Bugatti Veyron Super Sport achieves landspeed world record for production cars
6th July, 2010
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On a beautiful sunny Saturday at 25 degrees the Bugatti
Veyron 16.4 Super Sport achieved a new landspeed world record for production cars, on the proving grounds
of the Volkswagen Group at Ehra-Lessien (near Wolfsburg, Germany). In the presence of the German Technical
Inspection Agency (TÜV) and a representative of Guinness Book of Records the Super Sport achieved an
average top speed of 431 km/h.
Bugatti’s Pilote Officiel Pierre Henri Raphanel puts his helmet and gloves on, pulls the safety belts
tight whilst the engineers checked the car one more time: tyre pressure, temperature - all systems go!
Then the orange black Super Sport crosses the light barrier, from now on the time will be taken, within one
hour the car has to drive from South to North and then in the opposite direction. No one but the driver is
allowed to touch the car during this time. The tension rises. A few minutes later you can hear from the
left side the sound of a starting jumbo jet coming closer towards us. First you perceive the headlights of
the Veyron, then we can recognise the shape of the car, a loud wooosh…. and Raphanel dashes in top speed
past. The GPS-tachometer stops at 427.933 km/h. Now the same procedure from the opposite direction. This
time the car reaches 434.211 km/h. As average top speed the representatives of the “TÜV”and Guinness
generate a value of 431.072 km/h (268 mph). This hit even Bugatti’s engineering team by surprise.
“We took it that we would reach an average value of 425 km/h,” explains Bugatti’s chief engineer
Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, “but the conditions today were perfect and allowed even more.”
The climax of the Veyron series: the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport
Had a model been especially popular or highly successful in races, Ettore Bugatti’s customers often
pushed the master to tease out of the engine a few horsepower more for their future car. Bugatti
Automobiles SAS had been in a similar situation when their existing customers asked the company to not
only design their second model optically differently but to also provide a version with a sportier and more
extreme driving experience. The result is a car with a uniquely high performance of 1,200-hp (882 kW)
offering experienced drivers a whole new dimension of excitement, with a maximum torque of 1,500 Newton
metres and a limited top speed of 415 km/h (to protect the tyres), but the technique of the Super Sport is
identical to the record car. The first five Super Sports to come off the production line will constitute a
special series of their own, with the same configuration as the landspeed record car.
The Super Sport is a further development of the classic exclusive 1,001-hp Bugatti Veyron 16.4, launched
in 2005. This model offers a stunning set of specifications, such as the twin clutch gearbox with seven
speeds, the extraordinarily precise driving performance in bends and excellent stability when braking and
accelerating.
Continuous work in extreme performance ranges lead to constantly new conclusions, which enabled the
engineers at Bugatti to develop the Veyron into a direction in which the driver can reach new dimensions.
Every modification is designed to produce an even more powerful car for an agile ride. Four enlarged
turbochargers and bigger intercoolers have been used to boost the power of the 16-cylinder engine, and the
chassis has been extensively redesigned to maintain safety at extreme speed - thanks to slightly raised
main-spring travel, stronger stabilisers, and new shock absorbers with a complex architecture originally
developed for racing cars. This gives noticeably more precise control of the wheels and the car as a whole.
With lateral acceleration of up to 1.4 G and improved interaction between the tyres and the intelligent
all-wheel drive system, the Super Sport offers perfect handling and even more powerful acceleration of
1,500 Newton metres on corner exits.
The body has been fine-tuned to improve aerodynamic efficiency and maintain perfect balance in every
situation, while the new fibre structure of the all-carbon monocoque ensures maximum torsion rigidity and
passive safety – at reduced weight. The skin is made entirely of carbon-fibre composites, and the new
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport is available in 100 per cent clear-lacquered exposed carbon on request.
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Dynamic exterior
Every detail of this car, and not just its use of advanced motor sport technology, harks back to the
pioneering spirit of company founder Ettore Bugatti. This brilliant designer came from a family of artists,
and his philosophy was always to combine mechanical perfection and exterior beauty. This ethos remains
alive and well at the company, and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport is wholly unmistakeable, with every
external modification serving to coax greater performance from the car.
The Super Sport’s flat, elongated silhouette is immediately recognisable. The 16-cylinder engine gets
its air from two NACA ducts set into the roof, rather than from scoops above the engine. The front air
intakes have been expanded and reshaped, with the lower one extending around the sides to the wheel arch.
The revised back looks sportier due to the double diffuser and a centrally arranged exhaust system.
Bugatti has a tradition of making super-sport versions of successful models, usually with racing chassis
and supercharged engines. These cars were considered as true racing machines for diehard Bugatti devotees.
The most successful were the type 55 and type 57S; only around forty of each were built.
Bugatti Automobiles has sold 260 Veyron and 35 Grand Sport, of which 249 Veyron and 22 Grand Sport have
now been delivered. The Super Sport will begin production this northern autumn at Molsheim along with the
Veyron and the Grand Sport. The first five cars - known as the World Record Edition – are in a special
black exposed carbon and orange finish and have already been sold.
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport will appear for the first time in public in California (USA) at the
famed Pebble Beach Concours week-end in mid-August and will feature at Quail Meadow, Laguna Seca and on the
concept lawn of the Pebble Beach Concours.
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