The Bugatti Veyron. I guess it was only a matter of time before this car showed up on my blog. I am, simply put, in love with this car. It is an engineering marvel. Lets start with the basics. It is a French company that is managed by the Volkswagen Group. Bugatti has been building very fast cars for over 100 years, but the Veyron is the car that has catapulted Bugatti into the spotlight. This car has broken records and holds all accolades related to straight line speed of a production vehicle. It is powered by a quad turbocharged W-16. That is essentially two V-8’s that share a common crank, aka bolted together. This 16 cyclinder, monster of an engine produces a modest 1,001 hp and around 900lb-ft of torque. That power is sent to all four wheels using a system very similar to Quattro, because VW is the parent company. The AWD coupled to this massive engine leads to a 0-60mph time of sub 3 seconds and 0-150mph below 10 seconds. Just to put that in perspective the Honda fit takes almost a full 12 seconds to just reach 60. However, there is quite literally a “key” to unlocking that power. The first key unlocks only 500 horses. In order to use the other 501 you must place a special key on the floor that unleashes the full power of the engine. Most people are put in awe by its top speed. The car has been recorded at a speed of 253 mph. However at that speed, there are a couple things you should probably know. While at top speed the engine consumes 45,000 liters of air per minute. That’s as much as the human body consumes in four days. At top speed the tires will melt/explode at around 15 minutes, but that shouldn’t concern you because the entire gas tank will be drained in 12 minutes, guzzling 2.3 mpg. I’m pretty sure a dump truck is more fuel efficient than that. Overall this is an amazing showing of engineering marvel and if you can afford one I would say this is a must have for any true car enthusiast. One last piece of food for thought is that VW makes every single $1.2 million Bugatti at a loss. Now why would they do a crazy thing like that?
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