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Bugatti's Latest Veyron, Most Ridiculous Car on the Planet?
Wired has an amusing writeup that accurately captures the most recent ridiculous addition to Bugatti's automobile catalog. The $2.1 million Veyron sports over 1,000 horsepower, a 16-cylinder engine, and a top speed of 245 mph. The guilty conscience comes for free. "That same cash-filled briefcase could buy seven Ferrari 599s or every single 2009 model Mercedes. You could snap up a top-shelf Maybach and employ a chauffeur until well past the apocalypse. Hell, in this economy, $2.1 million is probably enough to make you a one-man special-interest group with some serious Washington clout."
does it run linux?
I bet you could rack mount a couple servers in the trunk (1U). Fastest datacenter on Earth.
Top Gear had an episode some time ago where they opened this beast up on the 5 mile+ straight at Volkswagen's German test facility. So damned fast - 407 kph!
From the episode: "At this speed, the tires will disintegrate in 15 minutes - That's ok, we've only got enough fuel for 12"
you never lose in ure razorblade shoes......Beck-Hotwax
Anyone care to spot me the $2.1 million and a bit of gas money? :-)
its a waste only if you buy it when you dont like it. I mean for some even a single ferrari 599 would be waste. if you have the money and you wanna buy this beast, go ahead and jumpstart the economy That said whether it is a waste to even build such a car, I dont know, there is a lot of research involved and eventually all research leads to something good (or bad).
If you parked it on the street without an armed guard, you'd deserve it.
Friend of mine has a Ferrari.. it goes from the garage to the track and back again, and that's it. (Oh ok, sometimes it goes down the highway and gets him speeding tickets.)
How we know is more important than what we know.
What's the "guilty conscience" wisecrack for? This thing is not only incredibly cool, but if you can afford it, you already pay enough taxes to support a small mid-American city. Get over it.
Sorry, but if I had one, my guilty conscience would have been left behind on the road, choking on the dust from my Veyron.
GM owns Volkswagen? That is news to me.
-- Cheers!
TFA waffles on about how Bugatti had to work on the structure to make it survive at 250 miles per hour, but honestly, speeds like that are just routine for twin engined aeroplanes. They need to be engineered to do that too but it isn't really a big deal.
Amateurs have built cars which go close to the sound barrier. Cars were going as fast as this 50 years ago. Sure, road vehicles get stressed a bit more than aircraft, but any sail plane comes with a 20G crash cage made out of normal aluminium. And they cost, what? 100 grand?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Bugatti Automobiles SAS is a subsidiary of Volkswagen, and is actually a new company founded in 2000. As far as I'm aware, none of the former Bugatti companies were ever associated with GM; even if they were, a subsidiary can certainly make cars distinct from its parent company if the corporate structure permits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_vehicle
The whole point of a halo car is to demonstrate engineering prowess and/or get PR for the company. It certainly worked; Bugatti went from being a maliase-y brand nobody had heard of, to a brand almost any 18 year old kid and any car enthusiast worth his salt knows about. It wouldn't surprise me if Bugatti make a big move into a (obviously lower) luxury market very soon, cashing in on the recognition they've earned.
Please help metamoderate.
At the beginning of 2008 Pininfarina and Bolloré set up a 50-50 joint venture with the goal of designing, developing, manufacturing and distributing an electric car with revolutionary technical features and formal qualities. The company considers the BLUECAR, to be not a mere concept car but a forerunner of the vehicle which will go into production in Italy at Pininfarina starting from 2010. Production on a commercial scale will take place between 2011 and 2017, with the forecasted output by 2015 being about 60,000 units.
Link to Story.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Why? The Veyron is an incredible piece of engineering. Bugatti sell them at a LOSS if I recall. The workmanship is astounding.
I ever caught you keying ANY car, I'd break your fucking legs. People who key cars are UNIVERSALLY assholes.
But then you're too big of a pussy to post with your real account, so clearly you ARE an asshole.
Yeah, like they gonna sell millions of these. Keep your commie green cool aid to yourself, eh, monkey boy?!
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Working in Singapore a year ago I noticed that there were a lot of Lamborghinis around. Its a bit silly because their highest speed limit is 80km/h and the island isn't big enough to get the thing to top speed anyway.
Apparently the thing to do is wake up at 4 AM, cross the causeway into Malaysia and point the car at Kuala Lumpur. Two hours later you are having breakfast in KL. The drive back would be after the traffic cops have woken up for the day so you take a bit longer for that leg, and carry some cash
http://michaelsmith.id.au
More likely to be the other way around I think.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
who can't afford it.
Camping on quad since 1996.
For those needing a car analogy: it's like* a car.
*The value of "like" in this sentence is negligible, so the word may be omitted.
My webcomic
The car isn't for millionaires it's essentially for billionaires or people with that level of yearly income. Lets say you are making 50 or 100 million a year just how much can you spend on food and housing? the sad thing is it's like the "Dawn of the Dead" quote about a gun. "The only one that could miss with this is the sucker with the bread to buy it". The point being just how many people with that much money can actually handle a car of that caliber? They are effectively a piece of art that will largely go to waste.
Oh yeah, sure, it's very easy for amateurs to make cars go 400mph. I see it all the time with funny cars/etc.
Of course, they only go that fast for a couple brief seconds. Then, after about 2 runs down the track, they have to completely rebuild the engines. And the tires have to be replaced after each race. And the engines can't pass smog tests. And the cars aren't street legal.
Everyone knows lots of things that go this fast. What makes this car amazing is that it goes this fast and it's a god damn daily driver. If you can afford it.
GM owns Volkswagen? That is news to me.
Yeah, it's true. But it's a 2007 VW Rabbit, so I wouldn't get too excited about it. I heard it's for sale.
Kinda puts it in perspective..............
a top speed of 245 mph
If you really need to get somewhere this fast, wouldn't it be more cost-effective to buy yourself a plane?
They're sold at a loss for the first 100 or so. Once you hit the 200 million mark you've pretty much recouped your loss from R&D + actual manufacture. I'm sure if they sell 150 of them in the vechicle's lifespan they'll have easily made a 100 million dollar profit. The trick though, is to actually SELL 150 of them at the asking price. If asking price is 2.1 million, they'd probably sell one to you (cash in advance of course) for 1.6 - 1.7 million. My guess anyways.
moox. for a new generation.
Actually, it's a Porsche. Bugatti is owned by Volkswagen, who are in turn majority owned by Porsche.
Lamborghini is also owned by Porsche.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
For enhanced automotive stupidity (extra length, extra ugliness, extra thirst, all-around extra arrogance), try a car with a 27-litre engine. As a bonus, you also get an extra hammy narration, so all in all it's just what your inner nine-year-old craves.
So...why does this guy get troll, while the parent gets insightful? Because he used big nasty swear words?
Hell, in this economy, $2.1 million is probably enough to make you a one-man special-interest group with some serious Washington clout."
It's a car well suited to bankers who profited from the financial scandals and government bailouts.
Still, it's cheaper than TPB...
It is all about acceleration. The "older" Bugatti Veyron reaching 100 km/h (62 mph) in approximately 2.46 seconds. This is very near motorcycle speeds. So while the high end might be very high, the low end is where most people drive the thing.
Putting it into perspective, my wife drives an Audi S6 with the Lamborghini v10 under the hood. Fast enough for as heavy as it is, and will do the same in about 5.2 seconds. I've got a Porsche 911 C4 with a 300 horse V6 that does it in about 5.3 seconds. Her car has a speed limiter, but I've never got to the point where it has come into play. In normal driving, that sort of acceleration can be handy and is used often enough. With my car, I've never been on a track with a long enough strait line to even get up into the 165+ range.
