Posted April 27, 2007 
Comments(2) That American cars are :- A : built like crap (out of crap) and B : Handle really poorly…
I’ve never understood American cars. Yes the V8′s SOUND good, but come on, 500hp from a 6ltr V10 (in the Viper). In Europe we get that in our 2ltr runabouts (or near about).
Funny anyhow, oh and I’ll let the Corvette Z06 and the Dodge Viper off, yeah there ‘rubbish’, but they have character.
Posted March 14, 2007 Comments(0) Word in the press has it that the charismatic Thomas Bscher has tendered his resignation as the head of Bugatti. Thomas Bscher joined the VAG Group in 2003 to head the EB16.4 Veyron project as it had fallen into issues under it’s previous leader.
It is said that Thomas Bscher like others in the group has fallen out with the current VW head Martin Winterkorn. It’s believed that he wanted funds to create a second Bugatti car, one that would probably replace the current ageing Bugatti range.
It seems that the current VW boards sympathy to Porsche could be the key issue inside the upper management at the group. VW and Porsche have always had a tie with each other, but rumor has it that the Porsche family are looking to control more of the VW board, and I’m personally not sure if that is a good or bad thing. After all who needs another Caymen/Toureg?
Posted January 12, 2007 Comments(4) 
The EB18/4 'Veyron' - to give it its full concept name - started life in 1999 at the Tokyo Motor Show as a concept car designed by Volkswagen's Hartmut Warkuss. It was never intended to be put into production, but rather as a marketing piece for the Volkswagen Audi Group's (VAG) takeover of the Bugatti name. At that point in time, the French car manufacturer had just been bought from its previous Italian owners by the German Volkswagen Audi Group. The Veyron was the first Bugatti in a long time to not have been designed by ItalDesign.
The marque was put into the watchful hands of the Audi part of the group, which joined the also recently purchased Lamborghini. It was decided to place them under the stewardship of Audi as they are well known for their pioneering use of technologies and designs.
The concept was called the EB18/4. In line with all previous code names for Bugatti models, the numbers came from the engine inside the car, in this case a W18 (3 banks of 6 cylinders) and 4 turbo chargers. The car was shown at various shows around the world, with no modification; a rare thing in a concept, as they preceed major style changes.
However in 2001 Ferdinand Piëch – VAG Chairman – announced at the Geneva Motorshow that interest in the Veyron had been so high that the group would undertake the task of making the car production ready. He also stated that the car would be the fastest, most powerful and most expensive car in history. Now, some would think that the announcement would put people off, and yet VAG stopped taking orders for the car well before the first road going prototype had even hit the road.
There were some changes to the specification of the concept car that were announced as well. The car would not be using the W18 engine, instead it would use a W16 engine, which had already been shown by VAG in their 1999 Bentley Hunaudières concept car. This would be increased in power by adding 4 turbo chargers to it. Top speed was promised to be 250mph (403kph) and the car would have in excess of 1000Bhp.
This announcement, as it turned out, was almost the end of the Veyron project. The story of this car is not its immense performance, it is the engineering that had to go into the mammoth project that created it.
You see there was a problem. The car's design had been shown and signed off by would be purchasers, so the car's looks and shape had to remain fairly close to the concept. Purchasers had also been told that the car would be the fastest, most powerful car ever created. Unfortunately for the Veyron team, these two factors struggled to sit nicely together, and the resulting Veyron is a testament to all of the team involved in making it work.
Late in 2001 the Veyron was promoted from concept to advanced concept, and VAG announced that the car would go on sale in 2003. However, all did not go well.
Reliability and top speed stability were causing issues, so much in fact that one of the prototype cars was destroyed in a high speed accident, and another spun out and crashed at an event at Laguna Seca during a public demonstration.
This rather public demonstration of the handling issues slowed the development process down. Not only was the construction of more prototypes needed, but the motoring press grabbed hold of the Veyron's issues and it started to become a running joke that the car would never make it to market.
Bernd Pischetsrieder took over the running of VAG, and it was thought that he would kill the Veyron project. It had already developed new technologies that could be used in the rest of the VAG range of cars, and many believed that Bernd would drop the project while VAG could still save face. He did something that any other engineer junkie would have: he sent the car back to the drawing board for major overhauls in key areas.
