Bugatti News

[|Nuno|]

Final testing of Bugatti’s £700,000, 250mph Veyron is proceeding ‘like clockwork’, according to chairman Thomas Bscher. The company’s part-time chairman, who also heads his own investment banking business, has brought the project smartly back on course since taking charge 18 months ago. Veyron is now scheduled for a September launch, and delivery of the first car is due in October.

According to Bscher, the main engineering challenge has been to accommodate the huge 8.0-litre, 1001bhp, four-turbo V16 engine and its ancillaries inside the Veyron’s svelte shape. Extensive road and circuit testing has been going well (as our photographs show), and prototypes are believed to have achieved 2.8sec for a 0-62mph sprint, and exceeded the promised 400km/h (248.4mph) top speed. The chairman, a highly competent racing driver, has himself exceeded 236mph ‘so far’.

The production Veyron, distinguishable by its lack of the air-exit vent seen behind each front wheel on the development cars, will be displayed at next week’s Geneva Show.

The first year’s production run of the supercar is reportedly sold already, but Bugatti intends to make the car for five or six years, building a total of 300 units. Bscher acknowledges that VW-owned Bugatti will need more models to achieve profitability, and will unveil a drop-top Veyron in the next couple of years. There will be at least one more completely new Bugatti by 2010, most likely a low-volume V16 convertible. Ultimately, Bugatti wants to launch a V8-engined sports coupé into Porsche 911/Aston V8 territory.

http://www.autocarmagazine.com/News_...p?NA_ID=213701

[Fleischmann]

I've learnt never to trustanything Bugatti says. I hope they are telling the truth about things being on the right track. They claim it will do 252mph but so far it has gone a few mph less.

What I find really crazy is making a drop top version of this car. The car has already had numerous postponements due to stability issues. Insane idea...

As for the smaller Bugatti I'm curious of the looks, will it carry the same styling cues as the Veyron. It's great to finally see some rivalry in this segment, Porsche should start worrying.


THX for the info |Nuno|, gr8 find


Here are the pics from the page:

[adamwich]

It would be really cool if they made a V8 sports coupé!

[sentra_dude]

A convertible?! Are they completely insane?

[schnell318]

I´m really curious how this car will perform since it´s so damn heavy.

[mv]

I've just found out even the great Autocar can be mistaken as they claim it'll be powered by a V16 instead of W16.

[mv]

Speaking of the V8-engined coupe I have found a few sketches.

[findleybeast]

great news imo, can't wait to see htis thing finally be released into the wild. they removed that air exit vent behind the front wheel? I thought they added it out of necessity before... hmm hope they're making the right choice there. I thought it looked kinda good anyway too. As for those other models... sounds good (tho the drop-top veyron sounds iffy). Those concept sketches dont' look too good to me tho...

[ikon2003]

Very very interesting news. It seems Bugatti is starting to retract some of their retractions.

They removed the airvent behind the wheel, even tho that was one of the supposedly necessary changes that ppl disliked at first.

They had an initial estimate of 252mph, then lowered it to 239mph due to increased downforce and drag that needed to be added for stability, and now it's back up to high 240'smph.

I just want to see some independent testing and photos of a real, legit production version.

Oh, and those V8 concept pics look kinda ugly IMO. thanks for posting them tho.

[vexor]

This is very interesting news...... for me at least.

anyway.... I like the idea of a drop top version but I don't think that they should go with the smaller V8 version, just doesn't seem very "Bugattish" to me..... don't know why.

[ferrarif1fan89]

evertytime i see this car, i like it more And more. right now, its at "very nice" in my book.