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Motoring T


he speedo races round the clock to a heart stopping 205mph before we hit the braking zone. All 1183bhp is banging through the


most advanced four-wheel drive system on Earth and £1.6 million of car claws its way from 100- 200mph in less than 1000 metres. T e Bugatti Veyron Vitesse is such an orgy of numbers, that it’s easy to get wrapped up in them. Statistics, though, no matter how impressive,


are sterile and clinical. T e Veyron Vitesse is anything but. Especially when Bugatti ships us out to a high speed oval course on the outskirts of Barcelona to let us give the car its full head, with the roof down. After Loris Biccocci, the development driver for the Veyron, Pagani Zonda and now Huayra, Koenigsegg Agera R and more gives the signal as we exit the heavily banked turn I simply plant the throttle. T e car explodes forward with simply ridiculous


pace for a machine that’s already doing 125mph and similarly unnerving control. Other cars buck, fi dget and threaten to throw you off the road as your eyeballs start to vibrate and the road ahead narrows to a pinprick as nature intervenes to let you know you’re on the road to Hell. Here, it feels like 100mph in a Golf, aside from


the way the upcoming track fl ies past the side window with video game-style speed. My hands barely move on the wheel and I’m sure if we tried myself and co-driver Loris Bicocchi could hold a conversation. T at’s how far ahead of the game this car really is and the really scary thing is there’s so much left in the tank when I lift off , this is a car that can hit 255mph with ease. Eff ectively a targa version of the Super Sports,


the Vitesse comes with the improved 1183bhp version of the Eight litre, quad turbocharged W16 powerplant. T at means it accelerates to 60mph in 2.6s, 125mph in 7.4s and 180mph in 16s. It’s just breathtaking. It is even more spectacular on the open road,


though. T e test route takes us on a winding route into the hills to the North of


Barcelona. It’s a tight road, there is traffi c, but it’s easily dispatched. Because even a train of fi ve cars suddenly becomes a speck in the rear view mirror as I pull out, smash the throttle to the fl oor and the g-force throws my head back in to the seat. I can leapfrog another car in the space of an S-bend, fl y round the outside and basically do what the hell I like in this car and get back in safely before anything crushes that ludicrously expensive front end . T at’s what the Veyron in any form truly is: omnipotence. It’s the solid knowledge that the machine


underfoot could wipe the fl oor with, smash into a little cube and spit out, more or less any other car on the road. See it’s not the performance that defi nes the


Veyron, epic though it is, it’s the ease with which you can deploy literally every one of those 1183 horses and 1106lb/ft of torque. I simply pull out and mash the loud pedal and the car sorts it out, fi ring at the next bend like a bullet and turning everything into its way into a mobile chicane. Opening the taps on the Veyron Vitesse is even better than the other cars, too, thanks to the open air component. With the roof removed there’s minimal buff eting, the bodywork cossets and protects the occupants to the point you could chat comfortably at sane speeds. But really slam the loud pedal and the whole car changes, snorting like a wild animal as the wastegates open with each upchange, buzzing angrily with each downchange and roaring like some deranged industrial machine on the verge of meltdown as it rips through the rev range. T ere’s no high-pitched whine like you get with a Ferrari, it’s an earthy, guttural roar that feels like it could shake the world. Bugatti supplies a roof spoiler that clips into


place for use when the roof is off that helps reduce wind and also provides extra downforce to compensate for the messed up aerodynamics. T e rear wing also alters its attitude when the roof is off . Anyone beneath a top level F1 driver


would struggle to feel that, but Bugatti isn’t the kind of company to just leave that well alone. It has even altered the suspension, with a


combination of softer springs and stiff er anti- rollbars ensuring that the Bugatti keeps its basic levels of grip and yet rides even better than its predecessors. Indeed I trundle through town on the way back, and stop as we approach a speed bump, wary of the car’s unique requirements. Should I turn round? Take it at a 45 degree angle? Lift the front somehow? None of these things, the Veyron is designed to retain a sensible ride height and handles everything the town can throw at it. It’s been said before, but the Vitesse is as easy to drive as an automatic rental car through town. T ere are just 91 cars available to order, all of them will be open tops and most will be Vitesses. Bugatti swears that there won’t be another new model, and the most we’ll see from them will be a special edition version of the Vitesse Such ongoing development for such a small number of cars is bordering on obsession. But that in itself is as much a hallmark of the brand as the blistering acceleration. And the results make themselves felt on the road, where you can forget all about the bespectacled engineers and just let rip. And the second I throw this car into bend I


struggle to comprehend the simply ridiculous kerbweight of 1990kg. It just isn’t there. T e Veyron looks as compact as a Ferrari 430: it’s no slab of supercar real estate like a Koenigsegg or a Pagani and that means its easily placed. T en there’s the visibility, it’s pretty good for a car of this ilk, and pretty soon I’m fi nding the confi dence to dive in late on the massive brakes and throw that much money’s worth into bends I’ve never seen before. T e ESP stays fi rmly on, and the car tends to understeer when I fi nally ask too much of the epic Michelins. T ere is no oversteer to be had here, it’s just too good for that,


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