There is a much used quote from Gordon Murray, who designed the McLaren F1. It appeared in Evo magazine – "The most pointless exercise on the planet has got to be this four-wheel-drive 1000 horsepower Bugatti. I think it’s incredibly childish this thing people have about just one element — top speed or standing kilometre or 0-60. It’s about as narrow minded as you can get as a car designer to pick on one element. It’s like saying we’re going to beat the original Mini because we’re going to make a car 10 mph faster on its top speed—but it's two foot longer and 200 kilos heavier. That’s not car designing — that just reeks of a company who are paranoid."
There were the handling issues that had to be solved. There were also braking issues; testing had shown that the car's weight was an issue at 1890kg. The biggest problem though seemed to be cooling. The massive 8ltr engine with 16 cylinders, 64 valves and 4 turbo chargers – the engine is termed a W16, and is best thought of as two narrow opposing V8 engines - generated a massive amount of heat. It was proving difficult for the teams involved to keep the car cool enough to be reliable.
The car kept loosing luggage space, to be replaced by yet another radiator. In fact, the final production car not only has the top of the engine exposed to the elements, but 10 radiators as well. These radiators break down as follows: 3 radiators for engine cooling, 1 engine oil radiator, 1 hydraulic oil radiator, 1 differential oil radiator, 1 transmission oil radiator, 1 heat exchanger for the air/liquid intercoolers and 2 radiators for the air conditioning system.
With all the car's power now cooled and reliable, the Veyron needed a transmission capable of putting the 1001bhp and 922ft-lbf to the road. Audi had released the DSG Gearbox to the world, and it was decided that this, along with Audi's knowledge of 4 wheel drive, would form the drivetrain platform. This caused issues: nothing that Audi had available could manage to harness the massive power output from the engine.
Because of this, the team turned to British company Ricardo for help. The Ricardo team created a custom, 7 speed, dual clutch gearbox for the car, and helped Audi's engineers enhance the 4 wheel drive system and software to be able to reliably cope with the car's performance.
With all the parts in place, the car underwent testing in a variety of places for the hot and cold tests that are required of production cars. It was also spotted in testing at the Nurburgring, as the engineers honed the suspension and engine mappings. This testing also saw the addition of the automated downforce system.
This aero package can create in excess of 3420 newtons of downforce; the car is lowered to only 8.9 centimeters ground clearance, and has a high performance mode, where the car keeps its aero profile as small as possible and is able to reach its 252mph top speed. This mode needs to be activated by using the key in a special lock, and this in turn makes the car do a system check on all of the cars major systems: from tyre pressures, to oil quality. The day-to-day aero profile – called the handling mode – only actualy allows a maximum of 234mph to be achieved.
T
he Veyron was unveiled in its final production version on the 19th of October 2005, at the same place as it was initially shown in concept form: the Tokyo Motorshow. The car was then shown at the Dubai Motorshow in December 2005, and it is rumored that 6 cars, including the demonstration models at the event, were sold on the opening day. The car was officially unveiled for sale at the Los Angeles Motorshow in January of 2006.
The retail price for the car was 1Million Euros.
It was announced that Bugatti would make 300 cars over the Veyron's five year production life, and in March 2006 over 70 cars were officially sold; this amounts to 14 months of the car's production. Due to this, Bugatti announced that production of the cars would be increased. The 70 that had been paid for due where to be completed before the end of 2006.
Bugatti does not have many dealers around the world, and because of this VAG announced that the cars would be sold and serviced through their Bentley dealer network; if a serious problem with the car was to occur then a mechanic would be flown out to the owner within 24 hours.
The crowning achievement of this car, in my eyes, is what Gordon Murray said about it after driving the final version of the car – this appeared in Top Gear Magazine: "One really good thing, and I simply never expected this, is that it does change direction. It hardly feels its weight. Driving it on a circuit I expected a sack of cement, but you can really throw it at tight chicanes. Breaking is phenominal and the primary ride and control are good too. It's a huge achievement". So huge an achievement that he ordered one.
Performance Statistics
0-60mph : 2.5sec
0-100mph : 5.5sec
0-150mph : 11.3sec
0-200mph : 22.2sec
0-250mph : 55sec
Engine : VAG W16, 16 cylinders, 64 valves, 4 Turbo Chargers
Displacement : 7993cc with a square bore and stroke of 86mm with 9.0:1 compression.
