Clarkson over de Bugatti Veyron

[stefan van der burgh]

When you push a car past 180mph, the world starts to get awfully fizzy and a little bit frightening. When you go past 200mph it actually becomes blurred. Almost like you’re trapped in an early Queen pop video. At this sort of speed the tyres and the suspension are reacting to events that happened some time ago, and they have not finished reacting before they’re being asked to do something else. The result is a terrifying vibration that rattles your optical nerves, causing double vision. This is not good when you’re covering 300ft a second.
Happily, stopping distances become irrelevant because you won’t see the obstacle in the first place. By the time you know it was there, you’ll have gone through the windscreen, through the Pearly Gates and be half way across God’s breakfast table.

It has always been thus. When Louis Rigolly broke the 100mph barrier in his Gobron in 1904, the vibration would have been terrifying. And I dare say that driving an E-type at 150mph in 1966 must have been a bit sporty as well.

But once you go past 200mph it isn’t just the suspension and the tyres you have to worry about. The biggest problem is the air. At 100mph it’s relaxed. At 150mph it’s a breeze. But at 200mph it has sufficient power to lift an 800,000lb jumbo jet off the ground. A 200mph gust of wind is strong enough to knock down an entire city. So getting a car to behave itself in conditions like these is tough.

At 200mph you can feel the front of the car getting light as it starts to lift. As a result you start to lose your steering, so you aren’t even able to steer round whatever it is you can’t see because of the vibrations. Make no mistake, 200mph is at the limit of what man can do right now. Which is why the new Bugatti Veyron is worthy of some industrial strength genuflection. Because it can do 252mph. And that’s just mad — 252mph means that in straight and level flight this car is as near as makes no difference as fast as a Hawker Hurricane.

You might point out at this juncture that the McLaren F1 could top 240mph, but at that speed it was pretty much out of control. And anyway it really isn’t in the same league as the Bugatti. In a drag race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the Veyron. And you’d still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way faster than anything else the roads have seen.

Of course, at £810,000, it is also jolly expensive, but when you look at the history of its development you’ll discover it’s rather more than just a car . . .

It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, the swivel-eyed former boss of Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. “This,” he said, “is what the next Bugatti will look like.” And then, without consulting anyone, he went on. “And it vill have an engine that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph.”

His engineers were horrified. But they set to work anyway, mating two Audi V8s to create an 8 litre W16. Which was then garnished with four turbochargers. Needless to say, the end result produced about as much power as the earth’s core, which is fine. But somehow the giant had to be cooled, which is why the Veyron has no engine cover and why it has 10 — count them — 10 radiators. Then things got tricky because the power had to be harnessed.

For this, VW went to Ricardo, a British company that makes gearboxes for various Formula One teams.

“God, it was hard,” said one of the engineers I know vaguely. “The gearbox in an F1 car only has to last a few hours. Volkswagen wanted the Veyron’s to last 10 or 20 years. And remember, the Bugatti is a damn sight more powerful than any F1 car.”

The result, a seven-speed double-clutch flappy paddle affair, took a team of 50 engineers five years to perfect.

With this done, the Veyron was shipped to Sauber’s F1 wind tunnel where it quickly became apparent that while the magic 1000bhp figure had been achieved, they were miles off the target top speed of 400kph (248mph). The body of the car just wasn’t aerodynamic enough, and Volkswagen wouldn’t let them change the basic shape to get round the problem.

The bods at Sauber threw up their hands, saying they only had experience of aerodynamics up to maybe 360kph, which is the effective top speed in Formula One. Beyond this point Bugatti was on its own.

Somehow they had to find an extra 30kph, and there was no point in looking to the engine for answers because each extra 1kph increase in speed requires an extra 8bhp from the power plant. An extra 30kph then would need an extra 240bhp. That was not possible.

The extra speed had to come from changing small things on the body. They started by fitting smaller door mirrors, which upped the top speed a bit but at too high a price. It turned out that the bigger ones had been keeping the nose of the car on the ground. Without them the stability was gone.

In other words, the door mirrors were generating downforce. That gives you an idea of how much of a bastard the air can be at this speed.

