Va-va-Veyron
Bugatti’s new speedster is faster than an F1 car
Bad news for all those people who bought a Bugatti Veyron Coupé – all 200 of them. If you had waited a year or so, you could have had this, the Grand Sport, aka the new topless Veyron, a veritable snip at £1.4 million.
Bugatti’s monstrously extravagant, recklessly expensive and wonderfully desirable supercar has lost its top and gained several pounds in the bargain to help maintain its stability and rigidity for those times when you’ve removed the black glass roof. But that hardly diminishes the breathtaking figures associated with the Veyron Grand Sport. I’d say it’s without doubt the very pinnacle of modern road cars.
The 0-62mph time isn’t as quick as the Coupé’s 2.7 seconds, but only by 0.2 seconds. It has the same gargantuan 987bhp, eight-litre, 64-valve engine as the Coupé but with the hard roof off, the top speed is a mere 224mph, compared to 253mph when it’s on. A neat little touch, especially for us Brits, is that it comes with a portable soft-top. As the removable roof has to be left at home when you take your car for a spin – being careful not to cause too much wear to the bespoke £20,000 Michelin tyres – you are provided with an umbrella-type affair, complete with pole, to get you back safely if it rains. Unfortunately, with this in place, your speed will be limited to a mere 100mph.
Of course, if you’ve spent this sort of money on a motor car, why bother with such a contraption? You’d surely want to show yourself off to all and sundry as you roar by, whatever the weather.
