The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engine sports car designed and developed in Germany by the Volkswagen Group and Bugatti, and manufactured in Molsheim, France by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti. It was named after the racing driver Pierre Veyron.
The original version has a top speed of . It was named the 2000s Car of the Decade by the BBC television programme Top Gear. The standard Veyron also won Top Gears Best Car Driven All Year award in 2005.
The Super Sport version of the Veyron is one of the fastest street-legal production cars in the world, with a top speed of . The Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse was the fastest roadster in the world, reaching an averaged top speed of in a test on 6 April 2013. The production car speed record was later taken by another Bugatti, the Chiron, and then often changed hands for a while.
The Veyron's chief designer was Hartmut Warkuß, with the exterior being designed by Jozef Kabaň of Volkswagen. Much of the engineering work was conducted under the guidance of chief technical officer Wolfgang Schreiber. The Veyron includes a sound system designed and built by Burmester Audiosysteme.
Several special variants have been produced. In December 2010, Bugatti began offering prospective buyers the ability to customise exterior and interior colours by using the Veyron 16.4 Configurator application on the marque's official website. The Bugatti Veyron was discontinued in late 2014, but special edition models continued to be produced until 2015.
Origins
In May 1998, Volkswagen AG acquired the rights to use the Bugatti logo and the trade name Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. To succeed the EB 110 model produced under the previous ownership, the automaker quickly released a series of concept cars whose technological advancements would culminate in the form of the Veyron 16.4.
Between October 1998 and September 1999, Bugatti introduced a series of Giugiaro-designed concept vehicles, each with permanent four-wheel drive and powered by the Volkswagen-designed W18 engine. The first car, the EB 118, was a 2-door luxury coupé presented at the 1998 Paris Motor Show. The next car, the EB 218, was a 4-door saloon presented at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show. The third and final car, the 18/3 Chiron, was a mid-engine sports car presented at the 1999 International Motor Show in Frankfurt.
In October 1999, Bugatti unveiled a fourth concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show. The EB 18/4 Veyron was a mid-engine sports car styled in-house under the direction of Hartmut Warkuß. In 2000, a modified version, the EB 16/4 Veyron, was displayed at motor shows in Detroit, Geneva, and Paris. Rather than the three-bank W18 engine of the four previous concept cars, the EB 16/4 featured the four-bank W16 engine architecture installed in every production example of the Veyron. Warkuß also commissioned SEAT head of design, Walter de Silva, to submit a design proposal for the new Bugatti. The design was ultimately rejected in favour of Warkuß's own proposal.
The decision to start production of the car was made by the Volkswagen Group in 2001. The first roadworthy prototype was completed in August 2003. It is identical to the later series variant, except for a few details. In the transition from development to series production, considerable technical problems had to be addressed, repeatedly delaying production until September 2005.
The Veyron EB 16.4 is named in honor of Pierre Veyron, a Bugatti development engineer, test driver and company race driver who, with co-driver Jean-Pierre Wimille, won the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans while driving a Bugatti. The "EB" refers to Bugatti founder Ettore Bugatti and the "16.4" refers to the engine's 16 cylinders and quad-turbochargers.
Bugatti Veyron (2005–2011) Specifications and performance
The Veyron features an 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged, W16 cylinder engine, equivalent to two narrow-angle V8 engines bolted together. Each cylinder has four valves for a total of 64, but the configuration of each bank allows two overhead camshafts to drive two banks of cylinders so only four camshafts are needed. The engine is fed by four turbochargers and displaces , with a square bore and stroke.
The transmission is a dual-clutch direct-shift computer-controlled automatic transmission having seven gear ratios, with magnesium paddles behind the steering wheel and a shift time of less than 150 milliseconds, built by Ricardo of England rather than Borg-Warner, who designed the six speed DSG used in the mainstream Volkswagen Group marques. The Veyron can be driven in either semi-automatic or fully-automatic mode. A replacement transmission for the Veyron costs just over . It also has permanent all-wheel drive using the Haldex Traction system. It uses special Michelin PAX run-flat tyres, designed specifically to accommodate the Veyron's top speed, and cost per set. The tyres can be mounted on the wheels only in France, a service which costs . Kerb weight is . This gives the car a power-to-weight ratio, according to Volkswagen Group's figures, of per ton. The overall length is , which gives of overhang. The Bugatti Veyron has a total of ten radiators: 3 air-to-liquid intercooler loop radiators 3 engine water-cooling radiators 1 air conditioning condenser 1 transmission oil radiator 1 differential oil radiator 1 engine oil radiator
It has a (normal condition) and (after lowering to the ground), and a frontal area of . This gives it a drag area, the product of drag coefficient and frontal area, of .