After some public failures, fires and accidents, and one chief being fired, they hit on the idea of a car that automatically changes shape depending on what speed you’re going.
At 137mph, the nose of the car is lowered by 2in and the big rear spoiler slides into the slipstream. The effect is profound. You can feel the back of the car being pressed into the road.

However, with the spoiler in place the drag is so great you’re limited to just 231mph. To go faster than that you have to stop and insert your ignition key in a slot on the floor. This lowers the whole car still further and locks the big back wing down. Now you have reduced downforce, which means you won’t be going round any corners, but you have a clean shape. And that means you can top 400kph.



That’s 370ft a second.

You might want to ponder that for a moment. Covering the length of a football pitch, in a second, in a car. And then you might want to think about the braking system. A VW Polo will generate 0.6g if you stamp on the middle pedal hard. You get that from the air brake alone on a Veyron. Factor in the carbon ceramic discs and you will pull up from 250mph in just 10sec. Sounds good, but in those 10sec you’ll have covered a third of a mile.

That’s five football pitches to stop.

I didn’t care. On a recent drive across Europe I desperately wanted to reach the top speed but I ran out of road when the needle hit 240mph. Where, astonishingly, it felt planted. Totally and utterly rock steady. It felt sublime.

Not quiet, though. The engine sounds like Victorian plumbing — it looks like Victorian plumbing as well, to be honest — and the roar from the tyres was biblical. But it still felt brilliant. Utterly, stunningly, mind blowingly, jaw droppingly brilliant.

And then I reached the Alps where, unbelievably, it got better. I expected this road rocket to be absolutely useless in the bends but it felt like a big Lotus Elise.

Occasionally, if I accelerated hard in a tight corner, it behaved strangely as the four-wheel-drive system decided which axle would be best equipped to deal with the wave of power. I won’t say it’s a nasty feel or dangerous. Just weird, in the same way that the duck-billed platypus is weird.

You learn to raise an eyebrow at what’s only a foible, and then, as the road straightens out, steady yourself for Prince Albert’s boiler to gird its loins and play havoc with the space-time continuum. No, really, you come round a bend, see what appears to be miles and miles of dead straight road, bury your foot in the carpet and with a big asthmatic wheeze, bang, you’re instantly at the next bend, with your eyebrow raised again.

From behind the wheel of a Veyron, France is the size of a small coconut. I cannot tell you how fast I crossed it the other day. Because you simply wouldn’t believe me. I also cannot tell you how good this car is. I just don’t have the vocabulary. I just end up stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone thinks I’m on drugs.

This car cannot be judged in the same way that we judge other cars. It meets drive-by noise and emission regulations and it can be driven by someone whose only qualification is an ability to reverse round corners and do an emergency stop. So technically it is a car. And yet it just isn’t.

Other cars are small guesthouses on the front at Brighton and the Bugatti is the Burj Al Arab. It makes even the Enzo and the Porsche Carrera GT feel slow and pointless. It is a triumph for lunacy over common sense, a triumph for man over nature and a triumph for Volkswagen over absolutely every other car maker in the world.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Engine 7993cc, 16 cylinders in a W
Power 1001bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque 922 lb ft @ 2200rpm
Transmission 7-speed DSG, manual and auto
Fuel 11.7mpg (combined)
CO2 574g/km
Acceleration 0-62mph: 2.5sec
Top speed 253mph
Price £810,345
Rating Five stars
Verdict Deserves 12 stars. Simply as good — and as fast — as it gets

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/articl ... 73,00.html

[img:465:274]http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/pictur ... 576,00.jpg[/img]
[img:300:214]http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/TGD/pi ... 566,00.jpg[/img]

[Peter Tunissen]

Leuk verhaal, overbodige auto.

Meteen maar even de mening van Gordon Murray eronder copy pasten?

[Knot]

Leuk dat ze m gemaakt hebben, meteen zonde van het geld, en ik vind het niks.

[Joy]

Mooi geschreven. Geloof 'm ook wel. Al die fabrikanten die nu richting 400 kph gaan maken in korte tijd auto's die 380 + moeten kunnen. Maar de tijd die Volkswagen heeft genomen om deze auto te ontwikkelen geeft al aan dat perfectie enorm veel tijd en geld kost.

