Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4

The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engined sports car, designed and developed by the Volkswagen Group and manufactured in Molsheim, France by Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.

The Super Sport version of the Veyron is the fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a top speed of 431.072 km/h. The original version has a top speed of 408.47 km/h. It was named Car of the Decade by the BBC television programme Top Gear. The standard Bugatti Veyron won Top Gear's Best Car Driven All Year award in 2005.

On 6 April 2013, Bugatti set the record for having the highest top speed of any roadster in the world with the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, reaching on average a top speed of 408.84 km/h.

The Veyron's chief designer was Hartmut Warkuss, and the exterior was designed by Jozef Kabaň of Volkswagen, with much of the engineering work being conducted under the guidance of engineering chief Wolfgang Schreiber.

A number of special variants have been produced. In December 2010, Bugatti began offering prospective buyers the ability to customize exterior and interiors colours by using the Veyron 16.4 Configurator application on the marque's official website.

In 1998, the Volkswagen Group purchased the trademark rights on the former car manufacturer Bugatti in order to revive the brand. Starting with the Bugatti EB118, they presented at various international auto shows a total of four 18-cylinder concept cars. At the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show, the first study of the Veyron was presented. At the time, the name of the concept car was "Bugatti Veyron EB 18.4," and it was equipped with a 3-bank W 18-cylinder engine instead of the 2-bank W 16-cylinder engine of the production version. While the three previous prototypes had been styled by Giugiaro, the Veyron was designed by the Volkswagen stylists.

The decision to start production of the car was taken by the Volkswagen Group in 2001. The first roadworthy prototype was completed in August 2003. It is identical except for a few details to the later series variant. In the development to series production, however, considerable technical problems had to be addressed, so that the start of production was delayed repeatedly, until September 2005.

German inspection officials recorded an average top speed of the original version of 408.47 km/h during test sessions on the Ehra-Lessien test track on 19 April 2005.

This top speed was verified by James May on Top Gear in November 2006, again at Volkswagen Group's private Ehra-Lessien test track. May noted that at top speed the engine consumes 45,000 litres of air per minute. The Veyron at the time had the highest top speed of any street legal production car. Back in the Top Gear studio, co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson commented that most supercars felt like they were shaking apart at their top speed, and asked May if that was the case with the Veyron at 407 km/h. May responded that no, the Veyron was very controlled, and only wobbled a tiny bit when the air brake deployed.

The car's everyday top speed is listed at 343 km/h. When the car reaches 220 km/h, hydraulics lower the car until it has a ground clearance of about 9 cm. At the same time, the wing and spoiler deploy. In this handling mode, the wing provides 3,425 newtons of downforce, holding the car to the road.

For top speed mode the driver must, while stationary, toggle a special top speed key to the left of the driver's seat. A checklist then establishes whether the car and its driver are ready to attempt to reach 407 km/h. If so, the rear spoiler retracts, the front air diffusers shut, and normal 12.5 cm ground clearance drops to 6.5 cm.

The Veyron's brakes use cross drilled, radially vented carbon fibre reinforced silicon carbide composite discs, manufactured by SGL Carbon, which have a much greater resistance to brake fade when compared with conventional cast iron discs. The lightweight aluminium alloy monobloc brake calipers are made by AP Racing; the fronts have eight titanium pistons and the rear calipers have six pistons. Bugatti claims maximum deceleration of 1.3 g on road tyres. As an added safety feature, in the event of brake failure, an anti-lock braking system has also been installed on the handbrake.

Prototypes have been subjected to repeated 1.0 g braking from 312 km/h to 80 km/h  without fade. With the car's acceleration from 80 km/h to 312 km/h, that test can be performed every 22 seconds. At speeds above 200 km/h, the rear wing also acts as an airbrake, snapping to a 55° angle in 0.4 seconds once brakes are applied, providing an additional 0.68 g of deceleration. Bugatti claims the Veyron will brake from 400 km/h to a standstill in less than 10 seconds, though distance covered in this time will be half a kilometre.

In 2008, Bugatti then-CEO Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen confirmed that the Veyron would be replaced by another high-end model by 2012. In 2011, the new CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer revealed that the company was planning to produce two models in the future — one a sports car-successor to the Veyron, the other a limousine known as the Galibier.

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