Tyres : Custom Michelin Run Flats
Front : PAX 245/690R520
Rear : PAX335/710R540
Wheelbase : 2710mm
Length : 4462mm
Height : 1206mm
Width : 1998mm
Power to Weight : 524bhp per tonne.
Power per Litre : 125.25bhp
The 7 Speed DSG gearbox can change gears in 8ms, faster than all Formula one cars at the beginning of the 2006 season, before the introduction of the Honda and Toyota seamless shift gearboxes.
Top Speed 253mph – electronically limited due to tyres – 257mph physical limit if de restricted.
Average fuel economy : 8mpg
Fuel economy at 253mph : 2.1mpg – this means the car can empty it's 100ltr tank in 12 minutes.
Interesting Facts
If racing a McLaren F1, the F1 could be allowed to reach 120mph before the Veyron starts, and the Veyron will still hit 200mph first.
The Veyron's handbrake system includes a special emergency stop mode that will stop the car if the main brakes fail. This includes a special ABS system to arrest the car in the shortest possible time. This, coupled with very clever cross drilled and turbine vented 8 pot brakes, and the fact that the rear aero stabiliser extends to 70 degrees to act as an air brake, can arrest the car from its 252mph top end to 0 in under 10 seconds.
Due to the car's aero profile, the engine had to generate 2bhp per 1mph over 200mph.
If Bugatti sell 300 cars at £1Million each, the VAG group will have lost £4.25Million per car, due to the mammoth production cost involved with the R&D project. This is not as bad as it sounds: a lot of the technology in the Veyron will filter down into the VAG range of cars at some point in the future.
It is also rumoured that a 'Sport' version of the Veyron will be unveiled shortly. This new car is rumoured to be not only lighter, but more powerful as well. With 1200Bhp and less weight the 'Sport' could get close to the 280Mph mark. That is, if Michelin can create an adequate tyre.
Conclusion
So there you have it, the Bugatti Veyron, not only a great engineering achievement, but a good car too.
I'm just glad that in the modern era, there is a company like the VAG group willing to risk reputation and money on a project like the Veyron. Yes, it may not make them any money, but it has proved that they are the masters of engineering, and because of that their reputation as one of the premier car makers in the world has been cemented into the minds of all petrol heads on the planet.
As such, it wins not only my Car Of The Year award, but my engineering award for the year as well.
Posted January 3, 2007 Comments(0) 
Vauxhall are going all out on the power front, not pleased with the Monaro VXR, Vectra VXR and Astra VXR, now the little sister the Corsa VXR joins the fray.
The 178Bhp 1.6ltr Turbo charged Mevira engine gets uprated to 190Bhp (192Lb/ft torque) and dropped into the little Corsa. That said after driving a recent Corsa I hope they uprate the chassis (even Steve who drives a Land Rover for his day to day drive has noticed that the handling is not all that hot as well).
The Corsa VXR get's 18" alloys, triangular mirror's and a claimed 6.8sec run to 60.
If it turns out anything like the Astra or Vectra then you will be 'power understearing' your way to new tyres on a far too regular basis.
With some luck it may get some of the Monaro charm, but I doubt it as it's not rear wheel drive.
Posted December 23, 2006 Comments(0) 
It looks like Ian has done it again. The C-XF is a concept that is believed to point the way for the replacement of the S-Type.
The S-Type is a great car, universally liked, however it was also universaly slated because it just 'copied' the car it came from, there is almost no difference on the outside between it and it's predecesor.
That looks to change now, a more agressive and 'cat like' car. Let's hope that the real version looks as good as this, and drives as well as the XK.
Posted December 21, 2006 Comments(0) 
Oh yeah, the new Lexus V8 Sports cars are certainly starting to get me excited. There is the LF-A Supercar and this, it's baby brother the IS-F.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with the car, an if the 'F1 Technology' is more than just having 8 cylinders.
It's said to be 425bhp, and the spokesperson from Lexus described it "The IS-F is an all-new high-performance version of the IS250 sports saloon. It will benefit from unique styling and see a substantial boost in power from a V8 engine."
So let's hope it's more than just smoke and mirrors.
