PICTURES: Herbert Villadelrey
Widely considered to be the peak of automotive engineering, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is the world’s fastest production car and, somewhere high up in the southern Spanish mountains, Regional Managing Editor, James McCarthy, prepares to play his own little part in this blockbusting final act of the Veyron saga...
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>>> It is five o’clock in the morning and I am awake. All I can hear are the assorted sounds of rural Spanish wildlife outside my hotel window. Somewhere in the distance a cockrel crows its early morning greeting to the sun as its first rays spread over the vineyards of Andaluçia. My mind is racing, for today is no ordinary day. As the sun rises over Jerez de la Frontera, the curtain is about to fall on one of the greatest chapters in automotive history. After five years and more than 250 cars built and sold, I am on the Iberian peninsula to experience the last huarrah of the Bugatti Veyron. However, it isn’t going out without a fight, because the final act in this record-smashing saga is to be played out by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport - a car so powerful that it destroyed the speed record for a production car earlier this year in Wolfsburg, East Germany and, under the stewardship of Bugatti’s Pilote Officiel, Pierre-Henri Raphanel, clocked up an average speed of no less than 431km/h. And today it is all mine... A LEGEND REBORN What is left to say about the Veyron? Apart from the obvious urge to wax lyrical about the frankly freakish statistics of the car, all that myself and respected FHM Motors Editor, Kevin Hackett, could muster was an in-depth discussion about what would happen if it were to mate with an Aston Martin DBS, the disturbing conclusion of which shall forever remain unpublished. But this is not just a Veyron. This is a Veyron Super Sport; a car which, quite unbelievably, is better than its predecessor. Yes, you read that right. Somehow, the boffins at Molsheim have managed to (and I say this at the risk of yet another Six Million Dollar Man reference in this issue) make the perfect car better, stronger and very much faster. It was not a task that Bugatti undertook lightly and, if the company is to be believed, not in response to the loss of the Veyron’s crown as the fastest and most powerful production car to US-based hobbyist car maker, Shelby Supercars’ SSC Ultimate Aero.
has slimmed down by around 200kg through the implementation of an all-new carbon fibre monocoque and extensive use of the super-light material for the body shell. To improve the aerodynamics of the car, the signature bulging airscoops that fed the mammoth engine have been replaced with an engine cover featuring two “NACA” airducts. While a functional necessity, they give the car its new aesthetically sleek fastback look that, coupled with a sportier double diffuser and centrally arranged exhaust system, means the Super Sport looks its best at the angle from which most people will only ever see it - the rear end, screaming away from them in a cloud of dust. Similarly, the expanded and reshaped air intakes at the snout of the car deliver a more aggressive and menacing “come on if you think you are man enough” stance, suggesting to those looking at the car in a rear view mirror that they will be arriving home to find the family pet mangled into a bubbling pot on the stove if they don’t move aside and let it pass. Under the newly designed hood, the 16-cylinder monster engine remains outwardly familiar, but inside beats a heart reinforced with four newly enlarged turbochargers, each one working in concert to squeeze an extra 199 brake horsepower out of the redesigned engine - bringing the Super Sport’s total to 1,200 galloping stallions. All of that, however, was just speed farming. It was down to the men with the Apple Macs and white coats to create the ultimate driving machine by embarking on such nitty-gritty work as slightly raising the main-spring, developing stronger stabilisers and new shock absorbers, as well as re-mapping the various electronic control systems. VAYA, VEYRON, VAYA My ride wasn’t to be the psychotic-looking black and orange beast that catapulted itself into the record books in June (that one had already been bagged by Hackett, through the virtue of his arriving
According to Florian Umbach, our on-hand technician, it was, in fact, a response to customer feedback - requests from owners who wanted a more raw and less cosseted supercar experience. When your customers are shelling out in excess of one million Euros a motor, you listen to what they have to say. The engineers set about their task with aplomb. However, they didn’t take the oft-travelled route along with Porsche and Bentley and just start ripping out rear seats and stereo systems. Approaching the problem pragmatically, the re-engineering of the Veyron took on a much more holistic approach. Firstly, weight had to be shed, and even though the car is still a hefty 1.8 tonnes, the Super Sport
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< Four newly enlarged turbo-chargers have helped squeeze 1,200hp out the legendary W16 engine >
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earlier than us), but a less ostentatious twotone variation in clear blue lacquered carbon and aluminium. However, even without the extreme paint job, the car exuded an air of barely-veiled malevolence, chiding the onlooker to step inside and set the monster free. It is a car that, when seen in the metal, has a presence... I was contemplating this as veteran supercar test driver, Loris Bicocchi, cheerfully shook me from my reverie by explaining that he had mapped out some roads that would give the car a full workout and leave me giggling like a schoolgirl, at the same time dropping the Bugatti logo-emblazoned key into my eager paw and gesturing to the driving seat.
