Twenty years after its debut at the 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show, we revisit the original Bugatti Veyron on a sunset drive in the Winelands to revel in just how remarkable – and formidable – it remains. Wilhelm Lutjeharms writes on this bucket list drive…
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Special thanks to The Archive (thearchive.co.za) for making this drive possible.
2005 Bugatti Veyron Fast Facts
- Engine: 8.0-litre, quad-turbo W16, petrol
- Transmission: 7-speed, dual-clutch
- Power: 736 kW
- Torque: 1 250 N.m
- Maximum speed: 407 km/h
- Acceleration 0-100 km/h: 2.46 seconds
- Total production: 450 units
- Manufactured: 2005-2015
If you dig deep, it becomes evident that the Bugatti Veyron’s genesis can be traced to shortly after World War II. In his book Faster, Higher, Farther, Jack Ewing’s in-depth writing covers the inside story of Volkswagen’s ‘Dieselgate’ scandal. Naturally, throughout the book the late Ferdinand Piëch, former Chairman of the Volkswagen Group is mentioned, also casting a light on his early life as a child.
In 1942, at age five, he would walk around the Volkswagen factory with his family; taking in the machinery and even shifting gears in the unsynchronised gearboxes from the cars of that era. He admitted to his mother that he would like to be hands-on and work in a factory with the various machines. This strong, pragmatic will remained throughout his career, and under his guiding hand the Veyron became the centrepiece of a plan to revive what was in the late 90s, a stagnating Volkswagen brand. He studied engineering and was eventually responsible for some of the most significant road and race cars in the industry.
As Ewing states, when the Veyron saw the light in 2005, it was “in the spirit of Ettore Bugatti, fabulously expensive and ridiculously overpowered.” For a petrolhead the latter statement is debatable. The idea of the Veyron came about in 1997, when Piëch and VW’s head of powertrain development, Karl-Heinz Neumann, were on the “Shinkansen” express (bullet) train between Tokyo and Nagoya. Piëch had this idea of an 18-cylinder engine and drew a series of sketches for a vessel to contain such a vast powerplant. Four concept models later, in 2001 Bugatti announced that the Veyron would be given go-ahead for series production.
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I attended the 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show and remember seeing the Veyron on the stand, and more importantly, the drivetrain was on a display on its own. It was massive. Given the performance provisos of containing more 736 kW and attaining a top speed in excess of 400 km/h, there were some major challenges in the Veyron’s development: keeping the car as light, compact and stable at speed as possible, not to mention the complex all-wheel drive system.
The Chiron has since come along and upped the ante to new levels in many ways. But whether you can afford it or not, many enthusiasts still prefer the Veyron as it will always be the original. Imported into South Africa by a Cape Town-based collector, this traditionally liveried Veyron stands out from the crowd like few other cars. After all, there are only three examples in the country and most of them are usually tucked away in private collections.
Franschhoek is in the heart of the Western Cape Winelands and has some of the best driving roads in the world; known not only for their high-quality surfaces but also their visual excitement. One of them is Franschhoek Mountain Pass, a twisting piece of tarmac that snakes up the mountain in true Alpine fashion before descending into a series of breathtaking straights and sweeps. Interestingly, during its development phase, Veyron prototypes were sent to Volkswagen’s massive, relatively secretive, test facility out in the Northern Cape.
Before the late afternoon light fades, perfectly capturing the Veyron’s lines on camera, the key is handed to me. Approaching the car, I can’t help but marvel at just how smooth the overall design is. Take any modern supercar and the number of winglets, aero inlets and outlets, as well all the other body addenda demand much of your attention. This is not the case with the Veyron. The only interruptions to this car’s smooth frame are the signature horseshoe grille, a large cut-out into the bodywork behind the front wheel, and the intake behind the doors – the latter hidden thanks to the black paintwork. However, at the rear of the car things do get interesting. At high speeds, or when braking from high speeds, that massive two-plane rear wing is deployed. However, it is still a very sinuous design and when the wing is lowered the Veyron offers one of the purest rear quarters of any supercar. When parked, the wing can still be deployed and left in that position, revealing part of the exhaust system and rear end of the engine.
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The brushed air intakes peeking out of the roof, just above the engine, is another design necessity, but it completely flows with the design of the car and is beautifully integrated into the body. Even the side mirrors don’t extend outward past the car’s body as on other cars – another clever design and aerodynamic feature. Another highlight is the “open” engine that fills a part of your rear view. Peering a little deeper, you can’t help but be impressed by how the engineers have been able to fit this drivetrain into such a relatively small footprint.
