2013 BUGATTI VEYRON VITESSE: Unthinkable speed makes legend

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/05/2013 (4708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ALTON, Ont. — How exactly does one test a car that can travel 408.84 kilometres in just one hour? Indeed, what does 408.84 km/h even look like? Though we all recognize that number as seriously scary, gaining a true perspective of exactly how fast 408.84 km/h is does require some context.

It is worth noting then that no modern Formula One racer — not even a MotoGP racing motorcycle, F1’s two-wheeled equivalent — has ever touched 400 km/h during a race. And if that many kilometres an hour still seem completely unfathomable, think of it in more concrete terms: 408.84 km/h translates into 113.6 metres travelled each and every second, or the equivalent distance between three telephone poles in those three seconds. In more relevant terms — at least, more relevant to me, as I am about to test drive a beast capable of such outrageous speeds — that is more than four times the legal speed limit in many provinces and almost 21/2 times what it would take to see the Ontario Provincial Police charge me with stunting, as well as impound my wheels — this last aspect probably a little more problematic than the first since said hyper-car costs about $2.5 million.

In other words, as long as you are on public roads — at least on any North American public road — it is beyond impossible to evaluate Bugatti’s latest road rocket, the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse, at anything remotely close to its limits. Even a racetrack is no guarantee of maxing out the quadruple-turbocharged Bugatti — one would probably have to seek out specific facilities such as Volkswagen Group’s proving grounds in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, or Italy’s gargantuan 12.5-kilometre Nardo banked oval to hope to have a chance to push the Vitesse to anything close to its terminal velocity. Even then, all manner of precautions would have to be enforced — a special key must be fitted, the entire car is lowered another 25 millimetres, and the rear spoiler is fixed in its less-stabilizing, but more-aerodynamic, lowest position. You can also be darned sure you’ll be closely supervised by an entire squadron of Bugatti minders if you intend to drive a Veyron anywhere near its absolute limit.

Indeed, said overzealous monitoring put a kibosh on my first attempt at driving a Bugatti. The company’s public relations staff plunked the original Veyron (that one a hardtop, rather than this ragtop Vitesse) at a downtown Toronto hotel and offered me a 45-minute stint through 4 p.m. rush-hour traffic. And, inasmuch as even a full week’s road test unencumbered by traffic would still not allow me to test even a fraction of the Veyron’s capacities, crawling through Toronto’s rush hour at 12 km/h for an evaluation of a 1,200-horsepower vehicle seemed an exaggeration beyond the pale. Call it integrity, stubbornness or just plain old stupid pigheadedness, but yours truly became the first person, by everyone’s account, to refuse an opportunity to drive the Veyron (and, yes, someone probably did volunteer to take my place and write a road test out of it).

So this is my first time behind the wheel of the legend. And, even for a jaded auto journalist fed a steady diet of Porsche GT3s and V-10-powered Audi R8s, it’s not without trepidation that one approaches one’s first ride in a Bugatti. Its engine may trace its roots to VW’s once-ubiquitous VR6 engine, but 16 cylinders, especially fed by four massive turbochargers, will not be denied. Besides 1,200 hp, the Vitesse boasts cruise-ship-like 1,106 pound-feet of torque (by way of comparison, the base Veyron boasts 1,001 horses and 921 lb.-ft.). Again, for those looking for perspective, no Formula One car of the modern era can come close to matching the Bugatti for maximum steam, current 2.4-litre V-8s producing about 800 horsepower. (For anything close to 1,200 hp, one has to go all the way back to F1’s stupidly steroidal 1.5L turbocharged BMWs). Bolt in a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the tractive abilities of four driven wheels and sophisticated launch-control electronics, and you have the makings of a 2.6-second sprint (again cue comparisons with F1 racers) to 100 kilometres an hour.

Now, I may not be willing to lose my licence, but no one says I can’t jet to the speed limit with alacrity. My first dance with the loud pedal, however, leaves me just a little nonplussed. Yes, the 16.4 feels like a rocket ship, but so do so many supercars. Indeed, on my first trip through the gears, there was no sensation I could not emulate in the comparatively pedestrian V-10-powered R8 in which I drove up. Yes, the Audi weighs a lot less than the Bugatti’s 1,990-kilogram curb weight, but somehow the acceleration just wasn’t as overwhelming as expected.

Then, Butch Leitzinger, Bugatti’s official driver and a former ALMS driver, pulls into a Petro-Canada station and we fill up with Ultra 94 (it seems our tester came from California where high-octane is hard to come by). Presto! Our 16.4 goes from a plain old ordinary 850-hp supercar to a 1,200-hp Hollywood special effect. One second you’re at a standstill, the next you’re trying desperately to keep the beast under 150 so the local constabulary doesn’t poach your near-priceless ride. Everything in between is a Millennium Flacon blur, mainly because one becomes so focused on the road immediately ahead that anything not directly in front is dismissed as periphery.

The most amazing thing, however, isn’t the outright turn of speed, but the complete lack of theatrics it engenders. Typical hyper-car performance is usually accompanied by all manner of drama, the steering wheel to-ing and fro-ing viciously in your hands, the tires, no matter how sticky, fighting for precious traction and the scream of an engine that threatens to burst.

In contrast, the Veyron is completely calm. Oh to be sure, the front of the car rises up like a cigarette boat riding a bow wave, but somehow the big Bugatti harnesses those 1,100-plus lb.-ft. of torque without even the slightest wag of the wheel or screech of tire. If it were not for the air rushing by and the din of the big W16, there would actually not be enough drama.

But, ah that engine. Push the console-mounted starter button and all 16 pistons — arranged in their unique W format — bark to life. Blip the throttle, and the Vitesse’s more open exhaust (compared with the standard Veyron) emits a growl that would even scare the aforementioned Plus edition of the V-10 R8. Punch the gas and the twin intakes howl as if trying to inhale the Earth’s entire atmosphere (James May of Top Gear fame estimated his Veyron was consuming 45,000 litres of air every minute it spent at top speed). The din is that much more immediate in the ragtop Vitesse because the Veyron’s completely uncovered engine (not even a Plexiglas cover separates the big W16 from the open atmosphere) is right behind the head, every tick of its 16 fuel injectors, every screech from its turbochargers, apparent immediately behind your ears.

But the best part of the Bugatti’s soundtrack only occurs after you’ve let off the gas. Then the turbochargers’ waste-gates, eager to bleed off 20-plus pounds per square inch of boost, pop open to allow the escape of unwanted intake. It’s a sound like nothing else in automobiles — it’s not hard to imagine the high-pressure huff as the big Bugatti’s 16 pistons collectively breathing a sigh of relief at not having to endure any more abuse from those four turbochargers. Like a backbeat you just can’t get out of your head, it’s addictive. You end up matting the throttle just to hear the backwash when you back off.

The only problem, of course, is if you do so for any more than two seconds, there’s you back in paragraph two, smiling for the booking photograph and hoping the police will be sensitive to your car in lockup. And take my word for it: Claiming “I was just testing it for a newspaper article” is not going to get you out of a 408.84-km/h speeding ticket.

— Postmedia News