gmb45
19th October, 2010, 05:57 AM
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01741/Veyron-1_1741372c.jpg Super Sport is Bugatti's latest masterpiece and costs from ?1.45million
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01741/Veyron-2_1741378c.jpg Hold your nerve and the Super Sport will run to a restricted top speed of 258mph
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01741/Veyron-3_1741380c.jpg The Veyron's interior is beautifully detailed
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01741/Veyron-4_1741383c.jpg16 cylinders, 7,993cc and 1,183bhp. sound enough ?
The well-thumbed road-tester?s dictionary of superlatives has been consigned to the bin and the world seems a far slower place after a few hours in the world?s fastest production road car.
No mere fast, brash supercar, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport has been created expressly to be the GT par excellence. A lot of Veyron owners apparently think the best part of 1,000bhp isn?t enough, so the Super Sport has been created to fill the niche.
It is a development of the Veyron launched in 2005, with extensive modifications to unleash even more power while retaining the original car?s poise and driveability. Volkswagen acquired the rights to the Bugatti name in 1998 and, under the direction of then-boss Dr Ferdinand Pi?ch, set about producing an ultra-high performance car with at least 1,000 horsepower and a top speed beyond 400kph (249mph). The result was the Veyron 16.4, with a W16 quad-turbo engine producing 987bhp (1,001PS) and 922lb ft of torque ? good for 0-62mph in 2.5sec and a top speed of 253mph. It was limited to 300 units, including variants such as the Grand Sport cabriolet... and now this.
Obviously, the Super Sport had to have more power. The engine is essentially the same apart from reduced internal resistance, but bigger turbochargers (four of them, remember) and Naca ducts in the roof (to feed more air to the intercoolers) hike power to 1,200PS (1,183bhp).
Bugatti engineer Dr Oliver Schauerte outlined the other changes from the ?standard? Veyron. The front has been revised with extra grilles to assist breathing and improve brake cooling. The brake discs are unchanged, but the Super Sport has racing-grade pads.
More significant are changes to the chassis, chiefly a stiffer monocoque thanks to a stronger ? and more expensive, naturally ? weave of carbon-fibre. Revised spring rates and new dampers, which react more quickly to help keep the tyres in contact with the road under extremes of acceleration and braking, also feature.
At the rear, there?s a larger twin exhaust outlet in the centre ? mainly design-led, according to Schauerte. A double diffuser under the bodywork harmonises the airflow from beneath the car and produces downforce, while the trailing edge of the bodywork was reprofiled after wind tunnel tests. Unseen, but important considering the mighty torque lurking within, the gearbox oil cooler has been moved farther into the airflow for better cooling.
Inside, the most obvious change is a new steering wheel covered in what looks and feels like Alcantara but is in fact a special fade-resistant leather. The gearlever is also new, as are a smattering of carbon-fibre details and optional black anodised air vents.
The horseshoe-shaped centre console echoes the traditional Bugatti grille, with air vents around the outside. Exquisite stitching and leather are simple yet stunning to behold. The seats are thin but really supportive, the whole interior achieving the difficult trick of being unfussy yet opulent.
The attention to detail is beguiling ? and shows where the money goes. It?s vulgar to talk of money, of course, but you should know that a Veyron Super Sport is priced from ?1.45m to ?1.62m. The five carbon and orange cars celebrating the production car speed record went for ?1.72m apiece.
Attention to detail is also evident in the engine bay, although you can?t see much (it?s a bodywork-off job to do any routine maintenance, other than check the oil and coolant levels).
No test of a performance car is complete without reference to an array of impressive numbers: 16 cylinders; 7,993cc; 1,183bhp; 1,106lb ft; 415kph (258mph) ? limited to protect the tyres; 0-62mph in 2.5sec; 0-124mph (200kph) in 6.7sec; 0-186mph (300kph) in 14.6sec; standing quarter mile in 9.7sec and a mile in 23.6sec; 365mm wide tyres; three suspension modes (standard, handling and top speed). And more.
As ever, performance comes at a price. How about a fuel economy of 7.59mpg in town, which improves to 18.9mpg on the EU Extra-Urban cycle? Then there are the bespoke Michelin tyres. When new they only have 5mm of tread and can thus easily be destroyed in next to no time, despite the four-wheel drive.
My chaperone was Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel, who set the official world production car speed record in July. For some reason, he never lets the car out of his sight. He also stresses that it?s categorically not a track-day car for the super-super-rich.
