Car Sangarz

To start, Bugatti Veyron is a noun.

From there, things are going to get a bit complicated.. Or, dare I, things get a bit nonsensical.

Bugatti Veyron Gran Sport

We begin describing the Bugatti with numbers. Let's get started with the price first, something you should all feel more comfortable with understanding. It is a cool $170,576.90.

Wait, something isn't right... Oh no! I'm sorry, how embarrassing-- I accidentally moved it to the wrong decimal place. The starting price for a Bugatti Veyron is, in fact:

I repeat, One Million Seven Hundred and Five Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty Nine US Dollars. And get this, the company is still losing money for every car sold.

That's not all. The latest special edition Veyron Super Sport is said to be, according to New York Time's Wheels column writer, John Pearley Huffman (I did not make any of this up), priced at $2.5 MILLION!!!!!!! I'll give you a moment to let that settle in.

But it's true, isn't it? You should always get what you pay for.  So what's so special about this car, then, that it has the audacity to charge a price that is even greater than the stimulus amount granted to the schools of Orange County, California?

The first question we should ask when it comes to sports cars like the Bugatti is, "How fast does it go?"

We know it's more than 250mph, but how much is that really? The Veyron can out-accelerate a cheetah to 60mph, reach a higher top speed than a Boeing AH-64 Apache Gunship Helicopter used by our Navy and, in a very interesting 2-mile drag race, it is also a very competent adversary against the British Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon.




I mean seriously, a W16 cylinder quadturbo engine?! When I first heard of those numbers, i nearly crapped my pants. The Veyron would crap itself too if it didn't have ten radiators, only four of which are for the engine itself, to cool off.

No, she is not a midget nor is this photoshopped. Just accept that everything about this car is staggering and completely defies logic.

In spite of all the logic that it defies, we see that this car does exist for a purpose. The Veyron exists to be the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive production automobile in history. When the just-as-ugly Ultimate Aero SSC TT 123ABC decided to challenge the seat for top speed king, Bugatti Veyron answered back by doing what it does best, introducing the Veyron Supersport. It's even faster, even more powerful, even more ludicrous and twice as expensive as the original.

In the last episode of Top Gear (half of you readers probably saw it before I had a chance to), presenter James May gave it a go in the Veyron SS. Upon hitting the magic number, attaining the Veyron SS' terminal velocity of 417.9 kph (259.7 mph), Bugatti sent their factory test driver to take the car out again to do two runs, one at each direction of their oval test track, to average a top speed of 267mph. Now just to be clear, that's a total of three maximum speed runs in a span of one afternoon and this car just kept on going.

But I hate them for it.


On one hand, I am more than impressed by the monumental engineering. The undertaking of such a vehicle is immense and in car terms, comparable to a Saturn V rocket or CERN Large Hadron Collider project. Unfortunately, on the other hand, I feel like all this marvel is always going to be in the hands of people that least deserve it:

Sad

carwalls.com

Recently, Toyota has been in the press for both good reasons and bad.  First, there was the "our-drivers-don't-know-cars-or-care-about-driving-and-"unintentionally"-hit-the-gas" scandal which everyone and their mother had theories about.  Then, there was the release of the Lexus LFA which every enthusiast has had theories about...for 10 years.

Now, these two events only really apply to very specific types of people.  The unintended acceleration debacle played out in the cars of those who could care less about driving and treat their cars like appliances.  Lexus' LFA supercar, which costs $375,000, may interest a few passionate drivers among us but let's face it.  It is for the absurdly rich... and we, enthusiasts, probably already have our hearts set on other supercars that aren't from companies like Lexus.

So, where is the Toyota for the everyday enthusiast? Where are the cars that can herald the arrival of technology from F1, WRC, or JGTC?  When will we see names like Supra, Celica, or MR2 again?

automotiveaddicts.com

Well, it would seem that Toyota is willing to start a new relationship with the petrol head demographic and wants to get back to basics with its FT-86.  If the name looks oddly familiar, it is no coincidence.  It supposed to bring back memories of the Corolla Sprinter Trueno, AE86, or Hachi-Roku, which was the performance version of a mid-80s Corolla with amazing flickability.  It's the hero car in the animated series Initial D.

At first glance, this seems like a great idea.  Let's make a low-cost, affordable sports car for first time buyers.  Then build more expensive sports cars for the customer to aspire to own.  This will build brand confidence and loyalty. Sounds like a great plan!

And it would be a great plan until the numbers are considered.  Autoblog has just reported that the mid-level coupe will be priced around $28,500.  There will be two engines that have outputs of 170hp or 230hp.  Other sources cite the car being 163 inches long and being a 2+2.

When the original concept of this car was released it garnered rave reviews due to its aesthetics and the projected price point of $20,000.  Since then, many reports have come out saying that the car just isn't feasible at that price and today we hear that a mid-level car will cost $28,500.  To assuage enthusiast fears, Toyota has said a smaller sports car will be released later to fill the $20,000 price point.

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It's at this point that it seems Toyota has lost any kind of connection with its non-toaster driving consumer.  Hyundai, a much smaller company than Toyota, has found a way to make the Genesis Coupe.  It sports a 2.0 liter turbo four that makes more power than the mill in the FT-86.  Oh yeah, it's priced from $22,000.  At the other end of the spectrum, the Hyundai is available with a 300hp V6 which in my estimation is 70 more horsepower than the option in the Toyota.  The top of the line Genesis Coupe is listed at $32,000 which means the median would be $27,000.  All this was made possible by the corporate sharing of chassis and engines.

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You could be saying right now "but Danny the FT-86 is a smaller car than the Genesis." You're right it is about 19 inches shorter which should make it lighter and more sporty.  Going in that direction, the FT-86 runs against the Miata which is only down 6 inches and 3 horsepower to the Toyota.  It would seem that the FT-86 is going to be underpowered and less agile than what most of the category has to offer already.  Remember that smaller Toyota for $20,000?  How much smaller can it get when the FT-86 is only 6 inches bigger than a Miata?  Not to mention there's already the stigma attached to the Miata as being a "chic car".


Toyota has recently shown that is can react to changing situations in a timely manner when it needs to.  At this point in the company's history, it needs to prove that it truly cares about its customers and its reputation as a complete car company.  This attempt at a sports car for the masses seems to miss the point.  Hopefully, they can prove me wrong by the time it hits the showroom floor.