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riving above 400 kph in a road legal car is an experience you will not forget. It becomes impossible to notice anything right or left of the road, since one covers a mind blowing 111 meters per second at that speed. Forget reading sign posts, the road needs your full attention. Even to find out how fast you are actually going is a serious challenge, since during the time your eyes move their focus from the road to the speedometer, from the speedometer to the GPS system back to the road you probably have travelled more than 300 meters. This is ten times the distance the car actually needs to stop from 100 kph.
Surprisingly the perception of speed changes the faster you go. While it is relatively easy to distinguish between travelling at 200 kph or 250 kph, it really becomes hard to tell whether you go 350 kph or 400 kph. It is like moving into another world where everything you have learned to know becomes relative. The experience can be compared more to sitting in an airplane than to driving a car. Or can you tell if you are doing 700 kph or 900 kph when sitting in a commercial jet? In both cases you notice that you are travelling extremely fast but a precise judgment of how fast you are actually going without any indication of speed becomes almost impossible.
Although the car feels extremely stable at high speeds, reliably following its course straight ahead, you start wondering who is in control of the situation. Even though the car follows your inputs, you start feeling that the car actually has taken over the majority of control, which is an unfavourable situation to be in. At high speeds your health and safety almost entirely depend on the reliability of the car and its technical components i.e. tyres, to withstand the sheer forces they are exposed to. If anything were to go wrong you would not wish to have Michael Schumacher’s car control, but you would wish to live in an era where ‘beaming’ could actually save you from a very unfortunate scenario. No matter how good a driver you are, at those speeds the likelihood of surviving a major technical fault untouched is like winning the Lotto Jackpot.
The technical issue is not the only factor determining whether or not you will survive the adventure. The sheer velocity requires you to see as far ahead as possible, since it will be almost impossible to avoid any unforeseen obstacles on the road when spotting them too late in the near distance. Abruptly changing the lane à la ‘Elk Test’ is not an option, and the attempt to brake pointless. The fact that you are driving on a private test track comforts you, however acres of woods left and right to the road make you hope that hunters have done their job well. The steering requires relatively strong but sensitive inputs in order to guide the car from one lane to another. Trying not to unsettle the car, any inputs to the steering are as smooth as possible. The car follows willingly small direction changes. Intimidated by the three lane road which seems to become very narrow the faster you go, you do not exactly want to test the car’s handling abilities at this stage. A huge respect towards speed builds up inside of you, forcing you to concentrate really hard on the task ahead. You try to feel into the car to notice any suspicious vibrations or noises, but the sensitivity of your organs cannot keep up with the numerous built-in sensors electronically monitoring all the different aspects of the car. For example, a small discrepancy between the individual tyre pressures will end the ‘high speed mode’, increasing the car’s ride height and raising the rear spoiler to ‘handling position’. A warning light will flash up signalling that it might be a good idea to make use of the phenomenal brakes in order to abort the mission.
The brakes themselves are a great achievement since the car carries a considerable mass difficult to stop once in motion. But the force with which they decelerate even from 400 kph is almost more impressive than the acceleration to that speed. A slight touch on the brake paddle activates the airbrake, which left alone decelerates the car at 0.6 m/s at above 375 kph. Intensify the pressure slightly with your foot and the car seriously starts decelerating like other supercars would from 200 kph and normal road cars would never achieve from 100 km/h. Elder people using a denture should be aware to keep their mouth closed under braking in order to avoid any embarrassing moments. Even at those speeds hard brake manoeuvres are totally stable and seem to be effortless. Bugatti claims that the car will stop from 400 km/h in just 10 seconds. This is totally believable after having felt the sheer force with which the car decelerates. Nevertheless the car will have travelled just over half a kilometre before it reaches stand still. Considering this distance, the car would actually be able to accelerate from nought to 100 kph back to nought more than five times within the same distance.
However the most surprising aspect of the car is that you do not need to be a driving virtuoso in order to control the car on an every day basis. The line between brutal madness and civilised behaviour is dictated by the angle of the accelerator. If you only use the first quarter of what has to be the most powerful paddle in the world, the car feels like a very well balanced sports car, easy to drive, totally suitable for every day use. There is sufficient comfort and even low enough noise levels to carry around infants in their sleep. When driving around town, it is hard to believe that this same machine was able to intimidate and challenge you.
The car’s dual identity of tremendous power and speed versus its civilised and calm character might be dangerous to inexperienced drivers, because the car is not intimidating initially which might result in overconfidence and carelessness. The general speed at which you travel might be easily underestimated. As long as inexperienced drivers do not over estimate themselves and use the hyper paddle to an extent that they would lose control.
The balancing act between the car’s usability and its unbeatable performance is astonishing and requires expressing unlimited admiration for the engineer’s achievement. The car’s build quality is outstanding, totally robust and solid. There are no rattles, no tweaks, nor any other disturbing noises neither from the suspension nor from the engine and transmission. The double clutch sequential gear box is phenomenal, the best paddle operated gear box I have tested so far and probably the best transmission out there. There is no lag in between the shifts. Shifts are only noticed by changes in engine sound.
Accelerating through the gears feels like sitting in an F-16 being launched from an aircraft carrier. There is a constant violent push forward, forcing your passenger’s head deep into the upholstery of his seat when accelerating unexpectedly. Some are so surprised by the sheer violence that you might think to notice a small colour change in their face and a definite change in their facial expression. Transforming from a casually enjoying look to an almost uncomfortable but definitely thrilled face, your passenger seems to struggle grasping what is happening to him.
The handling of the car is the second most surprising aspect of this machine. The car’s "over weight" has been an issue widely discussed, however astonishingly the car feels agile happy to turn in and is definitely a blast on country roads. It always stays stable and very neutral through long sweeping turns. Even when turns tighten up, the car seems to carry at least 500 kilos less than it actually does. On country roads one begins to learn that the car offers extremely high grip levels which one is unable to be fully exploit on public roads due to legal and safety issues.
Having tested the car intensively on the Hockenheim Ring, my admiration for the car grew even more. It is tremendously quick, absolutely stable under all conditions. There is no sign of nervousness, on the contrary the car gives you so much confidence that it is relatively easy to quickly find its limits. Its traction out of tighter turns is mind-blowing. Switch off ESP and discover its absolute neutral behaviour sliding over all four wheels when accelerating out of turns. However, when using the brakes for a few laps on the limit one starts noticing the incredible speed with which you approach turns and the sheer mass which is carried around. In comparison to other supercars, the brake needs to compensate for the huge speed advantage and for the big weight disadvantage, which one starts feeling after a few flying laps. The reason for this small let down is that brake cooling has not been optimised for track use in order to achieve the aerodynamic efficiency needed to reach its proven top speed.
However, this car has not been designed to be the ultimate track car, but it has been designed to beat everything on the road. In our opinion this mission was accomplished by miles. The Bugatti Veyron is a car of superlatives. There is no other car in the world which comes even close to matching its abilities. It is a masterpiece of engineering, a human triumph over the laws of physics.
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