Love to take a lap or two in one of these....
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
I think someone's a more than a bit jealous...
Why? The Veyron is an incredible piece of engineering. Bugatti sell them at a LOSS if I recall. The workmanship is astounding.
Not only that, but according to the Wired article,
they had to sacrifice 100 virgins and have the production facility in Molsheim, France, blessed by druids.
I completely disagree with sacrificing virgins, so anybody who buys this car is implicitly supporting the destruction of virgins.
That's not how it works. Selling one at a loss means, all things considered, they are going to sell the car for less than what it cost to build it. Its not a mass produced car so your calculation will probably not hold true. BTW, this news it older than dirt.
Real men read Slashdot articles at -1, bottom up.
I guess the Aston Martin "one-77" has some competition now.
What advantages does this motor car have over, say, a train -- which I could also afford?
fuck yeah! legs are self-healing anyway.
idiot.
Posting anonymously so people won't know what a douche you are.
There, fixed.
Agreed. Clearly he's never had anybody clip his side mirror in a parking lot, when it was obviously the car still sitting next to him upon returning to the lot.
If your balls drop, you might like to save money and get a Hayabusa (http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2008/08/12000-suzuki-hayabusa-outperfo.html). It outperforms the Veyron...it's a physics thing. When I've pointed this out to people in the past they say "Oh yes but a car is more practical". Sure, a multimillion dollar car sounds very practical - I'd love to own one to do the shopping or take the kids to school!
The Porsche Cayenne is.
At least Veyron has a purpose. It's a sports car designed to drive extremely fast. The price is irrelevant.
The Porsche Cayenne is a 4x4 car that can only be driven on a plain asphalted road. There is absolutely no reason for it to be as huge as it is. It's a formula 1 car on steroids. It's like a a body builder, it only looks like it's strong but in reality it's not.
only if still attached to the body.
Oh fuck you. There are plenty of self-conscious assholes who think of no one but themselves and park like that too, and those dick wads deserve getting their car keyed. What's the matter, are you one of those dicks who got his car keyed for that very reason?
It's a lopsided equation where the design cost is very high and the production number is very low. If you take them exactly at their word then yes they will never, ever make money on it. I highly doubt that the statement of "every Veyron is sold at a loss" comes with zero marketing spin. My point being that most of the built in cost of the car is the R&D. If you plan to sell 50 of them (@ $2 mil each) and it cost 200 million to design then yes it's being sold at a loss. You don't even make back what you spent on R&D, let along parts and labor. If you sell 100 at the same price you're selling them at cost - minus materials and labor. If materials and labor are anywhere near 3/4 million then somewhere around the 150 vehicle mark is the break even point. In reality I would wager they probably are losing no more than 40-60K per car, or VW would have canned the project long ago. 30-40K per car is an easy write-off for productive R&D that can be applied to the various brands VW owns (VW, Porsche, etc)
moox. for a new generation.
The Porsche ownership is practically a technicality. VW is keeping Porsche afloat.
brand nobody had heard of
Are you kidding? Bugatti has been around forever.
Nowadays Bugatti is owned by Volkswagen and the Veyron is it's "gimmick" (for the car illiterate, this is an understatement) to show the world how bloody good they are. The "Volk" (people) part of VW is prohibitive in marketing luxury cars. The Phaeton for example just doesn't get the attention it deserves in the limousine segment.
IMHO the pedigree isn't there anymore. Bugatti was very successful in the old days but ever since Ettore Bugatti passed away in 1947 the company just didn't have a sense of direction. In 1987 the name Bugatti -and not the expertise and craftsmanship- was bought by an entrepreneur which produced the horrible Bugatti EB110. Now VW produces the Veyron and it's currently the technically most sophisticated car around but the blood line is definitively cut.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Seriously, I dare them to crash this car in the next Batman.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
Was this from the archives? There've been videos of the car in action, reports from TV car shows, websites and a whole bunch of other stuff for well over a year at least. And none of them said it's a prototype or something.
We're all used to /. being occasionally "out of touch" with reality a little, but this is "olds", not "news", and 5 seconds with Google would've told the editors.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
1000 horsepower is a lot of power.
Hallehlujah!
Someone on this ignorant yank site who actually writes "km/h" the correct way. I bow to you, sir.
The days are certainly gone when Wired used to have people like Neal Stephenson write for them.
Wired used to be cool and had decent writers. Wired used to be something to /read/.
Now? We have this. A fluff advertisement column, but not only that, nothing about the tech end at all. Nothing about the engineering or anything really interesting except that it's a fast car and costs a lot of money. It's also written in the style of a high-school newspaper or Slashdot summary. Wired has become Maxim, but without the girls.
--
BMO
$550,000, same 0-60 acceleration, MUCH higher top speed (420 mph/ 676 km/h). So what if it isn't completely street-legal ... even if the cops bought a Veyron, they'd be eating your dust ...
.. and people complain about the range of EVs. This gets what, 5 mpg? A 20 gal tank, which would be huge for a small sports car, would net 100 mi. Blech
I read an article where they pointed out the removable roof. There's no room for storing the it in the trunk, so if it happens to rain when you've left it at home, their solution is a rectangluar umbrella that clips over the space over your head.
How does the possession of money equate to deserving a keyed car?
Idea for you: get off Slashdot, finish your high school diploma, and get a job. You can buy nice things with the money you earn. Maybe you'll lose the desire to destroy other people's things too :)
Speaking from a "flaunt your wealth in the face the starving and you'll get a dagger" class warfare perspective of course.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Real geeks put diamond dust on the wipers =D
There are two sets of costs: non-recurring and recurring. The non-recurring costs include all of the engineering effort, R&D, putting together the production facility, etc. The recurring costs are those that you incur for each unit produced.
I find it highly unlikely that the recurring costs are more than $2.1M for the car, unless it was made of solid iridium or something. (Annual production of iridium is something like 3 tons.) I wouldn't find it surprising at all, though, if Bugatti had sunk quite a bit of R&D money into developing the tech in the Veyron, and perhaps a bit of dough on the production facility.
Wikicars says this:
So far, the oldest article I've seen claiming these numbers is this one from early 2007. By the end of 2006, fewer than 50 had been produced. If we assume this number applies to the first 50, then that means the total cost to that point was a cool £250million. Yow!
Since then, though, another 150 have been produced. I highly doubt that it cost another £750million. In fact, this article points to most of the costs having been R&D costs with this quote:
That's 250 man-years. If you assume each engineer costs $250K/year for labor, benefits and overhead, that's $62.5M in labor costs developing the transmission alone. Throw in all the machine work and parts and everything else, and I'm sure you easily get up to $100M development costs on the transmission alone.
People keep throwing that £5 million per car number out there, but I seriously believe it's way out of date.
Program Intellivision!
No cup holder? I'll pass.
Not really, Porche does own most of VW stock.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7697082.stm
Well the same holds true of lower end vehicles so I wouldn't be surprised. I remember an article (I think MOTOR or DRIVER magazine) between a Porsche GT2 and litre superbike, with the result of the $18k bike being very even with the $200k Porsche. Of course, your life expectancy on the bike is slightly lower... another similar article here.
:)
Then again they have different target markets. The guy on the bike got to demonstrate his incredible ballsiness, whereas the guy in the Porsche put some tunes on the stereo, flipped on the aircon and went to pick up his girlfriend.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
I have an unrestricted S4, and removing the limiter is the only mod it has ever had.
