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The Modern Car is a Work of Art
When you see a modern sportscar or supercar there are often two things that immediately come to mind: "My god what a waste of money!" and "Gee, I wish I was that rich!" They are in essence our dream cars. They look incredibly beautiful/powerful (and usually has the engine/interior to match its good looks) but we all know that sportscars and supercars are far from practical. Lets start by comparing the different sportscars available (please keep in mind we are analyzing the cars for artistic merit, not whether the car is any good):
SportscarsAston Martin: [British] Expensive, reliable, incredibly powerful engines. Most famous for its role in James Bond movies Aston Martin is the epitome of British sportscars. My personal favourite is the 1976 Aston Martin Vantage.
[Above] The 1976 Aston Martin Vantage. BMW M Class: [German] Relatively cheap, reliable and fairly good engines. They tend to look rather bland, boring and are usually bought by business class people. After all, if a businessman turned up in an outrageous sportscar you might think twice about signing a contract with him. Sure he's successful, but he might also be a foolish idiot. Chevrolet Corvette: [American] Very cheap, not very reliable and crappy engines. Corvettes look great but in comparison to other sportscars they really are not that fast (With one exception: The Corvette Z06 is actually faster than a Lambo around a track.) or fabulous. They are really more of a "Barbie" car than anything else. Dodge Viper: [American] Overpriced, tends to overheat but very powerful. Warning: The exhaust valves on a Dodge Viper run right past the gasoline tank. They tend to get very hot at high speeds and the car explodes. The car looks incredibly aggressive and appeals to football fans and so on, but its really nothing special to look at.
Jaguar: [British] Cheaper than an Aston Martin, less reliable than an Aston Martin, just as powerful as an Aston Martin. Jaguars are always in Aston Martin's shadow, and one step behind (both companies are currently owned by Ford). The two cars companies however make incredibly similar looking and achingly beautiful cars. Lotus: [British] Tricky to drive but a very sweet car to look at. The handling on a Lotus is so powerfully good that some drivers have difficulty steering them because they're not used to a car that is so responsive. The cars themselves are technologically a marvel and stunning to look at. Mercedes-Benz AMG: [German] Tends to be a bit plain but still a beautiful car. Essentially a more beautiful version of a BMW M Class. Mitsubishi: [Japanese] Designed to look American in the hopes of selling in America, Mitsubishi sports cars are appealing to the class of people who normally buy Mustangs or hatchbacks. They're really not anything special to look at. By emulating American cars Mitsubishi has squashed any sense of invention or imagination. The result is rather boring. MG: [British] Rather boring looking these days. And average as far as sports cars go. Morgan: [British] Morgan is more known these days for its antiques. Its a favourite amongst antique car collectors. You would have to be into antique car design to appreciate its good looks (which it does have). TVR: [British] Expensive for a sportscar, cheap for a supercar. The TVR is a borderline supercar but without the huge pricetag of a supercar (but still far more expensive than a regular sportscar). They have very fast, powerful engines and are achingly beautiful.
SupercarsBefore we compare supercars let us just stop and explain WHAT a supercar actually is: Insanely powerful, incredibly expensive, incredibly fast, very luxurious, usually only bought by millionaires and billionaires. In comparison sportscars are a dime a dozen. You could buy 10 Jaguars for the price of one supercar. Bugatti: [French] Expensive, glamourous, insanely powerful engines. The Bugatti Veyron has the most powerful engine ever built in a road legal car (it has an 1001 break horsepower engine and is the only car capable of going from 0 to 400 km/h (250 mph) in less than a minute). The car itself is quite beautiful (and an engineering marvel), but its not breathtaking. But it is a fucking amazing feat of engineering. Ferrari: [Italian] Starting to look rather plain these days. Very beautiful but rather plain. Like looking at a stereotypical blonde actress (with a boob job). It has no depth and is rather stale. Ford GT40: [American] Very fast, very sleek, very beautiful. Koenigsegg: [Swedish] Scary but beautiful with the engine to match.
[Above] The Koenigsegg CCX. Lamborghini: Rather modernist looking, but still a great car to look at. You'd almost have to be a fan of modern art to like the looks of a Lambo. Not very fast however. The Corvette Z06 is faster around the Top Gear track.
Maserati: [Italian] Originally a racing car brand, Maserati has become known for its expensive sports cars and supercars. Its currently owned by Fiat. Their current car designs are rather rounded and curvy, but frankly look a bit like a Dodge Intrepid and is therefore starting to look pretty boring these days. Nice to look at, but not spectacular. Speed wise however, the Maserati MC12 is the 3rd fastest car in the world.
Noble: [British] Kind of boring and Ferrari-ish, but still a beauty. The Noble is basically a boring and conservative version of a Ferrari. Pagani Zonda: [Italian] Faster than a Ferrari, looks like a more radical version of a Ferrari, and is more beautiful and more interesting to look at than a Ferrari. Unfortunately, most people MISTAKE it for a Ferrari. Seems most people can't tell the difference. Porsche: [German] The Porsche 911 is considered by many to be the ultimate rear-engine car, but frankly its rather ugly and the styling has stayed pretty much exactly the same since it was first made. Yawn.
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Bugatti Veyron: Tres rapide...