Dropping into the low-slung, supportive seat, a few things immediately grab my attention. The two-tone navy blue and cream interior gives a clean and relaxing aura, quite the opposite of what the driving experience offers. There is no big information screen, just the controls required for the air-conditioning, a leather-wrapped gear lever, and finally, a steering wheel with no buttons. It’s a refreshingly uncluttered place compared to many modern supercars with little to distract your attention from the driving experience. Behind the steering wheel is the large analogue rev counter, to the right the smaller speedometer (with an even smaller digital display) and a few other displays such as the power indicator on the left with a needle that swings around the clock to 1 000 (hp), should you floor the throttle and hold on.
Twist the key, press the starter button below the gear lever, and the starter motor whirrs a few times before the engines catch with a deep rumble. I push the gear lever to the right to select drive and move off. Within a few metres, I realise how planted the car feels and how stiff the suspension is. It is to be expected of course: this is a 1 900 kg (official figure is 1 888 kg) car that must be able to handle a plethora of forces on the way to its 400 km/h-plus top end. You have to remember that back in the mid-2000s, 1 888 kg was rather heavy for a sportscar. How times have changed. Today a BMW M3 Sedan tips the scales at 1 840 kg. In that sense, as in several other ways, history has been kind to the Veyron.
You sit pretty much on the floorpan of the car, very close to the road. Still, I have a perfect view over the first part of the black bonnet, framed by the blue fenders. Without an acreage of nose up front, you know the front wheels are close to your feet, making it easy to place the car through corners. Bulky and cumbersome it is not. As the Veyron had already been driven before the shoot, all the fluids were already warmed up and it was time to get a taste of that performance. I decide to push the gear lever again to activate Sport mode and at the same time use the paddles on the steering wheel to change gears myself, giving me more control over the engine and affording me a greater sense of what it has to offer.
The steering is light but precise, and as I dive through a few corners, this setup allows me to focus on other aspects of the car. I thought all of that weight would make itself felt in motion, but that’s not the case. Even when pressing the brake pedal, the massive (8-cylinder, 400 mm up front!) rotors and discs not only provide good pedal feel but scrubs off speed decisively.
At 2 000 r/min in fifth gear, I press the throttle pedal, and what feels like a storm starts building deep down behind me. The smallest of throttle inputs reminds you that there are four turbochargers in the rear. There is some whistling from them, but less so than in a modern Pagani Huayra for example. There is this abundance of non-stop torque. Dropping a couple of gears, I press the throttle harder. The red line sits just north of 6 000 r/min, but that is nearly irrelevant. It doesn’t matter where are in the rev range, there’s always copious power and torque on offer. Shifting up a gear, it simply doesn’t abate, and then as quickly as it has gone through the rev range it’s highly likely you will have reached the end of your straight piece of road anyway.
With a straight, clear stretch in front of me and no traffic, I’m past 200 km/h in a matter of seconds. A while later, on the same stretch of road, the Veyron comfortably hits 290 km/h. Remarkable as the acceleration is, it’s the Veyron’s stability at these speeds that impresses most. Keep its age in mind, and the fact that many other modern high-performance cars tend to skitter ever so slightly at these speeds, and the Veyron just keeps adding feathers to its performance cap.
As you know how fast it is, the car does entice you to see just how much you can eke out of it. But then you would be missing the enjoyment of experiencing it through the corners. It might be on the heavy side, but fitted with AWD and incredibly wide (265 front, 365 rear) tyres, there’s incredible grip on offer. You rarely have to look in your rear-view mirror, but when you do, it would rather be to appreciate the view over the metal covers of the masterpiece that is the 16-cylinder, 8.0-litre, quad-turbo engine serving up frankly otherworldly levels of performance.
Having spoken to another Veyron in the past, as well as seeing owners share the running costs of these cars online, that doesn’t come as surprise to me anymore. Even today, but especially two decades ago, this was engineering on another level, and keeping such a special car on the road is likely to cost the same as a small boat.
Before I get out, I adjust the seat back to its original position via a mechanical lever underneath. That might be something small, but it illustrates that Bugatti still wanted to keep the weight as low as possible. The same can be said of the car’s approach to luxury. It is luxurious, but if you want the most luxurious car on the planet you will need to look elsewhere. However, if you want to experience one of the pinnacles of automotive performance, and an all-round engineering marvel which had engineers scratching their heads for quite a few years, the Bugatti Veyron must be at the top of your list.
Find the full feature in the January issue of CAR Magazine.
