Jalopnik: 16.4

Michigan Bugatti Buyer Demands Money Back Over Failure To Deliver

Ben Wojdyla — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:15:00 EDT

Barry Zekelman paid the full $1.55 million price up front on a 2009 Bugatti Veyron, but days after Bugatti told him they weren't building one, he demanded a refund. Eight months later he's filing suit to get his money back

After placing his deposit of $427,935 on the $1.55 million vehicle, he paid in full last December. A few days later he was sent an email by the selling agent in Troy, Michigan he would not be receiving his 2009 Bugatti Veyron in Italian red, ever, they weren't making any more. To add insult to injury, Bugatti offered a 2008 model in place of his ordered 2009. At this point Zekelman decided he'd had enough and demanded his money back, and has gone on demanding for eight months with no satisfaction. He's had to file a lawsuit naming Bugatti, who's kept his cash in their coffers for the entire time, and is seeking a complete refund and all court and lawyer fees. This isn't the kind of thing you ever expect to hear about the buying process of the most exclusive supercar in the world. [Courthourse News (PDF) via TopSpeed]

Four Bugatti Veyron Centenaires Add Splash Of Pseudo-Historical Color

Ben Wojdyla — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:30:00 EDT

What better way to celebrate a storied past of racing heritage than unveil a quartet of paint-and-chrome, never-gonna-see-a-track-day Bugatti Veyron Centenaires at the uber-snooty Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este?

The fraternal quadruplets are decked out in the colors of some of Bugatti's most successful racers, who drove the legendary Type 35 to well over 2,000 wins during its decade of operation. The white one matches the car driven by Hermann zu Leiningen, blue for Jean-Pierre Wimille, Malcolm Campbell in green and Achille Varzi in red. No word on whether these examples will be for sale, but considering the ready market in the United Arab Emirates, we'd be shocked if they sat in the Bugatti headquarters for long.

100 years of Bugatti at Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este
Bugatti Automobiles Pays Homage with four special Veyron models to Ettore Bugatti's
Masterpiece: The Type 35 Grand Prix

Molsheim/Cernobbio on 26 April 2009 – In a further highlight on this year's agenda of centennial
celebrations, Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. presented four Bugatti Veyron specials at Villa d'Este
Concorso d'Eleganza. These one off models are reminders of Bugatti's glorious motor-racing
history which played a central role in popularising and ultimately establishing the myth which the
brand continues to enjoy to this day.

The Bugatti brand is almost inextricably linked to the Type 35. The Type 35 Grand Prix was by far the
most successful racing model. The unmistakable radiator grille and eight-spoke aluminium wheels of
the Type 35 have become defining features of the Bugatti automobile. In its day, the Grand Prix was
also well ahead of its time in terms of engineering ingenuity. The front axle design of this vehicle,
which, for reasons of weight minimisation, is hollow, is a true masterpiece of workmanship and was
deemed nothing less than revolutionary. Its springs were passed through the axle to produce a high
level of stability. The Grand Prix's brake drums were integrally fitted into its lightweight aluminium
wheels. Unfastening the central wheel nut allowed the wheel to be easily removed within a matter of
seconds and the brake to be exposed. This was a crucial advantage at the pit stop.

2000 wins in ten years

The blue racers made their first appearance on the race track at the Grand Prix held by Automobil
Club de France in Lyon in 1924. In the decade that followed, they remained practically unchallenged
thanks to sophisticated manufacturing efforts, their lightweight design and easy handling. During that
ten-year era, they won almost 2000 races – more than any other model ever has. Grand Prix races were
highly fashionable events in those days, and Bugatti was not the only brand with considerable interest
in substantiating the reputation of its products by winning races. In fact, in the 1920s, Europe was
regularly host to a number of different races in different countries on a single weekend. The teams set
up by different automobile manufacturers competed at popular race circuits such as Targa Florio, Le
Mans, Monza and Spa as well as in Rome, Nice, Antibes and even a village in Alsace.