Now it is 4 years old, I finally had the time and safe place to test the top speed (well, "top" as in "got clamped by the rev limited instead"), and I got to a GPS measured 268 km/h before the rev limiter kicked in. It was somewhere in Germany, I happened upon this 5km stretch of perfect viewable road by chance (and had to drive another 5km before I found a chance to return and USE it :-).
Overtaking a row of 8 (I think) police vans at 220 km/h on cruise control during the run up was just a bonus (you know you're legal but still the nervousness remains).
There is, however, a good argument why you won't do this for long even if it's entirely legal and you find a safe bit of road to test. With a fuel consumption of just under 60 (yes, SIXTY) liters per 100km you will need a MUCH bigger tank to get from A to B. It's ridiculously uneconomical to push such a large amount of steel over 4 wheels against the wind.
Having said that, it's also good fun annoying BMW drivers who don't seem to know that "S4" means "brutally large factory sports tuned V8 in front, gripping on 4 wheels on sport suspension". Fnarr fnarr..
Conversions (all approx):
268 km/h = 166.5 mph
60l/100km = 1.67km/l, 4.7 MPG(UK) or 3.9 MPG(US)
Final notes for wannabees: I have had extensive high speed training. Don't try this stuff unless you're (a) stone sober and in top physical condition, (b) are 100% sure of the condition and capabilities of your car (and even then), (c) on location where such speeds are legal and (d) can do so without causing any risk to other road users (on circuit is even better) - and that's after doing some test runs.
Insert
As a younger man I used to get very upset about the gap between rich and poor, pointing to this type of excess as an example. But having accepted it as an adult, the world is not fair, I actually enjoy seeing this kind of insanity. If the rich want to blow their money on what amounts to "fluff" then so be it. We should be encouraging them every chance we can. It's when they horde it away that truly screws the poor. There's a sucker born every minute, at least with the Bugatti you get a truly well crafted machine that will be rare for the rest of your life and on and on. This machine will also appreciate in value, because like I said, there's one born every minute. If you want to piss your hard earned (or not) money, then who am I to stop you. Play on player. But bear in mind, it's still just a car. One awesome fucking car.
Maybe, but doing the same run over a dirt road on a big bike is 1000 times more fun. And, you could stay in KL for the weekend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window#Fallacy_of_the_argument
They could be employed doing something worthwhile, instead. Such talented people would certainly have jobs anyway, and might be filling important engineering roles that benefit society directly, that are otherwise wanting right at this moment.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
While I believe this story about the motorcycle is true, you saw this on YouTube BECAUSE a helicopter was close by. There's plenty of guys who never make the news because they just gunned it and got away.
A lot of cops will openly acknowledge that if a sportbike blows past them, pursuit can be futile without air support. This jives with my experience because in my youth and stupidity, I blew past manned speed traps and most of the time, it seems the cops never bothered. The one time I did see lights and pulled over, I was sorely tempted to just gun it and go. I'm utterly confident that there's no way I would have been caught if I didn't have to pretend to be a somewhat law abiding citizen.
The fastest production car is not the Bugatti, but the SSC Ultimate Aero TT. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_car
testing 1 2 3
Making silly luxuries for the rich is the poor man's chance to get some of that wealth back at an advantageous rate:-)
This is all just my personal opinion.
He has a black belt in keyboardarate.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I've run out of mod points, so I'll just congratulate you on saying what needed to be said. One thing: if I knew who the grandparent was, I'd certainly never get in a car with him. With anger management issues like those, he'd most like be a terrifying driver.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Killer machines like fighter airplanes, tanks etc which *we pay* with our tax money cost similar amounts of $$$. And no one complains. So where's the problem? It is just a car.
Furthermore, there are plenty of footballers, TV stars and so on who earn a lot of money just because they're lucky. Do they worth their money?
And BTW the car is not so ugly.
It may be extreme and excessive in some departments but not all as the author would like you to believe. That sort of acceleration has been commonplace on sports motorbikes for years and my eyeballs haven't deformed yet.
Obligatory Pulp Fiction quote
"But that's OK, cause the fuel runs out in only 12 minutes."
Unbelievable.
The problem with the tires is, that they are f***ing expensive. Around 4.000 Euros (> 5.000 Dollars) per set. At 400 km/h you'll need a new set every 12 minutes ...
-- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel
that is the ugliest 2.1 million dollars I have ever seen
That thing is OLD! It is in production since 2005! Or am I just getting a "you must be new here" for stating the obvious?
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
even if the cops bought a Veyron, they'd be eating your dust ...
:-) It would probably take a whole tankful of petrol to get up to 420 km/h. They could probably catch you by getting out of their cars and walking a few hundred yards.
Probably not for long.
The first Veyron is an engineering marvel... It stands as one of the greatest achievements of the petroleum age.
O RLY?
Top Gear's power laps say otherwise.
...but it will get you a blowjob easier than a PHD in physics would. :o(
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Or should that more correctly read It's a BOLLOCKS WAGON (oh sorry for the wets out there it's a volkswagon ) still a load of bollocks mind when they shed the bollocks wagon grip they may just become a worth a look company other wise even if i was the richest person in the world it'd a BOLLOCKS WAGON it is a load of BOLLOCKS much like BMW there is another load of BOLLOCKS .
You can always tell the standard of the drug dealer by the perticular german vehicle he drives Golf lowest of the low Golf GTI (got twat inside) next one up the ladder.
BMW 3 series a bit futher up JERCADES (mercedes) heading up the top .
German engineering so grosley over rated it is un true
Those who buy a Veyron, don't care about its price tag, or the fact that it would pay for so-many-more Ferraris, Mercedes or other "commoner" crap. End of story. Let them enjoy their toys and go back to your Nissan Micras. Now, please, move along. Nothing to see here.
This is an engineering/art masterpiece. Some like to own those, others like me are happy enough watching them at a museum or on Top Gear.
hmm, you must be a have-not. I'm sure you can afford to own a notebook, right? In that case, by your childish have-not logic, you deserve to be butt-hole dry-fucked by a night prowler, then have your notebook stolen.
You deserve it at the very least.
Why is it that people with the wherewithal who simply live their lives are branded as cunts who deserve to be robbed, killed, sneered at and have there decent piece of engineering keyed by pimply-faced have-nots?
I suggest to you, Anonymous Coward, that you are indeed an anonymous coward ashamed of your own simmering mediocrity. You are, furthermore, a fucking communist who bites the very hand that feeds it. Go join Osama bin fucking Laden and his bearded closet gays who enjoy destroying instead of building. You don't deserve to be part of a civilised society which aspires to build, improve, learn, live a productive and long life raising beautiful children and leave a legacy.
I'd like to thank you for reminding me that the world is full of little shits like you who do not deserve to be gainfully employed (I filter out your kind all the time when employing - your thin veneer of civility does not hide the pus in your soul). I enjoy superior engineering, the same way you enjoy your decently engineered notebook. Linus drives an old German merc (remember, these things are all relative) who, by your reasoning, has the money for it, and therefore deserves to have his beautiful piece of human engineering keyed, because hey, you can't afford one.
And please, don't blather about how you cannot compare an old merc to a Bugatti. If you do, then I'm sure you won't even hear the whoosh.
Whoop-de-do. At the speeds the Veyron is happy at, a single pebble on a turn would send a motorcycle flying and its owner into the organ donor parts bin. People talk about motorcycle top speed, but they can only reach it safely if the road is perfectly straight and it has absolutely zero debris on it. Otherwise, its just a cooler way than a firearm for heading to the next life.
You are comparing cars and motorcycles, two completely different beasts. And yes, it does matter whether the vehicle is street-legal or not. And there are more to vehicles that mere acceleration-figures and top-speeds.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
So, you cannot resist the urge to commit a felony (destruction of property over $1000 in almost any area of the US is a felony) and face prison time because someone chose to sink some of their cash into an expensive vehicle.
