Veyron hits 248mph. World yawns

Newswheel staff :: 19 May 2005 :: Filed under Mid / rear engine sportscar, Bugatti, Bugatti Veyron, Europe & UK, US

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Irrelevant supercar achieves pointless velocity

We’d love to be proved wrong, but we’ve a nasty feeling VW’s million-dollar Bug will not be the giant German automotive group’s finest hour. What’s more, we have fears regarding the wisdom of resurrecting an essentially long-dead brand such as Bugatti. Not to mention doubts concerning the worth of the upcoming Veyron supercar (as we whinged and whined here). So, the announcement that the long-awaited (but not much anticipated) 1,000bhp W16 monster has achieved over 400kph (248mph) at VW’s Ehra-Lessien facility last month is so much grist to our car-fantic mill. Whatever, the feat has not been officially recognised by Gusiness World Records, although the test was supervised by the German Homologation Authority (TÜV Süddeutschland) and officially chronometred by their precision measuring units.

For the record, a spokes-Bug said: "The Bugatti super-sports-car has thus attained yet another major goal in it ambitious development process." And: “Everyone here is thrilled by this. We had to do three runs in each direction, but this has been measured using precision equipment. The car actually went faster than 248mph, but we’re not releasing that speed.” Uh-huh. 

Just how much cash the whole Bugatti project is swallowing, we hardly dare speculate. We simply suspect the money might be better spent elsewhere.

Linkage:
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