a meainingful contribution to sustaining and improving it, other than silly little under-done efforts. To start with we should actually get a few Veyrons into Australia.
Is this the only car to have gotten six starts by CA