Wow, I'd hate to let you near a data center, because it isn't that much of a jump from keying someone's car to trashing a business's livelihood.
Good luck finding a job other than stirring carrots with an oar in a prison kitchen for two cents an hour with that attitude.
As a wise police officer once told me: "You can't outrun radio waves, son"
If you can afford the car, the ticket price on the tires isn't even going to make you wince.
"Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
I sincerely hope VW is not remotely stupid enough to even consider buying GM.
The support vehicle carrying your spares on the other hand, is a bit more of an issue...
But I'm not a yank. Thats why.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
If I ever see someone drive one of those I'd fucking key it. You have the money for that, you deserve to have it keyed at the very least.
Smart move ... someone with that much money would also have no trouble finding the few grand it would take to have you permanently removed from the planet. (IMHO, pity it would cost him that much!)
Well, of course. See, I don't have the money to buy any car at the moment. So all car owners should be shot and then the people shooting them should shoot themselves because I can't afford a gun either (well, theoretically I could but it wouldn't be financially responsible, which should suffice as a reason for mass suicide). At some point we can stop killing people because the world economy has collapsed and money doesn't work anymore, thus nobody can buy anything. Problem solved.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Lamborghini is owned by Audi, which in turn is part of the Volkswagen Group. Oh, and if anything, it's the Volkswagen Group who own Porsche, and that only partially. The Volkswagen Group consists out of: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Skoda, Seat and (obviously) Volkswagen.
Oops.... Seems, I'm wrong. Now that's surprising. I always heard it was the other way around.
The problem with the tires is, that they are f***ing expensive. Around 4.000 Euros (> 5.000 Dollars) per set.
So what? The car itself is $2.1 million. It's not meant for people who worry about burning a few thousand dollar. It's an "if you have to ask what it costs, it's not for you" car. If you've already got a fleet of private jets, a 1000-foot yacht and a private island and you still have more money left than you can count, then you buy this car. And you'll probably never use it.
Just get a Renault Espace F1
Money is owned by the organisation which produces it. It is distributed with complex rules defining who can receive it and in what circumstances. Those rules are designed by people who already have money to ensure that the system favours them over those who do not already have it. Without money your access to the essentials of life will be severely limited.
Ability, hard work, and chance are all factors in the creation of personal wealth, but let's not forget the skewed set of rules which make it harder for the poor to accumulate money compared with the relative ease with which the already rich accumulate it.
I was told that once. My response did not win me any favors. You can't outrun them, but you can jam them.
You can get 250mp/h motorcycles for much less than $550k.
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
Absolute rubbish..
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
If you can afford to buy it, you can afford to replace it.
You mount those 1 Us on a SSC Ultimate Aero , you got yourself the fastest datacenter. 413> 407
Well the story goes that it costs about three times as much to make as they ask for it. The price is pretty arbitrary and set where it is just to take the car out of reach of nearly, but not quite, everyone. The Veyron purely the result of an engineering challenge, a way of showing off what they can do when they put their minds to it. If they're hoping to get anything out of it, it's a halo effect which will make people think differently about how they build their other cars, the ones people can actually afford.
The problem with the Prius is that while they are rare, the nickel isn't a serious problem, but if they became as common as, say, Diesel cars in Europe, then the environmental implications of the amount of nickel used would indeed be horrendous. It's a technical dead end, which is why all the focus is on lithium batteries.
The "dust to dust" study was interesting and actually made some very good technical points which the hybrid supporters didn't like. It wasn't debunked; its assumptions were challenged. But its overall conclusion - that it is better for the environment to make very long lasting vehicles out of low cost materials and run them for very high mileages - remains absolutely correct.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
As Top Gear pointed out, yes it is insanely expensive, insanely fast and insanely high tech. However, with oil prices and availability going the way it is, plus increased green awareness, the Veyron probably represents the pinnacle that petrol based cars will ever achieve. This is it.
They are also all sold at a considerable loss - they cost much more to build than they sell for. It's a final swansong excercise in ultimate car technology. Sure, they'll be cool and funky stuff along later but for this sort of vehicle, it's the top dog. As such, I admire it as an excercise is engineering and beauty.
However, it is also (to my mind) an obscene way to spend your money.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
I'd take this moment to point out that the Porsche group owns a majority stake in VW, mot the other way around.
sure bugatti carries an exclusive pricetag, but its not THAT expensive. i traded my old one in last month for $450k so i could upgrade to this years model with IPod support.
now, ive heard slashdotters ramble on about global warming and of course im concerned as well. To make sure i dont contribute to the problem i make sure the tires are always properly inflated so they never get too hot on the road. I also try to park in the garage so i dont reflect any o-zone into the atmosphere.
Good people go to bed earlier.
The price of the Veyron will never be lower than now. At least there's a rather good chance of climbing prices for this car as for a lot of other supercars before. A used McLaren F1 is now twice the price a new McLaren F1 was ten years ago.
4.000 Euros for a set of tires are not a problem. But 4.000 Euros every 12 minutes is a different beast ..
-- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel
Guilty over what? I find that guilt is a useless emotion unless one has actually wronged someone else. Enjoying the fruits of your labor rewards self and rewards others who's job it was to design, build, and sell that car. Guilty about the fuel consumption? Nope. That ONE car will never use as much fuel in it's lifetime as a single 767 flight across the Atlantic. Guilty about Global Warming? Nope. Man-made Global Warming is being discredited at a growing rate, hence Congress' mad rush to cram through the Waxman-Markey bill before all of Al Gore's investments are stranded.
The tires wear out in about 50 minutes at top speed, fuel lasts for 12 minutes and there are only a few places on the planet with enough roll-out to get up to it.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
This is why, despite my passion for cars, I could never own a Ferrari.
I'd rather have a sleeper that I could drive, than a show car I had to haul.
As a motorcyclist: Let me say that while I'd enjoy playing around with one of those, I'd rather drive a ford focus to work every day than that thing (I don't own a car.)
The Tomohawk is neat, but it's not a serious motorcycle.
Lol, 2 million bucks for a car? That's just dumb when you can get a brand new Harley Davidson for 80 cents. Plus the Harley's way cooler. Don't believe me? Check it out. Only 11 days to go... http://us.dubli.com/Harley-Davidson-2009-FLHX-Street-Glide__3_1337
Are there hookers and blackjack there?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
When I got to the point that it could out fly helicopters.... hoo boy.
The top-down is limited to a mere 217 MPH? I really, really hope no one takes a dog along for one of those rides. You know how dogs like to stick their heads out the window? Here, either the dog becomes a kite or its head inverts.
This is assigned to the BatCave of coolness. I love reading about the engineering aspects. Just the concept of producing a car that can go over 200 MPH with no top (that's insane aerodynamics) and not rip apart the whole thing? Add wings and the thing could glide for, well maybe 200 feet (it is 4000 pounds), but still! Need to find more info about the engine.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
That's one of the reasons why there's so much interest in making them more efficient. Small percentage gains can equal a lot of energy gains. You will find that an average house can be serviced quite nicely by a smallish car engine. That is, in fact, precisely what medium sized backup generators use. They are automobile engines modified to run on propane or natural gas (sometimes they are diesel but usually NG for smaller units since you have a feed to your house). A 4 cylinder, 1.6 liter engine running at 3500rpm will give you 30kw of power and thus power an average house no problem.
Cars use a ton of energy compared to most other personal uses.