[Marcel]

... overbodige auto.

Is een veelgehoorde reactie. Ik vraag me alleen af wanneer Ferrari of Porsche met zoiets was gekomen, er soortgelijke reacties zouden zijn geweest. Waarschijnlijk niet....

Overbodig of niet, ik vind het getuigen van durf dat VW zoiets op poten heeft durven zetten. En over overbodige auto's gesproken: een compacte hatch met meer dan 60pk en een Vmax>120km/uur is in Nederland al overbodig.

[Peter Tunissen]

Ja, dan ook.

Het is geen overbodige auto vanwege de prestaties, het is een overbodige auto vanwege de manier waarop hij die bereikt.
Met 4 turbo's en 10 radiateuren en 50 stumperhulpjes in alle vormen etc. etc.

Wat is het?
Een sportauto is het niet.
Een GT is het niet.
Een luxe auto is het niet.

Het is niks, een speeltje voor mensen die van gekkigheid niet meer weten wat ze met hun geld moeten doen en net zoveel verstand van auto's en autorijden hebben als ik van borduren.

Doe mij deze maar als het toch niet op kan. 8)
[img:450:367]http://www.autoblog.com/media/2006/02/freestreamt1f.jpg[/img]

[Hans]

In a drag race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the Veyron. And you’d still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way faster than anything else the roads have seen.

Holy fuck!!! Klopt dat?

[Peter Tunissen]

Gordon Murray over de Veyron:

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is no doubt the result of many thousands of engineering hours, and certain elements of the car are indeed cutting-edge concept and design. The two main areas that demonstrate new technology are the engine and the transmission.

The engine itself is an engineering wonder and includes some interesting new anti-knock sensing. The gearbox and gear-change system are right up to date utilizing dual-wet clutches and twin layshafts. In my opinion, this is the only way to go to attain quick, smooth gearchanges for a vehicle without a manual clutch. Most semiautomatic systems are violent in their application and not very satisfying from a driver's point of view. The Veyron gearchange is fast and extremely well applied. The complete powertrain is a great showcase for the parent company, Volkswagen AG. Another area where the car is pushing boundaries is with its electronic control systems and, in particular, their application. I drove the Bugatti on the road and on the track, which demonstrated just how seamlessly the chassis and powertrain functions have been sewn together.

The chassis/body structure is hybrid like the last Bugatti (EB110) with carbon fiber used for the primary structure and aluminum alloy for the body and front crash structure. In this respect, the all-carbon McLaren F1 and the RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) carbon Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren are, in fact, more advanced. Carbon-ceramic brakes are used as with the Porsche GT and the SLR.

The aerodynamics is interesting and complex. The design and development have been directed at problem-solving in the areas of cooling and vehicle stability. At such high speeds, the basic shape of the Veyron will generate a lot of lift. Add to this a large frontal area and 10 radiators and heat exchangers, and suddenly here's where the 1001 hp [metric horsepower] dissipates at 250 mph! The CDA figure [drag coefficient x frontal area] is at the high end of the scale for rear-engine sports cars. At these sorts of speeds, a massive amount (often three or four times the net figure) of downforce has to be generated to overcome the basic lift in order to achieve the target figure for net downforce. The Veyron is a full ground-effect vehicle like the McLaren F1 and Ferrari Enzo. The downforce increases as a square of the speed, so there are large forces to design for at speeds approaching V max [top speed] — these forces eat into available suspension travel and can cause high-speed stability problems.

Compounding this problem is that ground-effect cars are notoriously sensitive to ride height and pitch changes. I solved these problems on the F1 by having just enough downforce for high-speed stability and by giving the driver a manual control over the rear wing for a 50-percent increase in downforce at lower speeds. The F1 is also designed with an automatic "air brake," which deploys when the chassis ECU detects a certain combination of speed and deceleration. The air brake increases the CD but more important, interacts with the ground-effect forces by increasing the tail vortex and base suction, which results in an increase in downforce of 100 percent and a rearward movement of the aerodynamic center of pressure of about 4 ft., which helps negate the pitch problem. The Veyron uses the McLaren air brake system but also has a hydraulic ride-height control system, which optimizes the ride heights and chassis incidence for different speeds and loads. The F1 goes a little further with automatic brake cooling and fan-assisted boundary control for the rear diffuser.