Posted December 19, 2006 Comments(0) The new 07 World Of Cars is out, and to celebrate they have released a 60Mb version of the 06 book for download as pdf.
Go get it, it's got some crackers in there!
Posted November 16, 2006 Comments(0) Well, ok this is actually a review of the new Bond flick Casino Royale. I'm going to come at this review from a strange perspective though (as the title might suggest), so if your looking for a 'proper' review then pop over and see Dan's site.
No my review is not going to be of the movie, no, rather it will be of the movies stars – The Cars.
Before you dismiss this as a bad idea, think about it, has there ever been a bad bond car?
Let's go through the list, but here I will add a warning, it get's nerdy from here on in, so either be a car, Bond or ideally both fan before continuing.
Bonds car in the Flemming books was not as most people think an Aston Martin, no it was 1930 Bentley Convertible, complete with a 4.5ltr supercharged engine. It was actually mentioned in the Casino Royale book as Bonds hobby. Flemming however got his dates wrong, as it's stated that he bought the car almost new in 1933, then in Live and Let Die states it was a 1933 model, however the 4.5ltr SC ceased production in 1930. Flemming later corrected his error in the Moonraker book.
When the movies were released however the car was given a staring role rather than just the sideline role the books had given it.
Possibly the most famous Bond car is the Aston Martin DB5. This appeared primarily in Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye and now in Casino Royale.
The car was also the one to introduce us to the Q branch of MI6. It was the car to receive the standard bulletproof panels and revolving number plates and the famous ejector seat.
The Aston Martin DB Mark III was used by Ian Flemming in the Goldfinger book. However the DB Mark III was not used in the movie, and was replaced with the DB5 above.
The reason for this was one of sponsorship. The DB5 was the car that Aston Martin had for sale in the early 60's, where the DB Mark III had gone out of production in 1959 to be replaced by the DB4/5.
You only live twice did not feature many cars, instead the star of the motor show was the Gyrocopter called 'Little Nellie'. There was however a very special car featured in the movie, even if most people will not notice it. Toyota actually built two 'one off' 2000GT Convertibles. These where the only convertible versions of the 2000GT ever built, one is on show in the Toyota headquarters in Japan.
The next movie brought back the Aston Martin. On Her Majesties Secret Service saw a new Bond (George Lazenby), and it also saw a new Aston. The Aston Martin DBS was used by the Australian Bond. The car did not have a big part in either of the movies it featured in (it was also seen in Diamonds are Forever). It did however steal the scenes it was in. The car was in the pre-credits, and it was also the car Bond got married in. Diamonds are Forever also included the Ford Mustang Mach 1 Fastback.
The Man with the Golden Gun featured a reduced car line up (in the sexy car stake that is). There was the Silver Shadow, but the car that everyone remembers is the AMC Hornet, yup the one that does the corkscrew jump.
The Spy Who Loved Me brought another one of the memorable Bond cars. Yup it was the 70's and the first of the Lotus Esprit's to feature in Bond.
This Bond car was the most Q'd up car yet. It was not only a mobile gun platform, but a submarine as well.
The next Lotus was the Esprit Turbo. There was actually two Esprit's in this movie, Bond has the white one blown up (security system) at the beginning of the movie, and is then provided with possibly the worst colour Bond car ever, a burgundy Esprit Turbo.
Octopussy featured no Bond cars as such, however it is interesting in that one of the cars used in the movie (Bond steals it in a getaway) is an Alfa Romeo GTV 6 Quadrifoglio, rare and possibly the best Alfa of the period.
Timothy Dolton took over the role of Bond in The Living Daylights. In this he was equipped again with a Q'd out Aston Martin. This time it was one of the best sounding cars of all time, the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante.
GoldenEye introduces another couple of names. Those names are BMW, Ferrari and Pierce Brosnan. The Ferrari in question was a F355 GTS. In the movie Bond races Xenia Onatopp down a mountain side in his DB5. Now we all know in the real world Bond would not stand a chance. But the sequence is good, and shows off some nice driving. The movie also famously has the T-55 Tank chase sequence. The Bond car however was a BMW Z3, it was the first non British Bond car, and is only actually seen in one scene of the movie.