I've never seen a business's livelihood blocking the sidewalk, but if I did I probably would key it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
At that speed, you don't have to ... if they can't read the license plate, or even see if there IS a license plate, they can't do a whole heck of a lot. 300 to 400 mph is FAST. A friend of mine actually managed to make a stock car street legal, and he told me that, at the speeds he would do once a year (he only did about 1,500 miles per year with it, since it needed a complete engine rebuild after a few "runs"), "you know the striped lane dividers - at that speed, it's a solid white line." He blew by a radar trap, drove for a few more minutes, and parked in a restaurant. 10 minutes later, the cops came in, arguing as to whether the car in the parking lot was his. After they told him that they couldn't make a positive identification, they asked him to open the hood, just so they could take a look-see. They were impressed.
The government wants their share of the money. They've made it more difficult to leave a massive amount to your heirs and not have a good portion taken in tax. Back in the day, money could basically be perpetually kept in the family so you could stay rich generation to generation. That is not nearly so easy now. Not saying there aren't plenty of creative ways to try and shield it, but it is harder. The government is likely to take a portion, and that reduces the amount of time that you can have a wealthy family that doesn't do anything.
Somewhere there's a few well heeled individuals that just have to own something like this. And, it is a massive engineering feat. I have no doubt that beneficial technology will trickle down to the manufacturing of real practical transportation.
All of you who keep trying to find excuses not to say this is a cool piece of equipment are just jealous. There are carmakers on this planet who have the knowledge, the manpower, the money, the vision to create, build and sell such machines. And this is awesome. Now come on, your wildest car-dreams probably wasn't about a Jetta, or a Civic. I really like to see such cars being built, not just for the speed and power, but for the quality of the whole package, the style, and the looks. We need the almost-insanely-above-the-higher-end category too :) :P
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
How about the fact that the Bugatti is a far better car in every way than ALL the mercedes models combined.
the Article poster is being ridiculous, why not compare it to the number of Honda-fit's it can buy.
The Veyron can kick the ass of the fastest Fararri by a HUGE margin. Hell it eats all other car makers supercars by a HUGE margin. It is where supercars should be right now. Not like the joke that is the GTR skyline, the Audi R3 or other economy priced "used to be super" cars.
Plus the price is dead on the mark for a hand made custom, which is what the Veyron is. The car is designed for those that have far more money than most here can imagine. Dropping under $2.5 mill on a sportscar is nothing to those that drop $10-$15Mill on their skiing villa in Aspen.
It's designed for those that make more in a day on a 0.25% savings account in interest than almost all of you make in a year.
P.S. the Veyron is not a ridiculous car. it was designed as a supercar.
The Rolls Royce Drophead is the words most ridiculous car. It's a joke. Basically a convertible land yacht that steers like a cow and has medicore performance at best.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The Ferrari FXX is faster and better performing than the Bugatti Veyron. Just saying.
Why?
go buy a Ferrari 308 you can get a good one for under $30K rip out the crappy Fararri engine and drivetrain and install a Pontiac 3.4 and you now have a reliable car that is cheap to work on and actually has some power unlike the raging crap that is the Ferrari Engine in the 308.
I know this well, I have done it for a friend, but we used a Grand am 3800sc engine and tranny. And yes an automatic Ferrari with cruise control is a very good thing. WE got his car for $11,900 with a blown engine but immaculate paint and interior. Took us 4 weekends to swap in a real drive train. If he crashes it tomorrow he can easily afford another.
Ferrari's are a dime a dozen if you dont have to drive a 2010 model.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Again not street legal http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flamebait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
I ever caught you keying ANY car, I'd break your fucking legs. People who key cars are UNIVERSALLY cowards.
There, fixed that for you.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Additionally, it should be noted that GAAP accounting allows for very different allocation of R&D accross the parent corp (transfering pricing of production to other business units) versus other expenses (i.e. materials and labor). Although you may be viewing something as being produced at a loss, you need to look at the after tax, after accounting booking of the entry. Hell accounting is the main reason GM ramped up production just to have cars sit on lots for years.
An inventor is a man who asks 'Why?' of the universe and lets nothing stand between the answer and his mind.
Save your energy. Most Slashdot posters are not "car" people and simply don't get it. No amount of argument will penetrate their opinions.
Self awareness - try it!
The funny thing is that the Veyron hasn't even been the fastest street legal car for years now, it's just the one that everyone keeps hearing about. I believe the fastest is from an American company: Shelby Motors. it's called the SSC Aero.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSC_Aero
Yeah, but just try to bring the groceries home on the bike. Completely impractical. Maybe if you added a trailer of some sort...
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
even if the cops bought a Veyron, they'd be eating your dust ...
except when you reach to the first curve.
But they are quite good at coming up with ridiculous car analogies. Also I might as well mention that I would be willing to cut off a testicle in exchange for a Veyron.
I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.
Why? The Veyron is an incredible piece of engineering. Bugatti sell them at a LOSS if I recall. The workmanship is astounding.
They sell it at a loss because they love you.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
1000+ HP is maybe hard to achieve. But not unobtainable. Certainly not $2.1 million though. Jeeze.....
All points of time and space are connected.
I guess you missed this part: "But even when attacking some seriously hairy turns from deep in triple digits, the Veyron never gave up its grip. And when we almost blew it on a butt-puckering downhill double-apex, the all-wheel-drive system put power in just the right place to pull the car back in line."
If you can afford $550,000 for the bike, you aren't worried about groceries - you can always eat out. Or, if you've blown the budget on this thing, just harvest the road kill from your 300mph cruises (though if you hit a moose, you're dead anyway).
that's just dumb
my wife has a Lotus. We park it in the driveway (not garaged). She drives it to work every day and parks it in the parking lot next to all the other cars.
if you are so worried about the car that you cant enjoy it, why the hell would you buy it?
Strange how much human accomplishment and progress comes from contemplation of the irrelevant. - Scott Kim.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
I can't believe no one has mentioned this car (at least that I saw). Give this a look, it is not only faster it costs a lot less.
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=275184
...Jesus
I looked at Bugatti's website, what other cars do they make (presently) besides the Veyron? I think they make a centenial version (a blue Veyron) but that's it.
moox. for a new generation.
You're not allowed to jam them, but you're under no obligation to return them.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
And the other testicle to pay the running costs?
...a penis extension can be had for a lot less than 2.1 million these days...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
This is Slashdot. Don't you know that OMG teh rich pay an unfair share of taxes while teh poor get off lazy and scot free? Someone quickly mod this guy down before our Libertarian values are threatened!
I think there is one time keying cars is OK. When the ahole driving it comes close enough to hit the pedestrian in the crosswalk for said pedestrian to key the car ...
"I ever caught you keying ANY car, I'd break your fucking legs."
What if it was owned by Chad Kroger?
"by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
Erm, 300-400 MILES per hour? Nothing street legal gets anywhere near that.
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
At least not yet, see above -- not many places to try and my own condition.
Not all this engineering is going to waste on any of these hyper fast cars.
The Camaro gets over 20 mpg on twisty mountain roads, with a fairly lead foot.
I'll have to take it on a long trip to see if I can get the advertised 25, which I probably can, as I generally exceed the ratings on other cars when driven carefully.
Think of what would happen if you got rid of half the weight and 2/3 of the engine.
You'd have a 50+ mpg car that would still be an outrageous hot rod. The Camaro (SS of course) with ~450hp is essentially a formula car with license plates. Mine got super tuned at GM performance center on it's way to me, and the HP is very approximate, but it's WAY up there.
And despite what people say, GM *is* building a car people want, if I judge merely by the appreciative crowds it draws every time I stop.
Back in the day, when I was a pro racer, we used to bench race on what would be the perfect street car. Here it is, finally, right down to the compression and cam timing. Those 275x20 Pirelli's and huge disk brakes are kind of nice...and required, the car is traction limited in the first few gears even so.