When designing a car, I like to do a large amount of aerodynamic "block studies" — this being the basic size of the car with a cabin shape derived from engineering and packaging studies. The block model incorporates representative internal airflow for cooling. This process determines air entry and exit holes, along with the basic shape of the car so styling can begin.

As the drag increases as a square of the speed, the power requirement increases as a cube of the speed because the power itself is speed-dependent. The Veyron because of its high CDA figure and huge cooling drag needs 1001 hp to go 12 mph faster than a McLaren F1 producing 627 hp. To help understand the problem of starting a car program from a weak point aerodynamically, we do some calculations: A turbocharged F1 producing 1001 hp would achieve 281 mph assuming the same drivetrain efficiency. Another way of looking at this equation is that an F1 would need "only" 740 hp to reach the Bugatti's top speed. All this demonstrates just what an uphill struggle the Bugatti team faced to achieve their targets.

Very high top speeds in road cars produce some other very challenging problems. Some are small, such as keeping the windshield wipers attached to the glass, preventing the centrifugal force from opening the tire inflation valves and making the side mirror mounts torsionally stiff enough not to rotate at V max. Then there are much more serious high-speed problems such as a partially open side window being sucked out from the very low local pressure caused by the air accelerating around the A-pillar. Tire designers can design for very heavy vehicles or very high speeds but a combination of the two is a massive challenge. A Bugatti Veyron fully loaded and with aerodynamic load is in the order of 2½ tons at 250 mph

Weight saving should be by design and not a post process. Weight is the car designer's biggest enemy. It works against you in every single aspect of vehicle dynamics. Power-to-weight ratio is one of the most misunderstood figures in the auto-motive world. Achieving a good power-to-weight figure by applying huge horsepower to a heavy car is in no way the same thing as achieving the same ratio with a very light car. For all its 1001 hp, the Veyron falls short of a McLaren F1's power-to-weight figure.

For me, car design is packaging. To create something truly forward-thinking, a designer has to challenge the accepted major component placement in an automobile. Styling innovation becomes more accessible when the packaging is innovative. With the F1, we set out to design the best driver's car we could, and by being innovative with componentry placement, we squeezed three occupants, a V-12, 90 liters of fuel and good luggage space into a car the same size as a Porsche Cayman. The restrictions on styling and innovations are apparent in the Veyron — the all-wheel drive and power targets must have made the designer's life a nightmare. Although the Bugatti is quite short, it is very wide and suffers from most of the rear mid-engine problems, such as high cowl height, pedal offsets, no luggage space and poor three-quarter rear view.

I have a "real-world" checklist when designing road cars: 1) size or perceived size; is the car intimidating to drive? 2) ergonomics; primary and secondary controls, pedals; 3) luggage capacity, cabin storage; 4) driveability, slow traffic engine characteristics, overtaking; 5) ride and handling; 6) ease of parking.

A road car should be designed with a checkmark against all six.

In summing up the Bugatti Veyron, had I not driven it, I would have great difficulty in deciding just what it stands for and where it fits in. To be absolutely fair, the Veyron team did not set out to challenge the McLaren F1, Enzo or Porsche GT as the ultimate driving machine. This it certainly doesn't do at two tons with turbo lag. It also falls short of the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and the Mercedes SLR McLaren for high-performance touring because of the outward vision problems and lack of luggage space. Where it absolutely succeeds is as a massive technical achievement — a statement for VW AG. And it will be guaranteed a place in automotive history because of the performance figures.

On paper, its nearest relative by specification is its brother, the Bugatti EB110 — multi-cylinder turbo engine, hybrid construction, awd and impractical on the road. It is much nearer the SLR for totally accessible performance for almost everyone, thanks to the electronics — but without the ergonomics and luggage space. I have a lot of admiration for the perseverance of Bugatti president, Dr. Thomas Bscher, and his technical team for delivering the vehicle program and creating a unique piece of automotive history.

