Bugatti Veyron the fastest most powerful and most expensive turbo car in history

24 April 2008 · Staff

Development of this vehicle began with the 1999 EB 18/4 “Veyron” concept car which itself had a chassis based on that of the Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept car. Introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show, it was similar in design and appearance to the final Veyron production car. The production Veyron was shown for the first time on October 19, 2005 at the Tokyo Motor Show.

One major difference was the EB 18/4’s use of a W18 engine with three banks of six cylinders. The Veyron’s head designer was Hartmut Warkuss with exterior designed by Jozef Kabaň of Volkswagen rather than Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign who had handled the three prior Bugatti concepts too.
Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piëch announced the production Veyron at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show. It was promised to be the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car in history. Instead of the W18, the production model would use a VR6/WR8-style W16 engine. First seen in the 1999 Bentley Hunaudieres concept car, the W16 would get four turbochargers, producing a quoted (metric) 1001 horsepower (see engine section for details on the power output). Top speed was promised at 407 km/h (253 mph), and pricing was announced at €1 million.

Six Veyrons were sold at the 2005 Dubai Motor Show in December, reportedly including the demonstration models used on the stands there. These would be the first reported private sales of the car.

Specifications
The quad-turbocharged W16 engine used by the Veyron.

The Veyron features a W16 engine—16 cylinders in 4 banks of 4 cylinders, or the equivalent of two narrow-angle V8 engines mated in a “W” configuration. Each cylinder has 4 valves for a total of 64, but the narrow V8 configuration allows two camshafts to drive two banks of cylinders so only 4 camshafts are needed. The engine is fed by four turbochargers and displaces 8.0 L (7,993 cc/488 in³) with a square 86 mm (3.4 in) by 86 mm (3.4 in) bore and stroke.

Putting this power to the ground is a dual-clutch Direct-Shift Gearbox computer-controlled manual transmission with 7 gear ratios via shifter paddles behind the steering wheel boasting an < 150 ms shift time, designed and manufactured by Ricardo of England. The Veyron can be driven by full automatic transmission. The Veyron also features full-time all-wheel drive based on the Haldex system. It uses special Michelin run-flat tires designed specifically for the Veyron to accommodate the vehicle’s top speed. Curb weight is estimated at 1,888 kg (4,160 lb). This gives the car a power to weight ratio of 529 bhp/ton.

The car’s wheelbase is 2,710 mm (106.3 in). Overall length is 4,462 mm (175.8 in). It measures 1,998 mm (78.7 in) wide and 1,204 mm (47.5 in) tall.

The Bugatti Veyron has a total of 10 radiators.⁹

* 3 radiators for the engine cooling system. * 1 heat exchanger for the air-to-liquid intercoolers. * 2 for the air conditioning system. * 1 transmission oil radiator. * 1 differential oil radiator. * 1 engine oil radiator. * 1 hydraulic oil radiator for the spoiler

It has a drag coeffeint of 0.36 [10], and a frontal area of 2.07m [11]. This gives it a CdA ft² value of 8.02.

According to Volkswagen the final production Veyron engine produces 736 kW (987 hp) which is equivalent to 1001 PS (metric horsepower).

Top Speed

Top speed was initially promised to be 407 km/h (253 mph) but test versions were unstable at that speed, forcing a redesign of the aerodynamics. In May, 2005, a prototype Veyron tested at a Volkswagen track near Wolfsburg, Germany recorded an electronically limited top speed of 400 km/h (247 mph).
In October, 2005, Car and Driver magazine’s editor Csaba Csere test drove the final production version of the Veyron for the November 2005 issue. This test, at Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien test track, reached a top speed of 407.5 km/h (253.2 mph). The top speed was verified once again by James May on Top Gear, again at Volkswagen’s private test track, when the car hit 407.9 km/h (253 mph), which equated to precisely one-third of supersonic speed at sea level.

Exerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Much more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Veyron

Marque Company Website http://www.bugatti.com/en/home.html