Oh please. Who wants to bet that at least some Veyron owners will be members of middle eastern royal (oil) families who are wealthy simply because they were the descendants of tyrants. And, given his previous form, I would not be surprised if Kim Jong-Il will obtain one of these cars.
Market economies do not necessarily distribute wealth according to desert or to hard work. Often there's a fair amount of luck and timing involved. Markets have nothing to do with intrinsic worth or desert. We have them because they produce good outcomes in a wide variety of human activities. People who argue otherwise invariably end up either discrediting the actual market economy we have, or appealing to magical thinking.
Despite that, the Veyron is a beautiful, if impractical car. To be honest, I'd rather have Nissan's GTR, which I like better and which is a practical road car.
"by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
A fair point. I'd be willing to cut off one of your testicles for a Veyron, too!
I wouldn't want to ride in a Buick Grand National doing over 200MPH. Seriously, that car is based on the Buick Regal, a car designed for the regular driving public to drive around town at "normal" speeds. It'd probably be quite dangerous at anything north of 140. The factory did no optimization of the aerodynamics or the suspension for those kinds of speeds.
Furthermore, the car in the video is modified within an inch of its life. You'll notice that there aren't even any air filters on the turbo intakes, and it sounds like there isn't much of an exhaust system. Also, chances are good that the drivetrain would self destruct pretty rapidly if the maximum power output was achieved for more than a few seconds.
The Veyron, on the other hand, can hold its maximum speed until the tires self destruct (about 14 minutes, I think), and it can be driven in traffic without worrying about dirt damaging the engine, or having to yell over the sound of the engine. If someone made tires that would survive longer at those speeds you'd only be limited by the length of the road and the fuel tank capacity. Still, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy into something like Netjets if you need to get somewhere that fast?
The Buick Grand National was a neat car for its time (with a whopping, what 245HP stock?), and people have gotten impressive power and fuel economy out of them, but it's not really comparable to the Veyron.
Putting moderation advice in your
Or this for an alternative [Jalopnik]
0-210mph in 7 seconds. That works out to 0-60 in about 1 second. That being on a car that can (as claimed in the article) get 11 mpg and runs on normal 'pump' gasoline and utilizes DOT approved tires.
That Corvette is at least the _quickest_ street legal car. I wonder where the top speed would be. At some point the aerodynamics has to make it flat out dangerous to travel at that speed.
Since it is a '63 corvette. That predates many (all?) of the DOT safety requirements so he can, for example, legally replace his seat belts with a 5-point harness. (Yes removing or altering safety equipment is illegal - you need to keep those stock, DOT approved, seat belts). It also pre-dates any emission control regulations.
At one point Maryland (my home state) had a requirement for window defroster. I wonder if the vette needed/has that?
TODO: create/find/steal funny sig.
Uh, no, it's not unless you are referring to lap times which is not what the Veyron is about. The Veyron is not a race car, it is a supercar with the singular goal of being the fastest production car in the world. Both cars get to 60 in 2.8s but the Veyron has a faster 0-100-0 by a large amount (9.9 vs 11 seconds). The upgraded Fxx is estimated to go to 230mph, well short of this Veyron.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Ya know, back in the days when Capitalism was making us the envy of the world, what something cost wasn't generally important: just none of my business.
Sure, the '80's, when Regan came in and rescued us from the MISERABLE conditions of overtaxing and over-control via Jimmy Carter, being able to have a job became a bigger deal....having a house and a car were similarly more to cheer about, too.
But those guys at AIG? Federal guidelines had them getting paid only once a year. A YEAR! Imagine living on nothing until Christmas. Then they cut a deal with the president, and the president's men shoved on-lookers and like a lynch mob, they took THAT away, as well.
When we go socialist- we're *ALL* going to be poor, not all going to be rich. The only rich are the people in the politbureau; those in power. It will be them that buy this car.
And then it will be no one's business to know how much it costs; no one will advertise to the American public, whose electricity costs skyrocketed because Obama doesn't like coal.
Yeah, it's parly rant, but it's truth; and that's exactly why I expect to get modded down again.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Th newestt fastest Mercedes makes enough of a dent in the Bugatti's speed that the price difference between the two is a joke.
The bugatti isn't a car, it's art. As such it's irreplaceable and unique.
But the Benz is actually a better car. Damn near as fast, doesn't have 12 radiators and... you can get parts for it.
Need Mercedes parts ?
There is only one reason to key a car. It's to teach those "I need to take up multiple parking spaces so no one scratches my car fuckers." a lesson. Every time I see a nice car parked taking up multiple spaces in a crowded parking lot....S C R A A A A A T T T C C C H H H H H ! ! ! ! !
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Since I don't own a car, the Bugatti Veyron is the car I've chosen not to own.
This new model is great news for me, as now I'm saving over $2 million by not owning it, as opposed to the mere $1.5 million savings I used to get.
J.K.Rowling could probably afford one. Does that change yor mind?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
If you're going to make up stories to impress people, try to make them at least somewhat believable.
...but for $2.1M, it had better be the frickin' Batmobile. Complete with Batman as the chauffeur.
"My life's work has been to prompt others... and be forgotten." --Cyrano de Bergerac
Then again they have different target markets. The guy on the bike got to demonstrate his incredible ballsiness, whereas the guy in the Porsche put some tunes on the stereo, flipped on the aircon and went to pick up his boyfriend. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Fixed that for you.
I only have one testicle, you insensitive clod!
If you parked it on the street without an armed guard, you'd deserve it.
Maybe in America. Here in Switzerland, it's not at all unusual to see expensive Ferraris Porches, Audis, Lamborghinis, and the like parked out on the street overnight. And they get a hell of a lot more driving than just to the track a few times a year.
You may not be able to outrun radio waves, but you can outrun the response to radio waves.
I was pulled over racing against an imported http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_911_GT3 that the driver claimed he had personally done 190 MPH in. This was on I-75 near Tampa. Police Interceptors only go 140 MPH. Not only that they would have to accelerate up to speed to catch you. At 190 MPH you are going faster than 3 miles a min which also means you're going faster than 1 mile every 20 seconds. Exits on I-75 are about every 3 miles. So the officer would have to radio a head, then the responding officer would have to get in position. Also the officers aren't going to pit you at that speed nor try anything else to stop you since it would be to dangerous. At that speed they'll pretty much leave you alone, they may try and get your plates but other than that there isn't much they can do.
In Atlanta they operate Bell 206B Jet Ranger's for their helicopters, they only have a Top Speed of 220 MPH so the Bugatti would even be able to outrun the aerial pursuit.
Save your energy. Most Slashdot posters are not "car" people and simply don't get it. No amount of argument will penetrate their opinions.
Perhaps you need to come up with a completely nonsensical car analogy to explain it to us? Seems to work for every other topic...
The poor will whine, won't they?
Should probably sterilize anyone who demonstrates they probably have no prospects at success when they hit puberty. Just lop the gonads right off. That'll fix the problem for sure, and give the lazy bitches something to really whine about as well.
If we're talking price per performance, get yourself an R32 Skyline or JZA80 Supra and spend $20k on the engine. All up cost: ~35k. All up performance: It wouldn't keep up with the Veyron but it'd probably make the 'newest fastest' merc sweat a little, and all for a price that compares very favourably with a mid-level new car.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Probably? She could afford a couple of hundred. Forbes listed her as a billionaire last year.
go buy a Ferrari 308 you can get a good one for under $30K rip out the crappy Fararri engine and drivetrain and install a Pontiac 3.4 and you now have a reliable car that is cheap to work on and actually has some power unlike the raging crap that is the Ferrari Engine in the 308.
