BUGATTI is to unveil its Veyron 16,4 Grand Sport Vitesse, calling it the world’s most powerful roadster. It’s the topless version of the the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which currently holds the world speed record for a production car at 431 kilometres per hour.
Volkswagen’s engineers at Bugatti have, however, upped the horsepower from 1 001 horsepower to 1 200, and torque is up from
1 250 Nm to 1 500 Nm for the Vitesse. The power increase of the vehicle’s 16-cylinder engine comes courtesy of four enlarged turbochargers and intercoolers, with the chassis modified to support the power increase.
1 250 Nm to 1 500 Nm for the Vitesse. The power increase of the vehicle’s 16-cylinder engine comes courtesy of four enlarged turbochargers and intercoolers, with the chassis modified to support the power increase.
Bugatti hasn’t revealed pricing for the new car, but don’t go expecting much change from £1,27 million (R15,34 million).
That may sound expensive, but look at the track record of other Bugattis. The private roadster built for engine genius Ettore Bugatti in the forties by his staff, is expected to fetch more than £1 million when it goes under the hammer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed from June 28 to July 1. For that price, it, of course, comes fitted with a radio — the original medium-wave receiver fitted after the World War 2.
The top Grand Prix racer of the day was given the task of driving the car to a hideout from the invading Germans. In the six decades since, this hand-built Bugatti has had only three owners and does not get out much. It was last seen at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1985.
This 76-year-old well-rusted Bugatti, dredged from the bottom of a Swiss lake, fetched even more when it was sold in 2010.
The car’s tax-dodging owner opted to hide his 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Roadster at the end of a long chain in Lake Maggiore in Switzerland in 1936. Tax audits taking as long as they do, the chain rusted to pieces, and divers rediscovered the genteel lady on August 18, 1967. The body was recovered to be sold as a fundraiser for one of the divers three years ago, on July 12, 2009.
The rusted car sold for over R2,67 million in today’s money at the Retro Mobile classic-car exhibition in Paris in 2010. — Witness Reporter.
