In the Automotive world, there have been few personalities that have left a long-lasting impact. Sir Ferdinand Piëch was one of those few people, along with being a business magnate, he was also an automobile engineer. And today I want to tell a story of one of his contributions that lead to the development of the world's first Hypercar, the Bugatti Veyron. While traveling on a train, Sir Ferdinand sketched the initial designs for the Veyron, the Veyron was originally meant to have an 18 Cylinder engine. But further in the development process, the engine that was finalized was the W16. Sir Ferdinand helped develop the Veyron while following Ettore Bugatti's motto of "If it's comparable it's no longer a Bugatti" and that's exactly what the Veyron is, a car that can't be compared to any other car out there even after 16 years since its launch, the Veyron has yet to find competition, its original target was to beat the Porsche 917 in terms of top speed and it did that Flawlessly!
At the time of its launch, it didn’t feel like a car like the Veyron could be a reality just because of the numbers we were dealing it. Over a 1000 horsepower, over 1200 nm of torque, and a speed exceeding 400 kmph? Many folks at the time were wondering if the Veyron would take off and be airborne with the numbers it was claiming.
Thankfully it never went airborne and only went on to create records that challenged the best of the best in the automotive world to build something which is even close to the Veyron.
It was the first time when manufacturers had to find a term over “supercar” because it was miles ahead of any supercar on the sale at that time, so it was given the term “Hypercar”. One of the 21st century’s biggest automotive marvels in terms of engineering if not the biggest.
It surely wasn’t the prettiest car of its time, but it did turn many pretty eyes towards it, that was the charm it carried with it. Also, it was the first time people had seen a road car that was worth over a million dollars.
So, rappers, actors no longer wanted a Lamborghini or a Ferrari, they wanted a Bugatti.
One other reason that contributed to its success was that it was a reliable car despite having a 16-cylinder engine. In high-performance cars like the Veyron, the chances of a cylinder misfiring are quite significant and when that happens, you won’t be able to drive the car.
But that’s not the case in Veyron, even if 1- or 2-cylinder misfire, you will still be able to drive around safely and reach your destination, that’s how reliable and efficient the engine is.
Also, the Veyron catapulted Bugatti as a company to heights they could have only dreamed of due to their not-so-good condition, but now the company is flourishing and building one automotive gem after the other.
The Veyron is the very start that started my journey with cars and is a car that I ultimately want to own. It will pretty expensive but it’s a car that’s worth every penny if you see the beauty and value in it.
Somewhere, in all the 499 Veyron's that are on the road today around the world, there lies a piece of Sir Ferdinand Piëch, that will always be there!
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Till then
Ciao