But then you'd be driving a GM car, and who the hell wants that?
Advice: on VPS providers
Agreed. While not in the same category, I was reading something about the Audi R8, where the engine and transmission were borrowed from other higher end cars. The R8 is around $125,000 starting. It has an engine from Lamborghini which I think VW bought out.
For all the new bigotry on /. (anti-rich, anti-money, anti-splurge), /.ers should know that's the way all tech is. They look at the Tesla roadster and think it's okay because it's research funding by the purchase price of the wealthy (essentially, an investment "grant"). But this, it's a no no because of the price. A lot of the tech may be insane, but some of it will trickle down or be influential. If a bunch of rich people pay for high end R&D and get a product out of it, that's should be fine.
Cars like this are often influential too, getting kids interested in why the car costs so much, what the tech is, etc. Even making people angry gets an influence, because maybe someone here will be inspired to build something better, more safe, and more efficient.
For example, a lot of people know about carbon fiber these days because of it's use in high end cars, i.e. McLaren and Ferrari. Not their military application or softball bats. Just reading this thread re the horsepower to kilowatt comparisons was interesting and influential to me. In kind, your economic analysis was interesting, and maybe an eye-opener to people who didn't immediately consider it (like me), as well as pointing out to people the real cost of business, R&D, taxes, and paying salaries of the tech people behind this.
Even straight up marketing is interesting. VW has made claim to the fact that they want to overtake Toyota, and has been pushing hard in the tech arena. Having a massive ridiculous flagship that can have tech spin off down the line to their Porsche and Audi class vehicles, as well as having a flagship associated with them similar to the Corvette for GM or the Viper was for Dodge is simply smart.
There's another /. story pointing out $35 billion going to a moon mission. Interesting the lack of griping about the rich government funding that, when the government as an entity took most of that money from the rich. Money is property, most people in this world got money from their parents and many still live in the same area they grew up in, getting aid from relatives, but a millionaire leaving a few for their kids is suddenly wrong because of the "massive" amount of it. I'd rather have $2.1 million being blown on a car, than the few grand blown on weed or smack.
But hey, group hate is back and thriving these days, a good thing, just as long as it isn't racism, eh.
That car is a 1000 HP + GN that does 8 sec 1/4 miles consistently. I would agree that a standard Buick regal is not the car I would want to do that in. That car is an exception. Buick GN's and the GNX are known to be easy to modify and can produce a rock solid drag racer. However, when one does modify ANY car for performance, all aspects need be taken into consideration. Not just the motor/exhaust. I know he did extensive mods to the drive train, suspension, and everything else that was needed to produce that car. I used to go to the same Buick group that he did. He and his car are somewhat famous in the Buick racing scene. The main difference between a GN and this Veyron is you wouldn't want to turn in the GN. Many American cars were never much for turning.
I wasn't necessarily comparing the GN to that Veyron, I was saying you can have 1000 HP for far less than $2.1 million. Also, the GN was rated 245 HP stock on the sticker, but anyone who has one knows they were roughly 300 HP stock and with minor mods could be in the 11 sec 1/4 mile range. Anything beyond that took more tuning and mods.
In that video, he went over 1000 HP on the dyno and the tires started smoking. The dyno couldn't keep up with the power output. As for the tranny and drive train? He drove it out of there and it was fine. Certainly none of it was stock. You can do a lot with a t-350 and t-400 tranny.
All points of time and space are connected.
Am I the only one to notice this? Could it be intentional?
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6672/lolpenis.jpg
I think there's supposed to be a space between "80" and "km/h".
Of course, I'm posting as "Anonymous Cowardon" (like you) so I guess I shouldn't complain.
That article was like reading a page from a le Carre spy novel. I feel mildly thrilled and disgusted at the same time.
Why is it when the best of the best get together to make a neat machine, it has to be suffused with a bunch of creepy moneyed assholes? A prerequisite for purchasing this car will be that you are an illegal arms merchant, drug dealer or a CEO for some Enron-style business model. Honestly, corrupt bastards will make up MORE than half the clientele for a toy like this. That's just how the system works. What do they say? "You can ask me how I made my first hundred million; I'd be happy to spell it all out for the Vanity Fair reporter. But how I made my first ten million? No. Do not ask me that."
Ah well. Even the author of this article was feeling nervous around the edges. In the same way that "World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", he was quite clear that this might well be the last king of the gas guzzlers. The very same fuckers who drive these things will be the ones most intimately responsible for despoiling the human race to the point where nobody can drive anything on the planet's surface again.
Queasy.
-FL
Flaunt is one thing, but judging by the "Flamebait" mod above, and your repeated "Insightful" mods it would appear the slashdot group-think supports instant disdain for anyone with money.
Does having nice things deserve our ire?
Granted, if the car had a license place "POORPPLSUK" or something similar then yes, by all means have fun with the dagger.
But it seems everyone is condemning the mere ownership of such a car so much so that vandalizing it is seen as not only acceptable, but encouraged.
Maybe I missed something surfing /. at 4, but everybody is arguing about the waste, the excess, the carbon, whatever - because its a CAR. There are thousands of private jets out there and few cost as *little* as $2.1M or use as little fuel.
Somebody buying one of these instead of a $5M on a new Gulfstream II they could also afford, is arguably being abstemious - and much more considerate of the environment.
And lets not get started on homes (on private islands or not); or even mention paying $37M for a painting.
Bottom line: it's not how excessive a purchase seems given what you are getting - it's just absolutely how much you are spending that makes it "consumption".
$2.1M would be very, very cheap for an M-1 tank - but getting an M-1 to pop down to the A&P in would still count as pretty conspicuous consumption.
This is great news for the /. crowd, most of whom have computers overpowered for their actual needs by a much, much larger margin than the 245 MPG Bugatti is overpowered for a trip to the A&P. Fortunately for them, their absolute expenditure was minor, so they aren't a bunch of contemptible jerks showing off and compensating for penis size.
Well, they might be, of course, but not for THAT reason.
Bugatti's part of the VW group, along with about half the other car manufacturers in Europe (Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini, and pretty soon Porsche). The whole project came about when VW's head honcho declared they'd build a car with 1000BHP that could do 400km/h. It was the first the engineers had heard of it, and for a long time it looked like they wouldn't manage it, even though they'd basically been given a blank cheque. Eventually they cracked it.
Although if you're not aware that Bugatti's part of the VW group, it's obviously not doing the job it was intended to do...
I only have one testicle, you insensitive clod!
So what's it like to drive your Veyron?
At under 10mpg (2mpg at full throttle), the Veyron has no place in an argument about practicality.
He meant the motorcycle couldn't make the turn.
My bullshit sense is tingling.
Well Im sure his goes faster than the other ones. His Veyron is an ounce lighter.
Balderdash!
Fine, slap in a different engine. Whatever you can get for cheap and is reliable and fast.
The GM 3800sc engine is damn near bulletproof.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
seriously. Something as heavy as a street car needs liek 6000+ hp. Top fuel drag cars have that but weigh like 2000lbs.(which in my book is heavy! but I think they need that much weight to keep the car on the ground) Also normal race tires have too much friction to make it easy to reach 300. Gearing is another issue but thats not difficult to take care of. Aerodynamics are important there too. A car that can hit "300-400" has to have some serious aero worked out to allow it to even hit those speeds AND keep the car on the ground. Also a normal (even beefed up) driveline is gonna have a hard time putting down 6000+ hp to the ground. The best I've ever heard of was a guy out where I live that was able to hit 200mph on the street. This takes an insane amount of skill to drive 200mph on city surface streets with traffic for 5 minutes and make it alive!