Nothing can prepare you for the feeling you get when you first sit in the cockpit of a Bugatti Veyron. I am glad to report that the heady buzz, created by the smell of fine leather and the sense of power you feel sat behind the wheel, does not diminish the second time you do it either. While no different in layout to the standard car, the Super Sport, offers an abundance of carbon fibre trim, crafted stitching of the Super Sport moniker in the headrests and the addition of Alcantara to the steering wheel, making the moment an even more tactile experience. However, this concerto of sight, smell and touch reaches its crashing crescendo when you turn the leather-bound key and press the smooth, round and inviting â&#x20AC;&#x153;Startâ&#x20AC;? button that
< The Super Sport is much more responsive in the corners than its predecessor >
< The Super Sport moniker is expertly stitched into the headrests >
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< The Veyron Super Sport exudes an air of barely-veiled malevolence - even when parked >
injects life into the behemoth of an engine. The initial growl, with its rumbling bass note, is complimented by the top note harmonics of the high pitched jet-fighter whine as the W16 powerplant starts sucking in life-giving air through the massive intakes in the roof. With this wonderfully dramatic overture playing out in the background, I pull the car away from the curb (or lackthereof, as every road in the area seemingly has a carbon fibre bodywork crunching four-inch, rough-edged step into the gravel) and onto the open Spanish country roads. If the opening credits promise a great deal, equally, the main feature does not disappoint, with the Super Sport offering noticeably more precise control of the wheels
through a greater interaction between the tyres (which, incidentally, cost 500,000 Euros a set) and the all-wheel drive system. The result of which is more responsive steering and a rather epiphanic driving experience. The ride is undoubtedly harder, but when careering into tight corners, there is no pitch or roll and very little understeer. It is like a Space Invader moving from one lane to the next and is as tight in the bends as an eighties rock starâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trousers. Even though you can really feel the 1.4g of lateral acceleration as you enter the corner, and the 1,500 Newton metres of tourque as you exit, at no point do you ever feel that you are not fully in control. Driving through scenery reminiscent of a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western, the route took
in sweeping mountain vistas and, with a 1,100 metre climb up narrow roads littered with hairpin bends, the Super Sport was no mule. With its awesome acceleration into the apex of each turn, coupled with the gargantuan stopping power of the ultra responsive carbon ceramic brakes, the Bugatti stuck to the road with seemingly little effort. Dropping down the other side of the mountains, small whitewashed Andaluçian villages were treated to lingering views of the Super Sport, as once again, the Veyron proved that it is a supercar for the everyman, coping as well with manoeuvrability at lowspeeds, as it does at the high end of the readout. The only noticeable problem with the car, when driving slowly in built-up areas, is its propensity to attract attention.
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< There is no joy greater than that of driving a Veyron at full tilt >
Unlike most supercars, though, it attracts not jealousy and spite, but admiration and joyous recognition that people are in the presence of greatness. Every time the Veyron came to a halt, it was like a scene from The Hills Have Eyes, as hordes of onlookers would descend out of nowhere, and from all directions, camera phones in hand, to gawp and take pictures. With the air of someone clearly used to the attention, Loris would affably chat away with the admirers, while Florian would look on with paternal pride.
< The Alcantara steering wheel adds even more tactility to a superbly-crafted cabin >
Once clear of the village, the road opened up, skirting a huge lake. The placid, glass-like surface of the water was disturbed only by ducks taking to the air to escape the bawling of the Super Sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s engine as I finally got the opportunity to plant my foot in the carpet and experience the sheer joy that is a Bugatti in full flight. Admittedly, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t open the taps quite as much as I managed to in the Grand Sport earlier this year in Doha, but even the force of accelerating to 220km/h before braking slightly and swinging into a long sweeping turn at speed had me weeping with pleasure.
< The Super Sport smashed the speed record for a production car, registering a top speed of 431km/h >
For this was not an exercise in speed. The face-melting acceleration of the car is welldocumented, and I am one of those lucky enough to have had the opportunity to experience the brutal forces at work in a Veyron
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doing in excess of 300km/h. No, for me it was about how the Super Sport drives: It was about the handling of this awesome car, and what it feels like to give it the beans into a hairpin and come out screaming with joy on the other side. Fortunately, I got just that, and while I am still a little hazy on the details, somehow the guys at Bugatti, who five years ago set the acme of automotive engineering very high indeed, have managed, for one last heroic push of an eradefining supercar, to raise the peak higher still.
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It is up to you to keep the legend alive; it is your duty to drive them as they were meant to be driven and let the world around you revel in the sound and sight of the world’s fastest production car bearing down in the rear-view mirror, opening the heavens as it roars past and leaving elation trailing in its wake as it speeds off, finally, into the sunset.
LONG LIVE THE KING As I turn the key for the last time and listen to the jet engine whine die out behind me, I realise that this is the end of not just my day with the Super Sport, but of the Veyron ethos as a whole. They say that a star always burns brightest before it finally blinks out of existence and the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is the earthbound embodiment of that theory. The reality of all of this suddenly hits me and my joyous mood is tinged with a poignant touch of sadness. Part of it is because, in this cost-defined era of eco-responsibility, this is probably the last time we will ever see the likes of the Bugatti Veyron. Yes, there will always be faster cars, there will always be extreme cars - that’s what Lamborghini is for - but there will never be another Veyron: A dream chased so relentlessly with such demanding criteria, designed to be the most perfect automobile you can buy for your one million-plus Euros and built with a love and affection rarely seen in this mass-produced, quantity-over-quality age of manufacturing.
< The car even looks stunning from the back...which is good as it the only view most people will ever get >
What’s more, Bugatti didn’t just do it once and rest on its laurels, as the Super Sport will forever attest. My melancholy is also because I know that, personally, I will never own one of these amazing cars. Not least because of the 1.6 million Euro price tag (the World Record Edition is 1.9 million Euro), but also for the fact that bar the last 10 cars or so, they have all been sold. No doubt there are a few of you out there reading this that own one, or perhaps more, of these spectacular automobiles, and the only thing I can urge you to do is not to lock them away in a garage to collect dust or to treat them as assets to accrue in value. Don’t leave it to us lucky few journalists to keep the Veyron alive for the masses through the words and pictures on a page.
< Carbon fibre is abundantly used throughout the car, especially in the trim >
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