Slashdot Mirror
The Bugatti Veyron
An anonymous reader writes "OK, most /.ers cannot afford the Veyron, but reading this article at HowStuffWorks is still fascinating. How do you fit 1,000 horsepower into a compact engine? How do you keep a passenger car on the road at 250+ MPH? The article links to a set of videos on the Veyron engine that are also very good. Are there any cars out there better than this?" There's also a story by Popular Science.
My lowely little GMC minivan is far better than this car. I can fit the kids, my wife, our double stroller, and a whole bunch of groceries/luggage/cargo, etc in it confortably, pay about $350/month for it, and still get around 20mpg.
Not that the Bugatti wouldn't be a lot of fun, but I doubt I'd have my license very long if I owned one of those.
Anyone care to put money on this car making it to market?
The Bugatti Veyron is the last gasp of Piech's reign at VW (He had a thing for supercars and old nameplates). It's been plauged with reliablity issues and has cost VW a fortune to develop.
(Kinda sounds like Rhapsody a bit, doesn't it?)
-E2
The evil monkey commands you to dance.
It has wings - just upside down - for the downforce needed to make it stable. From TFA:
But wouldn't it have been easier to just add 398 lbs. of extra metal? Serious question. Is downforce from the spoiler(wing) that much better than extra metal?
Is that just at full throttle? This car reminds me of some of the huge Dusenburgs in the 1920's. These cars were such gas hogs that you had to turn the car off while pumping in gas, becuase they used it faster than the low power pumps of the day could get it in the tank. Also, I remember Bugatti calling this car a show car, but I don't remember them ever saying they were going to make it. It seems to me that it is not practical enough to drive. At 1.33 GPM, you would need to drive a gas truck behind it to get more than 5 miles! How big a gas tank can this car have? 15-20 Gallons? Think about it...
We're getting into issues here regarding "expensive" vs. "valuable."
An expensive car is one that you need a lot of money to order. A valuable car is one that even if you have the money you probably can't get because there aren't any on the market.
Kinda like the Hope Diamond. You just can't have it. Period. It's not for sale.
When cars like this do go on the market they are typically sold at auction, which is where Guiness gets that price for the Royale (which is a particular Royale, not the Royale in general. Every Royale was a custom one off. They vary in value.).
This does not actually make it the most valuable car in the world though. Just the one the highest auction price has been payed for.
It is guessed that Ralph Lauren's Type 57SC Atlantic is much more valuable, but it hasn't been on the market for 20 years, so it has no known "price."
It's the Hope Diamond of automobiles.
Of course the Thrust SSC is the fastest car in the world, and no, you can't buy that either.
KFG
...I'm reading here are kind of off-base.
"You can only drive 60(75,85)mph anyway, what a waste"
"The small-penised guys who buy this will kill themselves in 15 minutes"
"How pointless, it only gets 3mpg!"
etc, etc, etc.
Hmmmm, where do I begin. The people who are in the market to buy this automobile are not going to drive it every day. In fact, they will probably transport it in its own trailer if they take it to any concours, etc.
The main thing is, you're viewing this as a car. It isn't. It's a piece of kinetic, semi-functional sculpture. The collectors will buy this, then put it in their lovely 30,000sq.ft. showroom, and maybe take it around the block once in a while to get a little sun.
There are people with vast amounts of money who appreciate exceptional feats of engineering and design. Jay Leno is one. The Sultan of Brunai is another.
As far as the driving like assholes, that only happens with idiot rockstars and the like who just got a million dollar paycheck. The vast majority of the people driving this car will be doctors, investment bankers and the like. These guys drive carefully.
I live in Carmel, CA. We have the Concours d'Elegance here at Pebble Beach every year, and countless other similar events at nearby Laguna Seca. In addition, there are enough Ferraris and the like around here normally that I usually see 2-3 on the way to work every day. Hell, Porsches are common as VW beetles around here. I've never seen any of the more exotic cars driven less than super-carefully.
Yeah, it's a lot of money, but it costs much less then some of the jewelry worn at the Oscars... and this is much cooler then some bling-bling necklace.
-m
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
I would rather have this instead
http://www.moller.com/.
"Are there any cars better than this?"
Yeah, just about any car on the road, for most commonly used definitions of "better". For example, a Civic is cheaper to buy, cheaper to insure, cheaper to maintain, easier to drive, quieter, rides better, more comfortable, has more cargo space, and has better gas mileage.
Doesn't the Suzuki GSX-1300 Hyabusa do this also and for a lot less?
No, wait. . . now!
