Bugatti Veyron Review
March 17, 2008 by Anthony Crawford
Alborz’s drive:
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Before Julius handed me the keys he wanted to take me for a quick spin, just to give me the basic run over. I have to admit, having seen Tony’s face before, I was a little nervous.
I got in and put on my seatbelt, I looked over at Julian who had a peculiar smile on his face, “Ready?” Julian asked. “Ready for what? It’s just a bloody car, 0-100km/h in 2.5 seconds doesn’t scare me” I thought to myself while I nodded cautiously.
He pulled out onto a small country road which in Australia would have a speed limit of about 50km/h. I began talking to Julius about the car, telling him how comfortable the seats were, he simply didn’t respond, about 0.003 seconds later I found out why.
When Julius put his foot down, my world came to an end. I had no time to think, I got pushed back into the seat so hard it actually hurt my neck. Our on-board video camera had by this stage thrown an error due to the Gs and it was impossible to actually sit forward to check the speedo, but Julius was keeping me informed.. 100…200….300!
Believe me, at 300km/h time slows down, the birds were flying so slowly that I was absolutely sure that either we were about to die and I was in some sort of right-before-death moment or I was going to pass out.
“310″ Julius screamed as we went past a 60 sign. “Are you ready” he said with an even bigger smile on his face. Ready? Again? Are you kidding me, what more can there be? I looked ahead and saw a roundabout about 400 or so metres away.
I started realising why he kept saying “are you ready”, he meant death, are you ready to die? Although I am not a religious man, I began asking for forgiveness as certain death was only seconds away. There was no possible, physical way, anything could stop from 300km/h so quickly. But Julius took his hands off the steering wheel, slammed on the brakes and we stopped, with room to spare.
The 400mm carbon ceramic brake system, which more than likely cost more than an average house in Brisbane, had just saved my life.
We pulled over and Julius handed me the keys, I’ll be honest with you, I had never been so nervous in my life, sure I’d driven Lamborghinis and Aston Martins, but the Veyron, I am sorry, you can’t comprehend the feeling.
We took off and headed to the highway where I was going to do some video recording and some acceleration runs, all that I could think about at this stage was a little voice in my head saying “407km/h… 407km/h…”.
After a brief drive around Julius was comfortable with my driving and he indicated that I should do some practice acceleration runs. When the guy from Bugatti gives you the green light to experience decades and hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D, you can’t help but to smile.
As Tony mentioned, I too wish I could take each and every one of you with me as I did the 0-300km/h acceleration, because firstly, I’d never get bored of it, and secondly, words are simply incapable of describing the feeling. Nothing so comfortable and luxurious should ever be able to accelerate this quickly, but it does.
Imagine the fastest theme park ride you have ever been on, like the Superman ride on the Gold Coast, 0-100km/h in 1.9 seconds, but the Veyron feels faster, because it can keep going, and going, and going.
If you have 2.7 million dollars spare, this car will make you realise that money can buy you happiness.
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