Despite the exclusivity of the project and the price of each unit, used existing components from VW Group models or other suppliers (hydraulic pump, air filter, etc.). This is acceptable in mechanical engineering, but can lead to rapid wear due to heavy loads of the Veyron, which, however, simplifies independent repairs.
Engine power output According to Volkswagen Group and certified by TÜV Süddeutschland, the W16 engine utilised by the Veyron has a power output of , and generates of torque.
Top speed German inspection officials recorded an average top speed of the original version at during test sessions on Volkswagen Group's private Ehra-Lessien test track on 19 April 2005.
This top speed was almost matched by James May on Top Gear in November 2006, at the Ehra-Lessien test track, at . May noted that at top speed the engine consumes of air per minute (as much as a human breathes in four days). Back in the Top Gear studio, co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson commented that most sports cars felt like they were shaking apart at their top speed, and asked May if that was the case with the Veyron at . May responded that the Veyron was very controlled, and only wobbled slightly when the air brake deployed.
In regular use, the ability to reach the above absolute top speed is locked out. The car's normal top speed is listed as . Also, when the car reaches , hydraulics lower the car until it has a ground clearance of about . At the same time, the wing and spoiler deploy. In this handling mode, the wing provides of downforce, holding the car to the road.
To reach the car's absolute top speed, its top speed mode must be entered while the vehicle is at rest. For this, the driver must use a special top speed key in a keyhole to the left of their seat, which triggers a checklist to establish whether the car and its driver are ready to attempt to reach . If so, the rear spoiler retracts, the front air diffusers shut, and normal ground clearance drops to .
Braking The Veyron's brakes use cross drilled, radially vented carbon fibre reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite discs, manufactured by SGL Carbon, which have less brake fade and weigh less than standard cast iron discs. The lightweight aluminium alloy monobloc brake calipers are made by AP Racing; the front have eight titanium pistons and the rear calipers have six pistons. Bugatti claims maximum deceleration of 1.3 g on road tyres. As an added safety feature, in the event of brake failure, an anti-lock braking system (ABS) has also been installed on the handbrake.
Prototypes have been subjected to repeated 1.0 g braking from to without fade. With the car's acceleration from to , that test can be performed every 22 seconds. At speeds above , the rear wing also acts as an airbrake, snapping to a 55° angle in 0.4 seconds once brakes are applied, providing an additional 0.68 g (6.66 m/s2) of deceleration (equivalent to the stopping power of an ordinary hatchback). Bugatti claims the Veyron will brake from to a standstill in less than 10 seconds, though distance covered in this time will be half a kilometre (third of a mile).
Special editions +NamePictureRelease dateRelease priceNotesBugatti 16.4 Veyron Pur SangSeptember 20075 units were made. The first Veyron to feature no paint, and instead use an exposed carbon fiber and aluminum finish.Bugatti Veyron Fbg par HermèsMarch 2008, excluding taxes and transportCollaboration with French design house Hermès, featuring a bull calfskin interior. This model was limited to four units. A Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport was later produced in the same configuration.Bugatti 16.4 Veyron Sang NoirMay 200812 units were made.Bugatti Veyron Bleu CentenaireMarch 20091 unit was made.Bugatti Veyron "Jean-Pierre Wimille"September 2009Named after French racing driver Jean-Pierre Wimille who was a factory driver for Bugatti in the 1930s.Bugatti Veyron "Achille Varzi"September 2009Named after Italian racing driver Achille Varzi who raced for Bugatti in the early 1930s.Bugatti Veyron "Malcolm Campbell"September 2009Named after British racing driver Malcolm Campbell who raced for Bugatti in the late 1920s.Bugatti Veyron "Hermann zu Leiningen"September 2009Named after German racing driver Hermann zu Leiningen who raced for Bugatti in the early 1930s.
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport (2009–2015)
The targa top version of the Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4, dubbed the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, was unveiled at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It has extensive reinforcements to compensate for the lack of a standard roof and small changes to the windshield and running lights. Two removable tops are included, the second a temporary arrangement fashioned after an umbrella. The top speed with the hardtop in place is the same as the standard coupé version, but with the roof removed is limited to —and to with the temporary soft roof. The Grand Sport edition was limited to 150 units, with the first 50 going exclusively to registered Bugatti customers. Production began in the second quarter of 2009.
Special editions