Balderdash!
Yeah... Last I checked, turboprop airplanes are definitely NOT road legal... Unless you fly very, very low.
He has a few other other useless cars an motorcycles.
Until the Veyron, they pretty much just made concept cars.
FYI: TopGear reported that they plan to end production when they build 300 of them ;) So there.
I've never seen a business's livelihood blocking the sidewalk, but if I did I probably would key it.
I guess they don't have sidewalk advertisement signs where you live.
Speaking from a "flaunt your wealth in the face the starving and you'll get a dagger" class warfare perspective of course.
You may not like it, but there is historical evidence supporting that very same perspective. I'm not implying the release of this car will spark any sort of social upheaval, but flaunting this level of wealth in "the wrong sections of town" is asking for trouble.
If you can afford this (totallysexyomgamazing) car you should consider investing in a second identity for speeding tickets. That way you can keep your insurance to about the average Joe's mortgage payment.
I can say [REDACTED] anytime I want!
It gets confusing when people talk about motorcycles in a car discussion.
Personally, I'd rather Kim Jong-Il and the middle eastern royalty that you hate so much spend their money on cars made by Europeans than what they usually spend it on.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
Meh,hey may get to 140, but not this week. They are heavy. Never race a cop car in speed, you won't be able to hide fast enough. The trick is to be nimble, Accel quickly, turn often, and kiss them goodbye. Not that I'd know anything about out running cops....
P.S. I'm posting anonamously though I'm logged cause I'm not supposed to be telling you this.
Save your energy. Most Slashdot posters are not "car" people and simply don't get it. No amount of argument will penetrate their opinions.
Yeah, I'm 25, don't have a license and the most I know about cars is how the engine works and the dynamics involved in physical movement. As far as drooling over prismatic paint jobs or masturbating to numerical ratings of performance I just really don't get it.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
that's where I'm confused, cause I've been on a busa taking a hairy turn in Yelm, WA at 110+ (I quit looking when the front edged up a bit while deep in the lean...) a motorcycle can corner pretty dang well.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
That sounds kind of like dating a Taiwanese Lady Man. Sure, it may be incredibly hot on the outside, but at the back of your mind you'll always know that the wrong equipment is waiting under the hood.
There's a bunch of photos in TFA. One is a close-up of the dashboard. It took me a few looks to realize it said "AUX 1 WIRED" and not "MUX 1 WIRED". For a minute there I had a strange mix of confusion and excitement.
MG
They do, actually. I'm tempted to kick them over, but I know the cops round here would side with the shop ownwers, even though obstructing the footpath is an offence and technically I'd be in the right. I just blow a big greenie on them instead.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I can agree with that sentiment.
In that case, by your childish have-not logic, you deserve to be butt-hole dry-fucked by a night prowler, then have your notebook stolen.
What's the about butt-hole dry-fucking? Fantasy of yours? Watching The Notebook, then getting butt-raped by a stranger. That's a little...off, but okay.
And the way they cornered the market on the options and squeezed the short sellers was the most beautiful bit of financial artistry I have ever seen.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
I just throw my empty Hamms cans out the window anyway.
In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
You furries are a weird bunch.
No they're not. Check your facts.
The Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are not part of Great Britain, they are not part of the United Kingdom and neither are they part of the European Union. They are self-governing British Crown dependencies.
A modern private jet is FAR more efficient than this thing when it comes to passenger miles per gallon.
Koenigsegg CCX doesn't fall far behind Bugatti Veyron:
- price: $2,100,000
- 1018 hp
- top speed of 257 mph
And on top of it: it's buying Saab. Koenigsegg has only 45 full time staff empolyees and sold 18 cars last year,which is 97,982 less than SAAB did.
OutputLogic
I'd rather just boot the car then. I remember a time when some guy almost ran me down while I was crossing the street. He ended up with a huge creased dent in his brand new car for it. I only wish he hadn't driven off in fear, because I would have liked to beat the shit out of him.
'70's-era Chevy Malibu, 6-pack, aluminium everything, less than 300 produced with that engine (just enough to qualify as a production vehicle). What happened was that he was getting married, and had saved up enough to buy a house for cash, but hadn't told his fiancee. They always went on dates by taxi or bus or walked, and he kept up the pretense that he was a poor mensch, still living at home with his parents,
So she tells him that, while she loves him, her mother thinks she can do better. He says "no problem, just both of you be outside in an hour, I just want to say goodbye to both of you."
He goes home, takes his caddy out of his parents' garage, drives by (with the roof down), and says "F*** you both!" So he has this wad of money sitting in his pocket, and he decided to do something grazy - buy a race car. He bought it, had it de-rated so it would only produce 550 - 650 hp, and he would take it out once or twice a year.
A tune-up every 350 miles, and a complete tear-down every 1,500.00. He was an engineer living at home with his parents, it's not like he had anything else to spend it on.
A decade or so later he got married, and sold the car. It had a bit more than 10,000 miles on it.
Next from Bugatti....Veyron Stealth Edition! Ugly but fast.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
I don't think the article was really about carbon, it was about the raw expense. That was the topic I was on about, anyway. And for sheer operating cost, by time you've finished paying the pilots and mechanics and the airport fees, I think you're a ways in the hole.
OK, car is nice, but it still misses the flux capacitor. De Lorean had it decades ago.
"Vehicle is a Bugatti Veyron..." "Check registration records..." "Only one registered in 200 miles range..." "K boys, let's meet him home..." Sorry to burst your bubble but if you actually had a million-dollar 200mph car, the last thing you think of is running away from police.
Are you kidding? Bugatti has been around forever.
Yes, but before the Veyron, your average Joe had never heard of them.
the Veyron is it's "gimmick" (for the car illiterate, this is an understatement) to show the world how bloody good they are.
Hey asshat (who got modded up, time to start metamoderating again), what the fuck do you think this means?
The whole point of a halo car is to demonstrate engineering prowess and/or get PR for the company.
Oh look. You said EXACTLY THE SAME THING I DID.
Please help metamoderate.
most all wheel drive cars are slower off the line than their two wheel drive counterparts.
That's plain wrong. All else being equal, AWD is always faster off the line because you are usually traction limited at launch, and AWD allows you to hook up all your tires when you dump the clutch. They are slower afterwards because of the extra weight and drivetrain losses, but no doubt they can take off like a bat outta hell from a full stop.
I just wanted to say as a woman that I can't afford that car, I don't know how all the parts work, but it is by far THE HOTTEST CAR ON THE PLANET and I don't are about all the rest of the stuff. It is sleek, sexy, fast, and oozes "rich" all over the place. The lines are so smooooooth and I just love, love, love, love the Veyron. I have it as my screensaver at work and I update it every time they update the car. It is yummy!
Dude you seriously need to come to hong kong and take a look. We've got all sorts of crazy ass expensive cars parked on the curb. Flickr it.
Cars like this aren't made forever.
From the start, Bugatti said they were making 300 cars, and only 300 cars. The collectors that bought them knowing that number would not change will make sure of it.
Sure, they'll stretch the number with the editions, like this one (but they're only making 50 I think), but it's not quite as much as you're thinking. If it is a profit making car, it will likely be just barely. It was done as an engineering feat.
I was responding to: "There are thousands of private jets out there and few cost as *little* as $2.1M or use as little fuel."
You'd use far more fuel to transport 12 people from New York to California using the Bugatti than you would in a Gulfstream V.
It's hard to do a fair comparison, though, because there is no such thing as a 2-seat jet. Most of them are at least 6-passenger (HondaJet, Eclipse, PiperJet, etc...)