Bugatti Veyron: A look back

The very name Bugatti Veyron inspires a multitude of emotions in the hearts and minds of all those passionate about automobiles, all over the world. The car is mainly designed and developed by Volkswagen and is currently being manufactured by the Bugatti automobiles group at their Château Saint Jean headquarters in France. Whether its the tag of being the fastest car legally allowed on open roads, or being adjudged the "Car of the decade" from 2000 through 2009 by Top gear, the Veyron has fans going gaga over it at every turn. It has taken over the years leading to its design, development, and acceleration to the top of the world. Widely praised and loved all over the world, the Bugatti has carved its name in automobile history and is a landmark for the greatness of the technical abilities used in crafting this beast of a machine.

Bugatti Veyron

The inception

The Bugatti brand in itself, since its inception, has always remained a symbol of superiority and luxury, of world class design and unmatchable passion for automobiles. At the very onset of the 20th century, Ettore and Jean Bugatti started out with their automobile designs. In the 1920s when their cars materialized, they were epitomes of high end technical expertise draped in stylized light bodies. The very genius of these car makers became crystal clear to the world with what they did in designing some legendary cars of the era. Ettore Bugatti's Typ 35 and Jean Bugatti's Typ 57SC Atlantic were the hallmarks of the Bugattis' pioneering engineering capabilities that have now lived through the century. And in doing that, it has exceeded expectation at every milestone it has achieved ever since. The biggest of them being the Bugatti Veyron.

The name

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 was named after a Bugatti driver, Pierre Veyron. Born in 1903, and aspiring to be an engineer, he ended up being a race driver for Bugatti owing to the persuasions of his friend and motor sport enthusiast Albert Divo. The first Bugatti driven by Pierre was 37 A, which was purchased by his financier and the then industrial tycoon André Vagniez. Pierre steered the 37 A to his first victory at the Geneva grand prix and thus began his long lasting relationship with the Bugatti brand.

When Jean Bugatti, son of Ettore Bugatti and the director of Bugatti construction team offered Pierre a position in his company, it was a dream come true for Pierre who could now live his dual ambitions of being a race car driver and an engineer. He continued to fine tune cars and enter races as the company driver for several years. During the war years, Pierre led the French resistance with other race car drivers. When the war ended in 1945, Pierre was awarded the Cross of the French Legion of Honor for his services during the war. Veyron died in 1970, and was remembered only by a few Bugatti fans and racers. However, all of that changed 30 years later when his name was attached to the fastest street legal production car from the Bugatti stable. And with this, the name Veyron became popular in automotive circles all over the world and etched its rightful place in history.

Car introduced as concept first time

The car was first introduced at the Tokya Motor Show in 1999, under the name of "Veyron" as a concept car. The design has more or less remained the same with the final production car, as well. The Veyron project's lead designer was Harmut Warkuss. The credit for the good looks of the Veyron concept goes to Jozef Kabaň from Volkswagen. In the very next year at Geneva, it was announced by the then chairman of Volkswagen that the Veyron would be the fastest, the most powerful, and the most expensive production car in the history of automotives. In the final production version, the makers of the Bugatti Veyron decided to go with the VR6/W8 style engine instead of the W18 in the original concept. The said specifications of the car were something like 1000 HP output, a possible top speed of 250 MPH and a price tag of €1 million.

Refining the car

The concept was further refined in 2001 and renamed from EB 16/4 Veyron to the the now world famous "Bugatti Veyron 16.4". In the very same year, later on it was decided and announced that the car will go into production in 2003. During the development and refining cycle, Veyron 16.4 did face enormous roadblocks in order to meet the quoted specifications. Meanwhile, the top leadership at both Bugatti and Volkswagen underwent changes and so did the Veyron. Some much needed fine tuning was done in order to improve stability at such high velocities under the former Volkswagen and current Bugatti chief engineer Wolfgang Schreiber.

Veyron SS

Since the inception of Veyron, there have been variants of the original that have been produced by Bugatti. The most popular of those being the Veyron Super Sport, which was introduced at the annual charitable auto show at Pebble Beach, California August 2010. The Super Sport is powered by 1200 HP monster of an engine and all new aerodynamics that promiseS to take it ahead of the race.

With the skills of the trusty Bugatti test driver, Pierre henri Raphanel the Super Sport Veyron achieved an average top speed of 267.85 MPH on the Volkswagen Ehra-Lessien track. This was verified by the Guiness World Record officials as well as the German Technical Inspection Agency. The Super Sport features a trademark orange and black finish, which will be the same in the first 5 production cars, as well. However, the top speed will be limited on the production models electronically to 258 MPH. This will be done to protect the driver and the car in non-testing driving conditions.

It is generally reported that the Veyron project has in its entirety cost around £5 million per vehicle, however it is being sold at £840,000. In other words, the Volkswagen group has to wait and watch if and when their efforts pay off in the future. Bugatti fans and automotive journalists, however, believe in the fact that the Veyron project is considered as more of an engineering breakthrough or milestone than a profit center for these companies.