Autoblog reports on a nifty feature in the Bugatti Veyron (which just happens to have 1,001 horsepower). Upon inserting a special lightweight aluminum key, the car enters “Top Speed” mode (no joke, the words “Top Speed” then appear on the facia). I must concede that Autoblog beat me to the punch on this one, but it does rather resemble KITT’s Super Pursuit Mode:
“[The] car begins a series of safety checks on such things as tyre pressures. Once complete, the chassis squats to just 65mm above the road at the front and 70mm at the rear. From now on, the diffuser flaps remain closed and the angle of incidence of the rear aerofoil is minimised to reduce wind resistance. The final action of this high-speed mode is to disable all limiters (the car is otherwise limited to 375kph). Touch the brakes, however, and the car reverts to standard settings.”
For the metric-challenged, the equivalent measurements would be a height of 2.5" in front and 2.75" in back. In case you don't have a ruler handy, think of it as being lower to the ground than length of your pinkie finder (from knuckle to tip, assuming your pinkie finger is about the same size as mine). Naturally, some lucky bastard piloted one of these to a new world record — 400 kph/ 248.5 mph in a production car.
Say what you like about those italians, they make a stunning car. But it only took them 10 years to outstrip the McLaren F1 in terms of speed. In 1998 the F1 set a straight line speed of over 240mph for an UNaspirated production car (that means NO turbo/supercharger) and that is over seven years ago now. Bugatti have finally made a car do just over 5mph more than the F1 but it took another 350 BHP to do it. The Mclaren has a 650BHP motor as opposed to the Bugatti’s 1001MPH for which it requires a highly tuned traction control system (hence the aluminium key). The McLaren doesn’t even have a brake servo as it was intended to be; truly, a drivers car. McLaren make a big deal about their cars ability to accelerate faster than any other car. I haven’t found one piece of data on the Bugatti’s acceleration.
Yes, I am biased about the Mclaren and always will be and I think the Bugatti is impressive as hell. But in my opinion: they broke the mould when they built the F1.
Hi knowitall. I’ll concede that the McLaren is a fantastic car — the center-mounted driver’s seat says a lot. Really, I don’t think I’d mind too much if I had either of the two cars ;).
I wouldn’t complain if someone gave me the Bugatti either. Frankly you could buy be me with an old Camry right now.