Tomorrow Never Dies has an excellent scene with a BMW 750iL. Bond uses the car to escape the bad guys in a chase sequence inside a multi story car park. The nice thing about this car is that the writers obviously realised that a German car for an English gentleman was not perhaps the greatest marketing choice. They where however stuck with it having signed a 3 movie deal, and decided to play on the Germanity of the car. The 750iL features a female computer voice with a very 'German' manorism.
The World is Not Enough featured the last of the BMW cars. This one was the BMW Z8 and also did not feature highly in the movie. This is the last time that Desmond Llewelyn hosts the Q role. The car get's cut in half late on in the film.
Die Another Day brought Aston Martin back to the Bond car role. The Aston Martin V12 Vanquish is used in the last of the Pierce Brosnan movies. This car along with it's sister Jaguar XKR are used for some of the big segments of the movie. There is a great car chase on ice. The Jaguar is the bad guy car and has as many toys as the Aston Martin. The Aston however can cloak itself, and uses this to save the girl.
That brings us gloriously onto Casino Royale. The star car of this show is again the Aston Martin DBS. However this is the new DBS, and is one fine looking car.
It's based on the Aston Martin DB9, but where that looks pretty, the DBS looks purposeful.
The DBS comes to an unfortunate end in the movie, but by then has already stolen the heart of the petrol heads amongst us.
The car does not feature as a moving object quite as much as it possibly should, and is not as gadget laden (maybe) as some of 
Bond's previous cars. It does hint at a gadget laden underbelly though. The car after all saves Bond's life (twice if you count the fact he does not die in the accident). Aston Martin have stated that the DBS will go on sale next year, and although it will not be quite the same as the Bond edition, it will certainly keep all the important parts of this stars character.
The DB5 also makes a welcome return in a guest appearance, if only breifly, the old dear is still looking and sounding great.
There is one unwelcome sight though. The new Ford Mondeo shows it's face at the start of the movie. It's not that it's a bad car, or even that bad looking. No it's just that it's not a Bond car!
We all look back at Bond movies from the past 54 years and know that all the Bond cars have got that, well, Bondness about them. The Mondeo however will not hold up to that, in 15 or 20 years time it will just be an old Mondeo no matter how many shiny bolt on's they put on the car.
That said it's not in the movie for very long, and if the producers had to pay Ford Motor Corp to use the DBR by using the Mondeo, then it was worth it.
To the movie then. I would say it's a cracking Bond film, and all the Daniel Craig neigh sayers (myself included) have been proven wrong. He is a good Bond!
The book is well honored, even if it's all been updated like Texas Holdem instead of Baccarat. The torture scenes have come across well from the book.
There are some great action scenes, the Parkour scene at the beginning of the movie is well done, and very cleverly shot, and the part is played by Sebastien Foucan, who is widely considered to be the father of the sport.
The little niggle in the movie was that the Sony brand showed up FAR too often. I don't mind a bit of product placement, but the brand was everywhere in the movie. That said Ford did a good job as well, not only was the Mondeo and Aston featured, there was Jaguar and Land Rover as well.
All I can say is, go and watch it yourself, it's a good movie. Long live bond, and hurry up with Bond 22!
Posted November 8, 2006 Comments(1) The VAG Direct Shift Gearbox - sometimes called the S-Tronic in the Audi range – is the world's first production dual clutch semi automatic gearbox. The system was developed for Audi by BorgWarner for use in the companies Audi TT 3.2V6, and was so well received it is now used in much of the Volkswagen Audi Group range.
The DSG is often compared to F1 style automated or robotic manual gearboxes, but differs in some very important ways.
The DSG gearbox is, however, not a new invention. The system was first designed by Andolphe Kégresse just before the second world war but because of the lack of technology, not to mention the war, he never produced a working version of the Dual Clutch Gearbox (DCG). The system was used by another German car company in the 80's though: Porsche used the PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplungs) system in their 956 and 962 Le Mans race cars, and Audi used the same system in the Sport Quatro S1. Porsche and Audi have a long history of technology sharing.
Both of these uses eventually faded, primarily because the computing technology that allows the system to work so effectively did not prove to be reliable enough in the tough and demanding world of the race car.
To understand how revolutionary the DSG gearbox is, first I will explain the F1 style systems. These differ in name depending on the manufacturer; Ferrari call theirs the F1 system, and BMW call theirs the SMG system.
