Bugatti Veyron

HERESY!!!
...some might say! In the years of Torquemada my tongue would be cut for what I’ll say, ok, my fingers because I’m writing, and then burned in a low octane gasoline.
After spending the GDP of a small country to design a car that cost a fortune, a big one, this car really has some problems, some of them really big, 8 liters big.

• First, the details of the design.

At least for me the combination of the Bugatti signature radiator with the sloped bonnet didn't result in a pleasant shape.

And let’s have a look at the supports of the rear wing. For a million bucks car I would expect a small masterpiece, Porsche did it on the former 911 GT3! Suprisingly Bugatti chosed a pure functional solution. Instead of the cylinder I would expect something made of carbon fiber, aerodynamic, like the forks of modern race bicycles, and instead of the wing fixture, a beautiful CNC piece made of titanium.

• Second, the details of the bodywork.

With its 1888 kg, the Bugatti Veyron is not light, not for a limousine, and not at all for a supercar. But because they wanted to avoid the toy felling of the all carbon fiber cars, aluminium panels were used for the sides and doors as you can see in the “Pur Sang” version. But aluminium is heavier than carbon fiber and at this Veyron can't afford any extra weight. Well I think that there is something which could help them: GLARE, a composite of thin glass fiber and metal (aluminium) sheets bonded together with epoxy. It is widely used in the Airbus A 380 fuselage and has the same characteristics as a normal aluminium sheet, but 25% lighter.

• And now the 8 liters problem, "The engine!"

Of all the possible variants it looks that the Bugatti engineers had chosen the least refined. It’s only strong points are for the artistic impression: a double V configuration a speciality of the VW house. In order to squeeze 1001 HP from the 8 liters engine, four turbochargers were called for help. The problem is that the turbos don’t comes alone, they always bring their best friend, and turbocharged engine's main enemy, turbo lag. And it looks that in this case there is lot of it, as it was noticed in drive tests. In the same time period, the engineers from Porsche were playing with the new VTG turbos for the latest 911 Turbo generation. It looks that Bugatti wasn’t invited at the party. Still, this showed not to be the perfect fix, as the direct comparison between the 911 Turbo and the relatively similar powered Lamborghini Gallardo indicated an advantage for the aspirated engine. Another even more sophisticated option is the sequential turbo. It worked well on the Toyota Supra a decade ago, now it would work better.
It is known that turbochargers works best when they are connected at 3 cylinders, in engines like straight 6, V6, V12, you’ve got the idea. Therefore a V12 would be a better choice than the W16. If somebody might argue that is hard to achieve the required numbers, I think not, neither the engineers from Porsche. Their turbocharged boxer 6 engines from the latest 911 Turbo and 911 GT2 achieve around half the power from half the number of cylinders, 480 respectively 520 HP from a 6 cylinders 3.6 liters engine. Double the numbers and you will end up with a 7.2 liters V12 of 960 respectively 1040 HP. And yes, there are V12 engines with this capacity, like the Mercedes 7.3 liters V12 used in Pagani Zonda. Still, the previous paragraph about the turbos applies here also.
And yes, as the Mercedes SLR, the Bugatti Veyron is using air water intercoolers, so the comments from the SLR applies here also.

Yet, there is another option, dump the turbos completely. Honda is making 120 HP/liter in their S2000 cabriolet from a 2 liters straight 4 engine. If you manage to raise that value to 125 HP/liter you will find that the 8 liters W16 in more than enough. Yet there is an even more appealing solution, which would not require that level of power density: a 1001 Hp 9 liters 18 cylinders proper W (with 3 banks of 6 cylinders). With just 2 cylinders and 1 liter more than the current engine, it would require around 111 Hp/liter, numbers already obtained by numerous engines, to reach the required power level. With this configuration a series of big but light in weight advantages come:

• No more turbo lag.
• No need for the intercooler, and for the rest of the turbo system, results in lower weight and lower aerodynamic drag.
• The magnesium aluminium hybrid engine block currently used by BMW in their straight 6 aspirated gasoline engines could be used to further lower the weight.
• I read somewhere that because of the heat from the turbos, the engine subframe had to be made of steel. Now this is not the case, aluminium or carbon fiber can be used to lower even more the weight.

I am kind of disappointed by the Bugatti Veyron. Yes, it achieved the required numbers (1000+ HP, 400 km/h) but the way they achieved this is brutal to say the least. Not what I would expect from Bugatti.