The main reason Bugatti won such an enormous number of races – on the back of which successes the
brand was also able to forge its image – was the fact that Bugatti sold not only its normal sports and
touring cars to private buyers, but its racing cars too. Thus it was that its automobiles took part in such
a large number of Grand Prix events.

This bestowed upon Ettore Bugatti a double success. He was able on the one hand to sell his racing cars
expensively to wealthy private buyers with a keen sporting ambition and, on the other, to capitalise on
their successes on international racing circuits – without actually having to make a single investment in
these "marketing activities". This stroke of genius by "Le Patron" not only brought him immortal
fame, but a substantial fortune as well. A total of 350 legendary Type 35-series automobiles were
ultimately built – in a wide variety of versions. Those that survived their racing days, accidents, World
War II and all other risks over the years, have become coveted and highly priced collectors' items.

Four Type 35 Grand Prix models – Four distinct personalities – Four Veyrons

Tradition being what it is, the Bugatti Veyron Specials built to mark the 100th anniversary of the brand
feature the racing colours of the respective countries: blue for France, red for Italy, green for England
and white for Germany. Each of the four new Veyrons has a specific "predecessor" in the form of an
original Grand Prix Bugatti on which it was modelled. These four historic race cars represent the
generation of legendary Bugatti Grand Prix racers which were piloted by world-famous race-car drivers
and which scored countless racing victories in the 1920s and '30s. Each of the four Veyron Specials is
named after a Bugatti race-car driver of the 1920s and 30s. Jean-Pierre Wimille has given the blue
Veyron its name, Achille Varzi the red one, Malcolm Campbell the green one and Hermann zu
Leiningen the white Veyron.

Jean-Pierre Wimille was one of the longest-serving drivers at Bugatti. He only joined the team in
Molsheim in 1933, but subsequently remained loyal to the brand, ultimately driving home Bugatti's
last-ever victory in 1947 at Bois de Boulogne in a 4.7-litre Monoposto Type 59/50 B. Wimille's many
previous successes included winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1937 and 1939. Achille Varzi was a
member of the official Bugatti team from 1931 to 1933. He had already achieved many successes since
1928 driving a private Type 35 C, then later went on to win the Monaco Grand Prix, an event on
Berlin's Avus circuit and other races. As the setter of numerous world records for speed, the name
Malcolm Campbell is firmly established in racing history. He also competed in countless "normal"
races from 1911 and 1936, often piloting a Bugatti Type 39 A or Type 35, and he owned one of the
legendary Type 57 S street sports cars. Prinz Hermann zu Leiningen's career driving Bugattis began in
1927 when he purchased a Type 40 chassis, for which he had a racing body built. He went on to win a
number or races in a privately owned Type 37 A before eventually standing in the spotlight of the
international racing scene in a 35 C for several years from 1930 onward.

"We have put a lot of effort into translating colour and material, the defining characteristics of our
historic role models, into the designs of the modern-day Veyrons," explains Alasdair Stewart, Director
Sales & Marketing at Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. "We have taken extreme care to match the original
colours of the original race cars, exterior and interior"

On Sunday, the four historic racing Type 35s and the four modern-day Centenaire EditionVeyrons
will be exhibited alongside each other in the park of Villa Erba for the first and only time.

Ahead of that presentation, Bugatti will on Saturday be prominently represented in the park of Villa
d'Este by a special-display-class exhibition of models, which will serve to portray the 100-year history
of the brand. Bugatti's participation in the classic Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este at Lake Como will
be the second highlight event to mark the carmaker's centennial celebrations after it took part in the
International Geneva Motor Show in early March. This latest event will be followed by the Pebble
Beach Concours d'Elegance in California in mid-August and the main celebratory event on 12
September in Molsheim (Alsace), which has been the home of this unparalleled automobile brand for
100 years.

[via Autoblog]

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Centenaire: A Rainbow Of Silly

Ben Wojdyla — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Volkswagen, things with Bugatti are getting out of hand. Stop it! Inventing special editions like the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Centenaire, to be unveiled in commemorative colors, isn't a substitute for building a new car.

