Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse

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

The original version had a top speed of 407.12 km/h (252.97 mph). It was named Car of the Decade (2000–2009) by the BBCtelevision programme Top Gear. The standard Bugatti Veyron also won Top Gear's Best Car Driven All Year award in 2005.

The current Super Sport version of the Veyron is recognized by Guinness World Records as the fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a top speed of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph), and the roadster Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse version is the fastest roadster in the world, reaching an averaged top speed of 408.84 km/h (254.04 mph) in a test on 6 April 2013.

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.

Several 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.^[10] 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.^[11] At the time, the name of the concept car was "Bugatti Veyron EB 18.4," and it was equipped with a 3-bank W18 engine engine instead of the 2-bank W16 engine 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 considerable technical problems had to be addressed, so that the start of production was delayed repeatedly, until September 2005.