Remember the orange and black Bugatti Veyron that broke the production car speed record when it reached 267.86 mph on Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien proving ground last month? The one that will show up on a future episode of Top Gear? Right, that's the Veyron 16.4 Super Sport.
Last weekend the Super Sport showed up at Carmel Valley's Quail Lodge and Pebble's Concours d'Elegance in an outrageous shade of blue -- the better to draw the attention of the hoity-toitiest of all the hoity-toity who were gulping down free bubbly as fast as the Quail staff could bring it out.
The actual record-setting Veyron 16.4 Super Sport made a cameo on Saturday at Laguna Seca, pacing a lap of vintage (read: really old) Bugatti racecars during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. There's a video of that after the jump.
Neither of the carbon-fiber-bodied cars got any faster during the flight to California. Bugatti bills them as 1,200-horsepower Veyrons, though their 882-kW rating really only works out to 1,183 hp. The Super Sport also makes 1,102 pound-feet of torque, and would be unimaginably traction-deprived if it were anything other than all-wheel-drive. Accelerating to 60 mph would take 2.4-2.5 seconds, the company claims.
Top speed on the production car that Bugatti will sell you will still be limited to 258 mph "to protect the tyres," says Bugatti. Tires, schmires, we say. If you can afford to spend $2.5 million on a car, you can afford a set of tires for every day of the year. Specs as a downloadable PDF are below.
Technical_specifications_Super_Sport_EN.pdf
4g63 says:
12:28 AM, 08/18/10
insanity! add a pair of wing on the side and it will fly!
redgeminipa says:
05:19 AM, 08/18/10
I think you meant to say "limited to 258 MPH," not 258 hp. ;)
multiafong says:
06:32 AM, 08/18/10
Buggati should be Bugatti.
briankravitz says:
07:17 AM, 08/18/10
"ONLY 1183hp??!!" Well in that place, Erin, it must be a total piece of junk.
briankravitz says:
07:44 AM, 08/18/10
Yeah, shame, shame, shame on Bugatti for concealing the fact that their "claimed-to-be" supercar is making 17hp less than stated. Now when that tarted up Civic with a TRUE 1200hp pulls up to your Bug SS at that stoplight he'll surely toast you off the line - and if not right off the line definately when you two get up to 258 in the city - you'll be staring at his tail lights as he flies by you at 260. Bugatti should be truly embarrassed by this.
thesteve says:
08:13 AM, 08/18/10
They're reasoning to limit it to 258 to protect the tires makes some sense actually. I mean, why that number exactly, I'm not sure. But there aren't many tires in the world that are designed to spin that fast.
The tires that come on the Veyron were specially designed by Michelin to withstand driving at those speeds. Going much beyond that they could be on the verge of self-destruction if you turn the wheel wrong or hit a pebble and develop speed wobbles... who knows.
compressor says:
10:24 AM, 08/18/10
That is an awesome paint job. Pure CF would be gaudy (aka GT2 RS). This lets you know what is there without being blantant. Kinda like the "old money".
lt1boy says:
10:53 AM, 08/18/10
"Remember the orange and black Bugatti Veyron that broke the production car speed record when it reached 267.86 mph on Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien proving ground last month? The one that will show up on a future episode of Top Gear."
Actually it already showed up on Top Gear. It also set the new fastest lap record for a production car when it did.
Interesting PDF spec sheet, although it's missing quite a few important specs, such as 1/4 time.
emanates says:
11:19 AM, 08/18/10
This is a staggering tour-de-force hypercar in the ultimate sense of the word. The “outrageous shade of blue” is a lot more pleasant to look at than the black and orange one of last month. The trick or treat color combination on that one made it look way to boy-racer. Though the shape of the Veyron will always be divisive I'm glad this one isn’t bathed in chrome or hotwheel colors.
felonious says:
12:50 PM, 08/18/10
You do *not* want a catastrophic tire failure at 250+ mph - or any speed, for that matter.
toxic_science says:
09:00 AM, 08/23/10
I absolutely love seeing that huge wing air brake flip up when you brake.
Is it me or do the rear taillights look like they're lifted from a Bentley?
alpine6speed says:
09:43 AM, 10/ 5/10
Awesome looking with the blue CF