These colorful cars apparently commemorate the racing careers of Grand Prix drivers Jean-Pierre Wimille, Achille Varzi, Malcolm Campbell and Hermann Zu Leiningen, and mimic the livery of each respective driver's car. These Centeniares will bow at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, likely to the sound of their owners hands clapping. We're thinking the Veyron is beginning to seriously jump the shark with all these special editions. Something is wrong when news about one of the worlds most powerful and exclusive cars is tiresome and boring. [MotorPasion via Carscoop]

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Number One Auctions For $2.9 Million

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:20:00 EDT

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport debuted at the Pebble Beach Concours last weekend, and chassis number one was promptly auctioned off the following day by Gooding & Company for the obnoxious sum of $2.9 million. "Standard" pricing for the ultra-exclusive convertible is set at €1.4 million, or about $2 million, so a paltry $900,000 for the privilege of owning the first one is totally worth it. Thanks to the magic of the internet you can watch the entire sales process below the fold. It certainly is a whole different world.

[WCF]

1970 Volvo 164, Plus Bonus 200-Series Poll

Murilee Martin — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:00:00 EST

It's hard to believe that, nearly 150 cars into this series, we've only seen three Volvos up to this point (the '66 Amazon, the '68 P1800, and the '69 144S). This area is Volvo Central, what with Berkeley only a few miles away and all, but for some reason we don't have many pre-200-series Göteborg machines on the island. However, we have tons of early 200-series Volvos... which I've sort of ignored, since the 200 series remained essentially unchanged well into the 90s. But maybe I'm being too picky- and that means it's poll time once again, so we can let the readers' voices be heard on this controversial topic.

The 164 was Volvo's upscale machine, with a six-cylinder version of their B20 4-banger under the hood and a grille that seemed ~~ripped off from~~ influenced by the early-60s Studebaker Lark.

They weren't huge sellers in the United States, so I was happy to spot this solid-looking example parked at a downtown Volvo-centric garage, right down the street from the '87 BMW L6 we saw last week.

The side view looks very similar to that of the cheaper 144, which is understandable- the 164 is based on the 140 series platform, with different front bodywork and a nicer interior.

Love those mudflaps- just the thing for safety-obsessed Swedish roads! I'll keep my weather eye open for more old Volvos, perhaps even including the occasional '75 or '76 200-series. Sadly, you see more of the 60s models in the junkyard than on the street these days.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 or McLaren F1?

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:30:00 EST

Both cars are indisputably awesome. Hell, both are in our Fantasy Garage. One has a BMW V12 that in standard tune is good for 627 hp, with other more bat guano iterations easily hitting 680 hp and 244 mph. Of course the other has an 8.0-liter VW mill with 16 cylinders and 4 turbochargers and I-can't-count-that-high many intercoolers and radiators. Seriously dude, the hand brake has a cooler. Bottom line: more than 1,000 hp. Each vehicle represents one man's vision of the very best car in the world. In the case of McLaren, that man happens to be Formula 1 maestro Gordon Murray. With the Veyron, that man is Ferdinand Piech, a gonzo engineer whose Porsche 917 was so dominating that it killed Cam-Am. You might make the argument that the Bugatti is too heavy, but even Murray himself was surprised and impressed by how well the Veyron handled. The only legitimate argument we'll leave you with one way or the other is that in bone stock form, the Veyron is way faster than the heavily modified, record setting F1. Of course, who cares?

Bugatti Veyron 16.4

Jonny Lieberman — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:30:00 EDT

"The most pointless exercise on the planet has got to be this four-wheel-drive 1000 horsepower Bugatti. I think it's incredibly childish this thing people have about just one element—top speed or standing kilometre or 0-60. It's about as narrow minded as you can get as a car designer to pick on one element. It's like saying we're going to beat the original Mini because we're going to make a car 10 mph faster on its top speed—but it's two foot longer and 200 kilos heavier. That's not car designing—that just reeks of a company who are paranoid."

