I know there is a "dream car" thread around here, somewhere, but it proves elusive this morning. It matters not, anyway, because
the Bugatti Veyron is it. By "it", I mean "beautiful", "excessive", and "pure insanity". I simply cannot fathom what it must be like to get behind the wheel of this vehicle.
The extra speed had to come from changing small things on the body. They started by fitting smaller door mirrors, which upped the top speed a bit but at too high a price. It turned out that the bigger ones had been keeping the nose of the car on the ground. Without them the stability was gone.
In other words, the door mirrors were generating downforce. That gives you an idea of how much of a bastard the air can be at this speed.
...
At 137mph, the nose of the car is lowered by 2in and the big rear spoiler slides into the slipstream. The effect is profound. You can feel the back of the car being pressed into the road.
However, with the spoiler in place the drag is so great you’re limited to just 231mph. To go faster than that you have to stop and insert your ignition key in a slot on the floor. This lowers the whole car still further and locks the big back wing down. Now you have reduced downforce, which means you won’t be going round any corners, but you have a clean shape. And that means you can top 400kph (248mph).
That’s 370ft a second.
:eek:
there's a Top Gear episode featuring the
Veyron
one of those races across Europe -- this time vs. a
plane... ;)
edit: the link to the video
http://www.dumpalink.com/media/1136213029/Top_Gear_Bugatti_Veyron_Review
Now the above is a dream car! 1978 Volare. That had more hoses and tubes than any car ever made. It didn't go over 120 mph, but you could move all your crap around in it.
Good lord...do you realize what this means? It means I can make the 20 mile drive to work in 4.8 minutes! Does it have a cupholder for my coffee?
Yes. It has a viscous-dampened gyroscopic tilting mechanism that tilts the cup forwards at high speeds, backwards in heavy braking, and from side to side in turns. You'll never spill your coffee again.
Does it have a cupholder for my coffee?
Would one really need coffee to wake up while driving at those speeds?
This article was posted two hours ago, which means that if my erection doesn't go down for another two hours I'll have to seek medical assistance.
That's not a malady, that's a feature. You *need* five appendages to drive something like that...and the large, swollen cajones that go with them.
I want...
A red VW Microbus[SIZE="1"] with shovels and rakes and implements of deestruction...[/SIZE]
Either that or Prince's motorcycle.
I want...
A red VW Microbus[SIZE="1"] with shovels and rakes and implements of deestruction...[/SIZE]
Watch it boy, or you'll end up on the Group W bench with the mother killers and father rapers and all kinds of groovy things...
Hmmm.....810,345 pounds is $1,489,008.
Add 6% sales tax which is $89,340, it comes to $1,578,348.
And gas guzzler tax (I assume at maximum rate:rolleyes: ) of $7,700 to make it $1,586,048.
I suppose there would be postage and handling added..... so call it roughly $1.6 million.
Now the expensive part....insurance.....that might be a deal breaker.
But if I could rent it to NASA as a back-up for the Shuttle...hmmmm.
Unfortunately, driving it around this part of the country would be extremely frustrating.
But if I could afford the car, I could afford to keep it at the ranch....next to Letterman in Montana.
The Top Gear item made the observation that although the Veyron costs about a million to buy, the actual build cost is some 5 million. Thus, VAG lose 4 million on each car......
Re: the Bugatti
I absolutely have to have one.
Sugar daddies, please line up.
I Have ALWAYS had a THING for Porches !!
Most excellent quote from the Top Gear video:
"This isn't so much a throttle my foot is on; its a hyperspace button."
That guy really has a way with words.
Happily, stopping distances become irrelevant because you won’t see the obstacle in the first place. By the time you know it was there, you’ll have gone through the windscreen, through the Pearly Gates and be half way across God’s breakfast table.
The machine gun mounts would screw up the aerodynamics too much. Don't need one of these.