When your car costs more than $1.2 million, travels over 230 mph, and hits 62 mph in 2.5 seconds, then you must be in a Bugatti. "It's a work of art that's meant to be driven," said Richard Koppelman, president of Miller Motor Cars in Greenwich, Conn., one of six U.S. dealerships that have been selling the car since the fall. "It's like a race car that has a tremendous amount of torque but it gets you there comfortably. But also, you can drive it around town and pick up your dry cleaning." The Bugatti brand is one of the automotive industry's oldest marque's, and it has plans to make a public and very loud comeback with what could well be the fastest production car to ever hit the blacktop. After what seems like years of teasing us with prototypes, mock sketches and the odd mention of a 1001 brake horsepower engine, the Bugatti Veyron is finally finished and will be sold to European markets late in 2006, and America and Asia Pacific territories after that. While the Bugatti name is essentially Italian, Carlo Bugatti (father of Ettore Buggati) left Milan for France in 1904, and the marque has since built its cars in Molsheim, France. Today, the Bugatti name is owned by Volkswagen, and the new Veyron supercar has also been styled by the Germans, yet despite this many of the die-hard Bugatti fans are still pleased with the car's appearance. The Bugatti Veyron was formally announced as ready-to-go by Volkswagen in Monte Carlo recently. The automaker also released offical images of the production car (pictured right), which is slightly different from the Veyron shown at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show. To start with, the long bodied Bugatti - which measures a 4.5 metres from grille to 'zorst, and a massive 2.0 metres wide - gets slightly re-jigged headlights and a few extra air intake apertures, such as those located just behind the front wheels.
As it stands however, the Bugatti behemoth is one very exotic proposition, both in terms of styling and performance. The twin intake snorkels mounted on the roof help funnel cool air to the mid-mounted engine, and while practical, they add a great deal of visual impact too. Volkswagen's goal was create the world's fastest production vehicle, something that could be driven on the road smoothly, or right-royally thrashed. As such, one of the first hurdles the company faced, after developing a killer 16-cylinder engine, was to make sure it was aerodynamically sound. To be able to reach speeds of more than 400km/h and still provide linear handling characteristics, the Veyron's body had to be sleek, but under the car and out of sight are the kind of ground effects more commonly seen on Formula One cars. Volkswagen paid lots of attention to the front and rear spoilers, and the company reckons that the new Veyron will hold higher corner speeds, be able to more effectively get power to the ground while exiting corners and also decelerate more rapidly under brakes thanks to all the painstaking work they've carried out in the wind tunnel. The most impressive aspect of the new Bugatti supercar has to be the 16-cylinder engine, which is located behind the driver (mid-mount) for a low centre of gravity, ergo improved turn-in and general handling characteristics.
Rather than try and squeeze 16 cylinders into a vee format, Volkswagen came up with a much more compact idea a few years ago - the 'W' configuration. In layman's terms, it's basically two 4.0-litre V8s sharing the same crankshaft, which makes it more compact than similarly sized V12s. This gargantuan 8.0-litre W16 has four valves per cylinder - for a total of 64 valves - and together with a supremely sophisticated forced induction system, it belts out 1001 horsepower, or 736kW @ 6000rpm. Just to put that in perspective, the Veyron generates more power than four of Subaru's potent WRXs put together. Made of aluminium and magnesium (to keep weight down), the 7993cc W16 powerplant has four turbochargers and four camshafts, one for each bank of four cylinders respectively. With a 9.0:1 compression ratio and variable valve timing, the quad-turbo system helps boost the car's low end, while providing a fatter torque curve at the same time: 1250Nm of torque @ 2200-5500rpm. The closest any other production car comes to this staggering figure is Mercedes' CL 65 AMG, which pumps out 1000Nm from its 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12.
The new Bugatti is fitted with a brand-spanking new 7-speed semi-manual transmission, which is operated by paddle shifters located behind the tanned leather steering wheel. On average, the twin-clutch system takes just 0.2 seconds to change gears, which is quicker (on average) than a traditional manual. In the real world, this 736kW and 1250Nm combines with the 7-speed, all-wheel drive transmission and a 1600kg kerb weight to propel the Bugatti Veyron to 100km/h from rest in 2.9 seconds. That's very quick. If that isn't enough, the four-wheel drive chunk of exotica will hit 300km/h in 14.0 seconds flat and can cruise at 400km/h with ease. The car is electronically limited to 400km/h (248 mph), though if de-restricted the 8.0-litre coupe would be capable of at least 450km/h, perhaps more if the final-drive ratio and fuel-injection mapping was tweeked. To safely and reliably accelerate to 400km/h, the Veyron makes use of custom-designed Michelin tyres, which utilise what has termed the Pax system. The tyres are capable of dealing with the stress of 400km/h speeds, and they also have a special pressure monitoring system and run-flat capability, so that even in the event of a high-speed puncture, things won't go all pear shaped. So, at the end of the day, Volkswagen has not only built one hell of a coupe, but it now also has bragging rights to the world's fastest car - and a direct swipe at the likes of McLaren's F1, Lamborghini's Murcielago and Ford's GT. The Bugatti Veyron is expected to cost roughly €750,000, which is about $1,300,000 in local currency. It is expected that a handful will make their way to Australia, but most will be sold in Europe. The new all-wheel drive Veyron has more power than the current crop of Formula One cars, and with its massive 8.0-litre, quad turbo engine, carbon fibre-reinforced chassis and aluminium body panels, there are few cars out there today that combine such technical sophistication with a look that's quite unorthodox, yet strangely appealing.
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