The numbers alone might fill you with dread, yet the intensive and often difficult development has led to a car that, at first, is almost anti-climactic to drive. Turn the key and press the starter button and the mighty engine soon settles at a remarkably civilised idle, with little exhaust noise. It?s best to leave it in Drive at low speed then change to the steering wheel-mounted gear paddles on the move.
And it?s so easy. Plenty of incredibly fast cars are recalcitrant beasts until they?re up to (usually illegal) speed, but the Super Sport simply digs into its colossal reserves of torque and hauls away with the might of a steam locomotive.
Then you pluck up the courage to press the throttle and it accelerates with alacrity. No drama, no weight transfer to the rear, no scrabbling for grip. It simply surges forward. That?s when you realise you?ve used perhaps a quarter of the pedal travel...
More striking than the raw speed, however, is the Super Sport?s civility. Badly ridged and rutted roads don?t divert its course and the engine note rarely changes from a turbine-like whistle, although the chatter of turbo wastegates gives a clue to the amount of mechanical mayhem taking place just behind you. Ratios in the seven-speed DSG transmission engage seamlessly and you can converse with passengers without raising your voice.
It seems obvious, given the amount of power at your disposal, but nothing can prepare you for the ease with which this car covers ground. Overtaking is merely a flex of your right foot away, even without dropping a couple of gears for maximum impact. Contemptuous doesn?t come close. It just keeps accelerating until you run out of asphalt.
It?s not just on straight roads that the Super Sport excels, although you always have to be aware that things happen very quickly indeed when you?re pressing on and, although it feels compact from the driving seat, you also have to remember that this is a large, heavy machine.
Even so, the handling is a revelation. While it?s never going to be as point-and-squirt nimble as a Ford Focus RS, for instance, its agility is remarkable. The steering is perfectly weighted and the car seems to shrink around you, never feeling less than taut and involving, willing the driver to control it rather than tame it. On a sinuous mountain route it?s more Lotus than leviathan.
The ceramic brakes, too, are superbly honed to provide sublime levels of feedback and progression allied to immense stopping power. It?s impressive on the road, backing up Bugatti?s claim that the Super Sport will stop from 62mph to standstill in only 31.4 metres. As with the acceleration, there?s no drama or pitching from the chassis, just retardation.
Since Bugatti has already sold 260 of the planned run of Veyrons, there can only ever be 40 Super Sports at most. The company had planned to make just 30, but such has been the demand that Super Sports will make up most of the remaining production output.
As Raphanel insists, the Veyron Super Sport is first and foremost a road car. He is correct, and it is stunningly effective in that role, but there is precious little terrain capable of accommodating such a missile. You might have to take a (relatively) sedate drive to a racing circuit after all, the more to savour that benchmark performance.
The towering speed is a given, the disposable income required a rare privilege. With cars such as this, truly, the world is not enough.
THE FACTS
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport
PRICE/ON SALE ?1.45m to ?1.62m/up to one year between order and delivery
POWER/TORQUE 1,183bhp@6,400rpm/1,106lb ft@3,000-5,000rpm
TOP SPEED 258mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 2.5sec
FUEL ECONOMY 7.6mpg (EU Urban)
CO2 EMISSIONS 539g/km
VED BAND M (?950 first year)
VERDICT Simply breathtaking demonstration of power and performance ? and the all-round quality and useability make it all the more desirable
TELEGRAPH RATING Five out of five.
Fastest production car in the world
The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is officially the world?s fastest production car, after reaching 431.072kph (267.856mph) at the VW group?s Ehra-Lessien test track on July 3.
Watched by independent testers and a Guinness Book of Records representative, Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel (right) recorded two runs in opposite directions, reaching 265.905mph and 269.806mph respectively. The new record is an average of the two.
The previous record of 256mph was set by an SSC Ultimate Aero in 2007.
Raphanel explained that the car had to be standard, but that the rev limiter was removed. ?We took it that we would average 264mph,? said Bugatti?s chief engineer Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, ?but the conditions were perfect and allowed even more.?
The original Veyron ? which held the world record until 2007 ? still has an eight-litre, 16-cylinder engine. In Super Sport trim, its four turbochargers have been tweaked to provide 1,183bhp and it has more refined aerodynamics.
