Skip to main content

Watch: The Harrowing Tale of Crashing a Veyron at 250 MPH

Test drivers have a pretty great job. Especially those who work for supercar manufacturers. But that great job comes with some very real risks.

Bugatti test driver Loris Bicocchi in this video tells the story of crashing an early Veyron at 250 mph at the Nardo test track.

Apart from anything else, the video proves just how incredible the Bugatti Veyron, and any hypercar that can hit speed in excess of 200 mph, really is.

Everything has to be considered and any mistake could end in death when you’re driving at those speeds. To wit, Bicocchi doesn’t believe that the car or the tires were to blame for his crash.

Instead (spoilers) he blames a little door the company put in the fender to reach the power steering pump faster. The door was fastened firmly, but at 250 mph the forces are enormous.

As an example, when the Veyron’s windows shattered from his impact, he suffered trauma to his ear, not from the actual impact, but from the pressure change.

But fortunately, the story has a happy ending. Blinded by the hood against the windshield, covered in oil, and unable to brake, Bicocchi managed to run up against the guardrail and slow himself down enough to jump out of the car.

“I don’t know if it was the experience, the cold blood, luck, or maybe the fact that I wanted to go to the fish restaurant, but I made it,” says Bicocchi, who suffered only minor injuries as a result of the crash.

And despite narrowly escaping death, he has a pretty good sense of humor about the event. All he took away from the accident was a good story, he says.

For Bugatti, meanwhile, they, apparently, were pretty happy with the accident, because it proved that their chassis could withstand an accident at speed—and even Bicocchi agrees.

Maybe the most galling part is that Bicocchi got a bill from Nardo for 1,800 meters worth of damage to their guardrails. Fortunately, though, Bugatti agreed to pay for it.

The post Watch: The Harrowing Tale of Crashing a Veyron at 250 MPH appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2BaPAnH
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Zerouno Cruis’n USA

ItalDesign is drumming up excitement for its new supercar based around the same 5.2-liter Audi V10 that powers the R8. Naturally, it hit the road for a cruise around California last week to celebrate Monterey Car Week. There isn’t much in the way of V10 noise—which is a real shame given the sound it makes—but you do at least get a good look at the car inside and out in this video. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber and designed to be as aerodynamic and light as possible, ItalDesign figures that it will be good for a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. “We put it our best skills into the production of the first car,” said Massimo Bovi, head of pre-series production, when the Zerouno was first unveiled in Geneva earlier this year. “Using some of the finest productions methods and engaging our high-skilled workers.” The car features clever aero tricks gleaned from single-seat racing, like a y-duct up front to improve downforce and turn-in. Available in a number of trim levels, the...
Post a Comment
Read more