That's McLaren F1 designer Gordon Murray talking about this week's Fantasy Garage candidate during it's incubation period. And I told you, this time it would be another Volkswagen. A Bug, even. Hatched almost entirely from the mind of the same madman who brought us last week's disgraced Phaeton W12, the Bugati Veyron is without question a high-water mark of automotive engineering. Can I rephrase that? The 16.4 is the high-water mark. And no matter what any of you say, this one's going into the Garage.

There's an old joke. One guy asks his friend, "Do you know the difference between an elephant and an apricot?" His friend answers, "No, what's the difference?" And that is exactly what we are dealing with here. For more than a century, makes have been chasing automotive platitudes. You could sell a car simply because it was the most expensive, most powerful or had the highest top speed. The Veyron manages to do all three. It also more than likely has the best brakes ever fitted to a production car, and can go left/right rather well, thank you. In fact, Gordon Murray had this to say after he actually drove the car;

"One really good thing, and I simply never expected this, is that it does change direction. It hardly feels its weight. Driving it on a circuit I expected a sack of cement, but you can really throw it at tight chicanes."

Sure, there will be some who say that the half as heavy (and half as powerful) Ferrari F40 feels better through the twists than the Veyron. But of course, a decent Se7en makes the F40 feel like a potted plant. And that's the thing with the Veyron – what the hell do you compare it to? Any other car is, well, an apricot.

Through our eyes, it is easy to see why Piech dreamed up such a superlative car. Look, we aspire to one day, maybe, somehow, imaginary sky-god willing, own a Lamborghini. Piech owned Lamborghini. And Bentley, Audi, VW, Skoda, Seat and Bugatti. What's a guy to do? Sit back and build yellower Murcielagos? No way. Remember who Ferdi's grandpappy was (Dr. Porsche). No, he needed to not just push the performance envelope, but smack it. With an A-bomb. A curious side-note, Piech has thirteen-children through four different women. Or maybe that's not a side-note at all?

While Piech may have announced the Veyron "officially" in Switzerland, Volkswagen had been hard at work on the car for over two-years. Remember the butch but ultimately ungainly Hunaudieres concept from Bentley? Not only was it similar in appearance and structure to the Veyron, but it ran the world's first W16 engine. 1999 also saw the EB 18/4 Veyron concept unveiled in Tokyo. Very little changed externally between that concept and the final Veyron, though, obviously, the massive 18-cylinder true-W mill was dropped in favor of the more ~~Bruce~~ compact, faux-W, 16-cylinder VR engine.

That was hardly the half of it. It is one thing to travel at 250+ mph. it is another entirely to do so safely. As evidenced by the two Veyron prototypes that crashed during development. Piech retired in 2002 and the wishful 2003 launch date was pushed back to 2005. New VAG-kingpin Bernd Pischetsrieder replaced Hartmut Warkuss, the Veyrons' original daddy, with Dr. Thomas Bscher. It was Bscher who finally delivered the goods. And what great, heaping, mental-patient strength goods they were. See, the Veyron may sell for a cool 1 million euros (about $1.35 million), but each car costs Bugatti close to $10 million to make. Which, from a certain perspective, is a hell of a deal.

Do we even need to get into the technical stuff? Really? Can't I just play you that James May video or something? No? OK, the Veyron has an 8-liter W16 that features four air-to-liquid cooled turbochargers. Production engines are exceeding Piech's initial claim of 1,001 hp to the tune of 1,040 hp. Torque is I-hate-stumps-stupid; 923 lb-ft to be exact. You'll also get a seven-speed DSG, Haldex AWD and 8-piston, 15.7" carbon-ceramic, turbine-vented brakes. Oh, and the moveable wing creates 0.5 Gs of stopping power. Hell, in case the regular brakes fail, even the handbrake has ABS. Every body panel but the doors are made of carbon fiber (the doors are aluminum). The central tub is carbon fiber, while the front cradle is aluminum space frame and the rear chassis is heat-resistant tubular stainless steel.