Styling Analysis: In the World of the Hyper-Exotic

Designing a rear mid-engine supercar is never a simple task and a car with 1001 hp [metric horsepower] multiplies the normal design and development problems by a large factor. The Veyron's design team must be applauded because the starting point was so wrong. Arbitrary targets of 1000 hp and 250 mph and 0-60-mph in under 3 seconds were set at the very beginning of the program. But worse still, a styling model was shown and accepted! This is a bad starting point for any car, but for a high-performance car, it's a disaster.

The Veyron team has done wonders to get where it has today. I can identify with them to a certain degree because with our SLR program, we were also given a "show car" as a starting point — the exception was that we had well researched targets for market positioning, a performance envelope and, most important, an agreed definition of what the car was trying to be. I've probably been a little spoiled in my 40 years of car design where — the SLR apart — every project was absolutely focused with targets and vehicle character totally clear before a model or prototype was even begun. (Nothing in the automotive industry has its function and targets more clearly defined than a Formula 1 car.)

During the McLaren F1 road car program, styling was not started until all the major technical targets were set and all the engineering problems were solved, along with packaging and basic aerodynamic shape.

The styling of the Veyron is growing on me and certainly works much better in the metal. I'm thankful that the stylist was not tempted by the current trend of the ever-more complicated "melting fruit" look! I really like the top engine intakes, which are works of art in their own right. The styling is a wonderful mélange of classic curves and mechanical edges and elements — this should ensure that the car will still look good years from now, and therefore have a chance of becoming a future classic. The extreme rear of the Veyron has some curves good enough to stroke. The rear end is let down only by the "square" exhaust; an exhaust pipe should be exactly what it says! Wheel design is elegant and technical and echoes past Bugattis.

The interior is a strange mixture of simple sports car and over-the-top luxury. The detailing and quality are both fantastic, and the tactile side works very well with a heavyweight feel to the switchgear. Ergonomics has come second place to style with several problems with outward vision and controls.

Most supercars fit into three categories: 1) real world, designed to be used and enjoyed on normal roads; 2) track cars; 3) collector cars, i.e., engineering showoffs. Some supercars fit into two or even three of these categories.

One final point is that I have always felt a little responsible for starting this lunatic chase for top speed with the McLaren F1 (even though top speed was never one of our targets!), and the Bugatti Veyron should put an end to this nonsense and let the designers get on with the job of designing good fun, efficient sports cars.

[Hans]

I also cannot tell you how good this car is. I just don’t have the vocabulary. I just end up stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone thinks I’m on drugs

LOL.

Is er ergens een filmpje online van de Veyron met Top Gear?

[Joy]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9&q=veyron

TopGear

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0&q=veyron

Trackfilmpje.

Film van Topgear vond ik nogal saai. Geen high-speed oid.

[Hans]

Ja die kende ik al, maar is er geen film van de aflevering dat ie op het top gear circuit rond rijden met de Stig en zo?

[Peter Tunissen]

In a drag race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the Veyron. And you’d still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way faster than anything else the roads have seen.

Zo indrukwekkend is dat eigenlijk nog niet eens?

120mph = 192km/u.
Dit soort auto's doen 0-192km/u in misschien 8 (Veyron) of 10 (McLaren) seconden. Ongeveer dus, komt niet op een tiende.

Het enige dat die vergelijking dus zegt is dat de Veyron van 192 naar 320km/u 8 seconden sneller doet dan de F1.
Tsja, zal best met 400pk meer en een mogelijkheid tot handmatige low downforce setting.

Bugatti heeft volgens mij trouwens geen toestemming verleend voor circuittests of directe vergelijken met andere auto's, vandaar geen Stig-filmpjes.

[Hans]

Bugatti heeft volgens mij trouwens geen toestemming verleend voor circuittests of directe vergelijken met andere auto's, vandaar geen Stig-filmpjes.

Dat is minder, mischien dat ze er een keertje eentje uit een prive verzameling kunnen testen. (als iemand gek genoeg is om hem uit te lenen)