Final testing of Bugatti’s £700,000, 250mph Veyron is proceeding ‘like clockwork’, according to chairman Thomas Bscher. The company’s part-time chairman, who also heads his own investment banking business, has brought the project smartly back on course since taking charge 18 months ago. Veyron is now scheduled for a September launch, and delivery of the first car is due in October.According to Bscher, the main engineering challenge has been to accommodate the huge 8.0-litre, 1001bhp, four-turbo V16 engine and its ancillaries inside the Veyron’s svelte shape. Extensive road and circuit testing has been going well (as our photographs show), and prototypes are believed to have achieved 2.8sec for a 0-62mph sprint, and exceeded the promised 400km/h (248.4mph) top speed. The chairman, a highly competent racing driver, has himself exceeded 236mph ‘so far’.
The production Veyron, distinguishable by its lack of the air-exit vent seen behind each front wheel on the development cars, will be displayed at next week’s Geneva Show.The first year’s production run of the supercar is reportedly sold already, but Bugatti intends to make the car for five or six years, building a total of 300 units. Bscher acknowledges that VW-owned Bugatti will need more models to achieve profitability, and will unveil a drop-top Veyron in the next couple of years. There will be at least one more completely new Bugatti by 2010, most likely a low-volume V16 convertible. Ultimately, Bugatti wants to launch a V8-engined sports coupé into Porsche 911/Aston V8 territory.
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