You really want more? Yeesh. Well, the Veyron has ten radiators (three for cooling the engine, one heat exchanger for the air to liquid intercoolers, two for the air conditioning system, one for transmission oil, one for differential oil, one for engine oil, and most amazing/decadent of all, one radiator that does nothing but cool the hydraulic oil used by the spoiler. ('Cause you just gotta have that. ) The Veyron also has modes. And not simply "comfort" and "sport." No, the ultimate road car actually changes shape. Trips to 7-11 are handled relatively conventionally in "normal" mode. The wing is tucked neatly into the car's rump and ride height is about five inches off the gravel. Pretty cushy, especially as you will be nearly swaddled in leather as you munch down on your 1/4 Pound Big Bite.

Should you hit more than 130 mph between stop signs – which is dumb-easy to do – the car transforms into "handling" mode. Configured like this, the suspension drops the car down by nearly two inches and the wing extends, revealing a separate spoiler. Even more shape-shifting takes place out of sight. Two flaps, under the car and ahead of the wheels, open up. Working together, handling mode creates nearly 800 pounds of downforce, sticking the Veyron to ground like chewed gum all the way up to 230 mph. Obviously, that's just not fast enough!

Enter "top-speed" mode, which is akin to KITT's Super-Pursuit Mode. Only, you know, real. While the Veyron is idling, the driver inserts a second key into the floor, alerting the car it is nearly time to go batshit. In this guise, the Veyron's knuckles drag even closer to the ground (about 2.5 inches). The wing is almost fully retracted – it pokes up at a totally precise 2 degrees. The hidden flaps are closed. All this tom-foolery reduces the drag coefficient from a brick-like 0.41 to a slicker 0.36. Downforce plunges to just 120 lbs. And yes, for 12 minutes, you can blast across the planet at an electronically limited 253 mph. And then the Bugatti is out of gas. Though, should you so much as tap the brakes or turn the wheel in top-speed mode, the Veyron reverts to handling mode.

And now the numbers. Let's start with braking, as the Veyron's stopping power is lunatic-level bonkers and on par with its acceleration. Simply lifting your foot off the gas at top-speed produces 0.3 Gs of stopping force. Standing on the pedal will produce over two earths' gravities worth of stop. Bugatti claims the Veyron will come to a standstill from 253 mph in less than 10 seconds. Think about that for a moment. If a world-class sprinter were to begin the 100-meter dash at exactly the moment a balls-out Veyron began braking, he would reach the finish line at the same time the Bugatti ceased moving. Though the Veyron would be seven or so football fields further down the road. We're not sure what this means, either. Except that cars like this demand analogies that defy sense.

Aside from being the fastest production car the world has ever seen (what's up, Ultimate Aero TT?), the 16.4 is also the quickest. 60 mph is dispatched with in 2.64 seconds. And remember, this is an AWD car that weighs 4,300 lbs. Zero to 100 mph? Six seconds flat. 0-150 mph? Eleven seconds flat. 0-200 mph? 22 seconds flat. Just to give you some perspective, a McLaren F1 needs 28 seconds to hit the double-ton. Amazingly, only 55 seconds are needed to hit 253 mph. At which point you are eating two gallons of gas per minute. Which is simply fantastic.

In fact, with the exception of being really ugly, I can't think of single reason not to induct the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 into our Fantasy Garage. Remember that price is not a barrier to entrance and we have the world's slickest team of mechanics. Though, if you were to actually purchase a Veyron for yourself, Bugatti keeps a mechanic on call 24-hours a day, ready to jet anywhere in the world. Serious like, this car rules. Special super-nerd, giant-geek extra pistonhead-points for anyone who can accurately explain why the car in the top picture is not a production Veyron. Now, vote! – Jonny Lieberman

[The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage appears every Tuesday. Readers vote the cars in or out. The idea is that we'll have 50 cars in our fantasy garage, the world's greatest mechanic and endless wads of cash. And after the Phaeton disaster, we're not really interested in what you think.]

Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, So Far:
· RUF RT12
· Maserati Quattroporte Executive GT
· 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
· Honda 1300 Coupe 9
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