The first five production Super Sports, the World Record Edition models, are finished in black carbon-fibre with orange highlights. All have been sold and Bugatti says it will not produce any more. Super Sport buyers can, however, specify their car to match the record-breaker?s livery but not in identical colours.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport review - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car-manufacturers/bugatti/8063779/Bugatti-Veyron-16.4-Super-Sport-review.html)
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01741/Veyron-2_1741378c.jpg Hold your nerve and the Super Sport will run to a restricted top speed of 258mph
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01741/Veyron-3_1741380c.jpg The Veyron's interior is beautifully detailed
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01741/Veyron-4_1741383c.jpg16 cylinders, 7,993cc and 1,183bhp. sound enough ?
The well-thumbed road-tester?s dictionary of superlatives has been consigned to the bin and the world seems a far slower place after a few hours in the world?s fastest production road car.
No mere fast, brash supercar, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport has been created expressly to be the GT par excellence. A lot of Veyron owners apparently think the best part of 1,000bhp isn?t enough, so the Super Sport has been created to fill the niche.
It is a development of the Veyron launched in 2005, with extensive modifications to unleash even more power while retaining the original car?s poise and driveability. Volkswagen acquired the rights to the Bugatti name in 1998 and, under the direction of then-boss Dr Ferdinand Pi?ch, set about producing an ultra-high performance car with at least 1,000 horsepower and a top speed beyond 400kph (249mph). The result was the Veyron 16.4, with a W16 quad-turbo engine producing 987bhp (1,001PS) and 922lb ft of torque ? good for 0-62mph in 2.5sec and a top speed of 253mph. It was limited to 300 units, including variants such as the Grand Sport cabriolet... and now this.
Obviously, the Super Sport had to have more power. The engine is essentially the same apart from reduced internal resistance, but bigger turbochargers (four of them, remember) and Naca ducts in the roof (to feed more air to the intercoolers) hike power to 1,200PS (1,183bhp).
Bugatti engineer Dr Oliver Schauerte outlined the other changes from the ?standard? Veyron. The front has been revised with extra grilles to assist breathing and improve brake cooling. The brake discs are unchanged, but the Super Sport has racing-grade pads.
More significant are changes to the chassis, chiefly a stiffer monocoque thanks to a stronger ? and more expensive, naturally ? weave of carbon-fibre. Revised spring rates and new dampers, which react more quickly to help keep the tyres in contact with the road under extremes of acceleration and braking, also feature.
At the rear, there?s a larger twin exhaust outlet in the centre ? mainly design-led, according to Schauerte. A double diffuser under the bodywork harmonises the airflow from beneath the car and produces downforce, while the trailing edge of the bodywork was reprofiled after wind tunnel tests. Unseen, but important considering the mighty torque lurking within, the gearbox oil cooler has been moved farther into the airflow for better cooling.
Inside, the most obvious change is a new steering wheel covered in what looks and feels like Alcantara but is in fact a special fade-resistant leather. The gearlever is also new, as are a smattering of carbon-fibre details and optional black anodised air vents.
The horseshoe-shaped centre console echoes the traditional Bugatti grille, with air vents around the outside. Exquisite stitching and leather are simple yet stunning to behold. The seats are thin but really supportive, the whole interior achieving the difficult trick of being unfussy yet opulent.
The attention to detail is beguiling ? and shows where the money goes. It?s vulgar to talk of money, of course, but you should know that a Veyron Super Sport is priced from ?1.45m to ?1.62m. The five carbon and orange cars celebrating the production car speed record went for ?1.72m apiece.
Attention to detail is also evident in the engine bay, although you can?t see much (it?s a bodywork-off job to do any routine maintenance, other than check the oil and coolant levels).
No test of a performance car is complete without reference to an array of impressive numbers: 16 cylinders; 7,993cc; 1,183bhp; 1,106lb ft; 415kph (258mph) ? limited to protect the tyres; 0-62mph in 2.5sec; 0-124mph (200kph) in 6.7sec; 0-186mph (300kph) in 14.6sec; standing quarter mile in 9.7sec and a mile in 23.6sec; 365mm wide tyres; three suspension modes (standard, handling and top speed). And more.
As ever, performance comes at a price. How about a fuel economy of 7.59mpg in town, which improves to 18.9mpg on the EU Extra-Urban cycle? Then there are the bespoke Michelin tyres. When new they only have 5mm of tread and can thus easily be destroyed in next to no time, despite the four-wheel drive.
My chaperone was Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel, who set the official world production car speed record in July. For some reason, he never lets the car out of his sight. He also stresses that it?s categorically not a track-day car for the super-super-rich.