No, really, now! And it will have a jillion horsepower and go a bazillion miles an hour!
As to the question of "are there better cars out there?" the answer is yes: any one of them you can actually drive.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
"How do you keep a passenger car on the road "
More importantly exactly what is the point of having a passenger car that can go 250 MPH. If you live in the U.S. and you routinely drive half that speed your driver's license is going be gone in a month.
OK, maybe you live in Germany and you drive on Autobahn's with no speed limit. Then you could maybe crank it up to 200 MPH. At that point you would be on the verge of killing yourself thanks to the huge differential with the rest of the traffic on the highway. If you killed yourself that would be OK but you would probably take one or more people with you and that is not OK.
There is simply no reason to even allow a car with this much power to be licensed for highway driving. If you want the styling great build a car with the same styling and an engine appropriate for highway driving. If you really want to drive this fast, buy a race car and get on a racing circuit. That way when you set out on your path to self destruction you will be on a track full of people with the same death wish and you can kill each other with killing innocent bystanders.
If you buy a car with this much power, and then drive anywhere close to the speed limit you are just a retard compensating for your absence of a penis and or brains.
@de_machina
drag engines are torn down after every day, if not every race - do you want to have to bring your car in for a total engine rebuild every 500 miles?
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
While the Bugatti is an amazing car, I must still admire the McLaren F1.
10 years ago this car was built. Its engine cranks out 627 BHP, from a NORMALLY ASPIRATED (eat that, quad turbo W16) V12. And its only 6.1 liters!
For a car more than a decade old to still be this good compared to todays technology is a feat.
And to the other poster, I'm pretty sure an F1 car would beat the pants off any car in an autoX type event. There is just no replacement for lateral grip, and crazy accelleration (0-100 in 5 secs), and braking (55 feet 100-0).
I think that an F1 car would get it's ass kicked if it was prepped for an F1 race and dropped on to an autocross course. I think that it would do quite well if it was prepped correctly for an autocross.
F1 tires would not heat up by the end of an autocross run, giving little benefit. They would need to be swapped out from tires meant to last for 100+ miles of racing with ones designed to last 10 miles of racing (softer compound autocross tires). I've never driven an F1 car, but my guess is that the steering would suck for an autocross. I suspect it would be easy to mess with the ratio to make it more usable, but the lock-to-lock at relatively low speeds would probably be close to impossible without mods. Also, there is no point in 6 or more gears when you wouldn't even get out of first gear (and even then, you'd not get to the power peak in first gear on an autocross course). Again, I've not driven an F1 car, but I would expect that they would not generate significant power at low speeds, as that is not what they were designed to do.
If you took any 1000 lb car with 1000 hp and set it up well, it would be great for autocrossing. However, the F1 circuit does not leave the cars set up well for short, low-speed handling contests.
Learn to love Alaska
The japanese makers had to move away from high reving 4 bangers that make useless hp (hp where you don't use it but is good for advertising) and go to larger displacement slower speed engines.
Uh, you mean useless HP when coupled to one of those nasty slushboxes. My 7500 RPM engine making most HP above 4500 RPM til redline makes me quite happy, but I drive stick so I can actually use it.
Larry
In the case of the bike, it would be significantly slower with me on board than some 45kg model. We are talking 1.5kg/hp versus 1.2kg/hp (about 25%) Still be brutally quick, but definitely slower.
Richard.
Probably you should go talk to the people that build indy cars about that. The spoilers that they have are just inverted airfoils. In fact, travelling at 400 or so MPH, they would be capable of holding the indy car upside down on a ceiling.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
It would be nice if a car like this actually existed. Too bad they don't mention that minor detail anywhere in the article.
Did anyone else notice that there are no real photos of this car? Any pics I could find were all just nice computer-generated renderings. My advice: don't place your order for this car just yet.
Despite what EULAs say, most software is sold, not licensed.
The problem is, you don't know. Most technologies that look promising end up being abandoned or relegated to niches: think about Chrysler's turbine engine for passenger cars and Mazda's Wankel, respectively.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
OK, so just because you drive like a tool, I should too. If I'm cruising in the cruising lane(on a 2 lane road its the one on the same side as your steering wheel) and I see you coming behind me, I'm going to do as the law prescribes and pull to the side to let you pass on the appropriate side... also as the law prescribes. If you try to pass me on the wrong side, you may just hit me. OTOH, If I see you coming up behind me and I"m not in that lane, I will postpone passing till you are past me. If you hit me from behind, its your fault and you can pay for my medical care since you obviously can afford the car and associated fuel and insurance costs.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed