Bugatti Veyron Review
March 17, 2008 by Anthony Crawford
Here we go again, but this time I think we’re going even quicker and I’m trying to remember “The Lord’s Prayer”. Too late, we have already completed the run and pulled over. Julius hands me the keys to this alien spacecraft.
Don’t get me wrong, I like fast. But this car can distort time, as we know it. There might just be such a thing as too quick! But this is my Veyron driving test and I’m not about to fail.
I move the Joystick-like shifter to the right and engage D for drive mode. If I’m going to give this thing full throttle, I won’t have to time to think about using paddles. No joke.
No traffic in either direction. That’s a relief. I plant the throttle and we are accelerating faster than BMW’s 2008 Sauber F1.08 car. That’s 0-100km/h in less than 2.5 seconds. The feeling is surreal. “Can I go again” I ask Julius. He’s on the phone – still, and I’m feeling more confident so I push it slightly quicker through the bends. Apart from travelling disturbingly fast, the level of grip at 250km/h plus seems contrary to the laws of nature. Who said the Veyron didn’t handle?
I must be doing OK as Julius hops out and allows Alborz to get in and set up the high def video camera. Time for some flat to the firewall acceleration runs on a straight but narrow road. He’s still on the phone, so Alborz stays in. He won’t know what hit him when I engage all 1001 horsepower and 1250 Nm and attempt to hold the pedal down fractionally longer than on those trial runs.
While Alborz is fiddling with the camera angle, I move the shifter to the right, two times to engage the “S” drive mode, which will hold the revs at 3000 between shifts. This will be ferocious.
Boom. Within milliseconds we are doing 240km/h but there’s a sharpish bend on the horizon. No Problem. The Veyron’s ability to stop is just as prodigious as its speed. Enormous carbon-ceramic brakes using eight piston calipers up front and six down the back work in concert with an aircraft-like air brake, which has deployed.
Alborz is not smiling and says he has motion sickness. Welcome to the Veyron experience!
We find a place to turn the Bugatti around safely and do it again for the video camera. There’s a guy in an AMG SL 55 on our tail -he must not have read about the Veyron. One quick stab of the throttle and we’ve dusted him. You can’t get used to the power. You just can’t. That’s what Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel says too. Never heard of him? He was leading Nelson Piquet at the Monaco F1 Grand Prix in 1989 and before that was French Formula Three Champion so yes, he knows what he’s on about and he’s Bugatti’s test driver.
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