These gearboxes all have one thing in common: they are just manual gearboxes, with a manual clutch that is operated by pneumatics. This method has many of the benefits the DSG box does. The gearbox itself weighs less: as the gear change is accurate, and no human mistakes can be made, the materials can be less hardy. They are also far more performant than the manual equivalent, both the BMW SMG II and the Ferrari F1 systems change cogs in around 80 milliseconds. This means that, while the gear is being shifted, all the power from the engine is waisted and a feeling of on-off-on is felt in the car as the pneumatics shift from in gear, to clutched, and then back into gear. The smoothness of this in the car depends on the software controlling it: for the fastest changes it can feel quite 'bumpy', similar to a bad gear change in a manual car. The only way of releaving this issue in the past was to fit a torque converter, this is the way that a standard auto box does it, and why it feels far smoother than any of the manual gearboxes produced. A torque converter, however, is very wasteful in terms of power, and usually very heavy.
The DSG box takes the basic idea of pneumatic clutched boxes a step further. The heart of the DSG comes from the fact it has two clutches. The basic idea being that the gearbox can then have two gears engaged at any one time, one driving the car, the other waiting to take over.
The clutch arrangement is setup for odds and evens, where clutch 1 operates the 1-3-5 gears and clutch 2 operates 2-4-6.
DSG works by allowing the software to decide what gear the car will need next, and then pre-selects it. If you are accelerating, it will have the next gear up, and likewise if decelerating, the next gear down.
The system can then watch for a change signal – this is either done by clicking the corresponding paddle by the driver, or if in full auto mode the computer – and the gearbox can then tell the currently disengaged clutch (the one driving) to engage, and at the same time tells the engaged clutch (the pre-selected gear) to disengage. In this way the driver and passengers do not experience the on-off-on feeling associated with manual gearboxes. Instead, the gear change feels much more like that of an automatic gearbox.
However, because the change happens so quickly – around 8 milliseconds – the engine can maintain drive and the losses involved in the gear change are much reduced. This can be seen visually in the video below.
The video clearly shows the benefits of the DSG vs a very quick-changing manual driver.
The DSG gearbox is obviously controlled by computer, and this adds other benefits as well, even over race-going Sequential Manual Transmisions.
The computer in the DSG box monitors many of the cars sensors, these can be RPM, speed, angle of steering input, amount of wheel spin, braking and g-forces. It can then use these inputs to make decisions on which gear the car has to be in at any one moment.
For example, if you are approaching a tight corner you may want to change down two or even three gears. The computer sees that you are braking heavily, and that steering input is being applied, and can then change down either more quickly, or skip gears altogether and shift from sixth into third in one step. This allows the driver to keep the RPM in the best range for drivability. Likewise, if driving in snow or mud, the computer sees that there is a lot of wheel spin at low speeds, it can then shift up into a higher gear to allow the wheel spin to be controlled.
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The gearbox also keeps the F1 style gearbox's benefits. Because the computer will change gear very precisely, and not over stress the components, the weight of the whole unit is not much more than a conventional gearbox and clutch. This is because the parts can be made to much tighter tolerances, but still manage the same life expectancy as the manual counterparts.
There is a downside to the gearbox though: it cannot be used in races. This is because it changes gear so quickly, and the loss of drive is so minute, that the gearbox gets classed as a Constantly Variable Transmision. The FIA and other governing bodies outlawed this in the early 80s. However, with the speed that some of the current Formula One cars can now change, this may be altered. The current Honda gearbox is called the 'Lossless' gearbox after all, but they did prove that it reduces engine power and its use was therefore allowed.
The crowning achievement of the DSG is the English-made, Ricardo Company's seven speed DSG, for use in the Bugatti Veyron. That particular car is worthy of it's own – more detailed – article, so that will have to wait.
So, next time you drive a DSG car just think: You can change gear faster than even the Formula One and Indy drivers.
Special thanks to Audi for the images and the link to the video demonstrating the gearbox in action.
Posted October 16, 2006 Comments(0) 
This is an excellent use of Flash! The 998 GT3-RS site shows the Porsche driven round a track, followed by a chase car, the cool thing however is that you can flick between camera views in realtime, and it shows the G loads on the car at all points around the track.
Brilliant, pop along to see it in action (sounds good too!)