The numbers alone might fill you with dread, yet the intensive and often difficult development has led to a car that, at first, is almost anti-climactic to drive. Turn the key and press the starter button and the mighty engine soon settles at a remarkably civilised idle, with little exhaust noise. It?s best to leave it in Drive at low speed then change to the steering wheel-mounted gear paddles on the move.
And it?s so easy. Plenty of incredibly fast cars are recalcitrant beasts until they?re up to (usually illegal) speed, but the Super Sport simply digs into its colossal reserves of torque and hauls away with the might of a steam locomotive.
Then you pluck up the courage to press the throttle and it accelerates with alacrity. No drama, no weight transfer to the rear, no scrabbling for grip. It simply surges forward. That?s when you realise you?ve used perhaps a quarter of the pedal travel...
More striking than the raw speed, however, is the Super Sport?s civility. Badly ridged and rutted roads don?t divert its course and the engine note rarely changes from a turbine-like whistle, although the chatter of turbo wastegates gives a clue to the amount of mechanical mayhem taking place just behind you. Ratios in the seven-speed DSG transmission engage seamlessly and you can converse with passengers without raising your voice.
It seems obvious, given the amount of power at your disposal, but nothing can prepare you for the ease with which this car covers ground. Overtaking is merely a flex of your right foot away, even without dropping a couple of gears for maximum impact. Contemptuous doesn?t come close. It just keeps accelerating until you run out of asphalt.
It?s not just on straight roads that the Super Sport excels, although you always have to be aware that things happen very quickly indeed when you?re pressing on and, although it feels compact from the driving seat, you also have to remember that this is a large, heavy machine.
Even so, the handling is a revelation. While it?s never going to be as point-and-squirt nimble as a Ford Focus RS, for instance, its agility is remarkable. The steering is perfectly weighted and the car seems to shrink around you, never feeling less than taut and involving, willing the driver to control it rather than tame it. On a sinuous mountain route it?s more Lotus than leviathan.
The ceramic brakes, too, are superbly honed to provide sublime levels of feedback and progression allied to immense stopping power. It?s impressive on the road, backing up Bugatti?s claim that the Super Sport will stop from 62mph to standstill in only 31.4 metres. As with the acceleration, there?s no drama or pitching from the chassis, just retardation.
Since Bugatti has already sold 260 of the planned run of Veyrons, there can only ever be 40 Super Sports at most. The company had planned to make just 30, but such has been the demand that Super Sports will make up most of the remaining production output.
As Raphanel insists, the Veyron Super Sport is first and foremost a road car. He is correct, and it is stunningly effective in that role, but there is precious little terrain capable of accommodating such a missile. You might have to take a (relatively) sedate drive to a racing circuit after all, the more to savour that benchmark performance.
The towering speed is a given, the disposable income required a rare privilege. With cars such as this, truly, the world is not enough.
THE FACTS
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport
PRICE/ON SALE ?1.45m to ?1.62m/up to one year between order and delivery
POWER/TORQUE 1,183bhp@6,400rpm/1,106lb ft@3,000-5,000rpm
TOP SPEED 258mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 2.5sec
FUEL ECONOMY 7.6mpg (EU Urban)
CO2 EMISSIONS 539g/km
VED BAND M (?950 first year)
VERDICT Simply breathtaking demonstration of power and performance ? and the all-round quality and useability make it all the more desirable
TELEGRAPH RATING Five out of five.
Fastest production car in the world
The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is officially the world?s fastest production car, after reaching 431.072kph (267.856mph) at the VW group?s Ehra-Lessien test track on July 3.
Watched by independent testers and a Guinness Book of Records representative, Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel (right) recorded two runs in opposite directions, reaching 265.905mph and 269.806mph respectively. The new record is an average of the two.
The previous record of 256mph was set by an SSC Ultimate Aero in 2007.
Raphanel explained that the car had to be standard, but that the rev limiter was removed. ?We took it that we would average 264mph,? said Bugatti?s chief engineer Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, ?but the conditions were perfect and allowed even more.?
The original Veyron ? which held the world record until 2007 ? still has an eight-litre, 16-cylinder engine. In Super Sport trim, its four turbochargers have been tweaked to provide 1,183bhp and it has more refined aerodynamics.
The first five production Super Sports, the World Record Edition models, are finished in black carbon-fibre with orange highlights. All have been sold and Bugatti says it will not produce any more. Super Sport buyers can, however, specify their car to match the record-breaker?s livery but not in identical colours.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport review - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car-manufacturers/bugatti/8063779/Bugatti-Veyron-16.4-Super-Sport-review.html)