A European customer has bought the final production Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Coupe, and consigned the car to history.
The story of Bugatti’s record-breaking car countinues though, with the Grand Sport is still available to order. If you wanted a Veyron, you should have bought it before this happens, because it has now turned into an ultimate collectors item and its price will keep rising. That said, if you can afford to spend $1.5 mil on a car, you wouldn’t mind spending an extra $500K, would you!
Even at those insane prices, Volkswagen, who owns Bugatti, claims that – considering the cost of development – not only they made no profit, they lost a big pile of money on each Veyron. We’re not sure that’s particularly true because they kept making it, then the special editions, then the GS, then the SS, and now we are hearing things about a new four-door Royale.
The Veyron as I’m sure you know, is an exceptional car that rewrote the rule books. It proved a car can be as fast as 400 km/h and yet offer an unmatched level of luxury and craftsmanship. Here’s a brief history on this astonishing and magnificent machine:
The development of the Bugatti Veyron represented one of the greatest technical challenges and engineering achievements in automotive history. Volkswagen bought the rights to the Bugatti brand in 1998, and just one year later the company presented its fourth concept vehicle, the close-to- production study EB 18/4 Veyron at the Tokyo Motor Show. Barely six years down the line, on 29 April 2005, a Veyron exceeded 400 km/h for the very first time, and six months later was presented to its global audience.
The Veyron was and remains a synthesis of superlative technical achievements. It was the first pro- duction vehicle to have a full carbon-fibre monocoque, and its torsional rigidity of 60,000 Newton meters per degree remains unparalleled to this day. The 7,993 cm3 capacity sixteen-cylinder engine with its four continuously variable camshafts and four turbochargers is capable of a top speed of 407 km/h, developing 1,001 PS (736 kW). The seven-gear twin-clutch gearbox governs an unbelievable 1,250 Newton meters of torque, and is one of the fastest transmissions in the world with shift times of less than 150 milliseconds.
Acceleration from 0 to 100 takes place in a legendary 2.5 seconds. With its carbon-ceramic brakes, highly innovative brake cooling system and the rear spoiler which is activated to serve as an additional air brake when braking, this superlative sports car can come to a complete standstill from 100 km/h in just 31.4 metres and 2.3 seconds. The Super Sport boasting 1,200 PS and a top speed of 415 km/h performs the same feat even faster.
