WEBVTT - The Bugatti Veyron: the Quest to Outrun Gravity 0:00:15.316 --> 0:00:22.956 Pushkin. Hey Eddie here, before we get started, I wanted 0:00:22.996 --> 0:00:24.916 you to know that you can listen to Car Show 0:00:24.956 --> 0:00:29.276 add free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. You'll also 0:00:29.316 --> 0:00:32.796 get access to detours, bonus episodes of Car Show where 0:00:32.836 --> 0:00:37.676 we go for extended drives, play outtakes, and more fine 0:00:37.716 --> 0:00:40.636 Pushkin Plus on the Car Show page in Apple Podcasts, 0:00:41.156 --> 0:00:46.836 or at Pushkin dot Fm. The year is two thousand 0:00:46.836 --> 0:00:50.596 and five. I'm thirty four years old and on assignment 0:00:50.636 --> 0:00:54.636 for Men's Journal, a magazine dedicated to the fantasies that 0:00:54.716 --> 0:01:02.796 prowl the hallways of young men's minds. Climbing everest, eating fugu, 0:01:03.676 --> 0:01:08.596 dazzling women's old factories with your new bottled musk. That 0:01:08.716 --> 0:01:14.916 kind of stuff. My brief, then, is fittingly fantastical. I 0:01:14.956 --> 0:01:18.116 am to drive a brand new high performance car for 0:01:18.156 --> 0:01:21.876 two days down the California Coast from Carmel by the 0:01:21.916 --> 0:01:25.316 Sea on the Monterey Peninsula down to the La Basin, 0:01:25.956 --> 0:01:30.356 then report back. I can do this, I told myself. 0:01:36.076 --> 0:01:41.276 My route would include America's most celebrated coastal road, California 0:01:41.396 --> 0:01:46.916 Highway One aka the Pacific Coast Highway, the mythical PC 0:01:48.476 --> 0:01:51.196 IF you've driven it, you know that PC is an 0:01:51.196 --> 0:01:56.156 amazing piece of winding, rhythmic asphalt. It unfolds like a 0:01:56.236 --> 0:02:00.476 fable under a great canopy of redwoods. It is perfect 0:02:00.516 --> 0:02:05.356 for small, nimble sports cars like Mazdamiata's and Subaru br Z's, 0:02:05.916 --> 0:02:11.956 where power is less critical than handling and flow. But 0:02:12.076 --> 0:02:14.356 the car I was driving that day in two thousand 0:02:14.356 --> 0:02:19.636 and five felt neutered and bridled on PC's densely treed switchbacks, 0:02:20.596 --> 0:02:26.556 too wide, too powerful, too magnetize to the pavement. I 0:02:26.596 --> 0:02:29.756 was never really able to incork it. There was two 0:02:29.756 --> 0:02:33.036 little distance between the curves to exercise this car, and 0:02:33.116 --> 0:02:37.476 I was growing frustrated. Then south of San Luis Obispo, 0:02:38.076 --> 0:02:41.796 I drove Inland on the one oh one four lanes 0:02:41.916 --> 0:02:57.316 of Primo Callie Concrete. I opened it up. Now, in 0:02:57.396 --> 0:03:00.516 most really fast cars, when you hit the accelerator, the 0:03:00.596 --> 0:03:03.756 scenery blurs and the cars you pass received gracefully in 0:03:03.756 --> 0:03:06.796 your rear view mirror. But when I hit the gas 0:03:06.836 --> 0:03:12.116 in this car, the scenery didn't blur. It bent in 0:03:12.236 --> 0:03:16.196 my vertiguously linear ascent to the upper reaches of the spedometer. 0:03:16.796 --> 0:03:21.236 The cars I passed didn't recede in any graceful paget No, 0:03:21.396 --> 0:03:27.676 the cars behind me just disappeared, vaporized, not even specs 0:03:27.716 --> 0:03:31.156 in the mirror. It was low scale time travel, a 0:03:31.276 --> 0:03:38.356 kind of hyperspace effect. The car I was driving the one, 0:03:38.836 --> 0:03:53.196 the only Bugatti Veyron. I'm Eddie Alterman in this is 0:03:53.236 --> 0:03:57.876 Car Show. In this episode, we will explore the Bugatti 0:03:57.956 --> 0:04:01.156 Veyron and how it was able to break every automotive 0:04:01.196 --> 0:04:06.476 barrier that ever existed, and some human barriers too. It 0:04:06.596 --> 0:04:10.156 had a thousand and one horsepower, a thousand at a 0:04:10.236 --> 0:04:13.436 time when the top series production Ferrari had five hundred 0:04:13.476 --> 0:04:17.836 and fifteen. It costs more than one million dollars to 0:04:17.916 --> 0:04:22.356 that Ferrari's paltry two hundred and fifteen thousand, and it 0:04:22.636 --> 0:04:28.276 radically re oriented our relationship to speed. The Veyron is 0:04:28.316 --> 0:04:32.196 what happens when unlimited money and colossal ego meet the 0:04:32.196 --> 0:04:53.916 hardest automotive engineering questions ever raised. That drive down PC 0:04:54.316 --> 0:04:56.916 in two thousand and five wasn't my first encounter with 0:04:56.956 --> 0:05:00.236 the Veyron. I saw the car in person a good 0:05:00.276 --> 0:05:03.276 two years before that road trip, but in much the 0:05:03.316 --> 0:05:08.196 same setting. Carwheek is officially bad. The deafening sounds of 0:05:08.276 --> 0:05:12.676 classic cars taking center stage on Alvarado's rail, exciting car 0:05:12.756 --> 0:05:18.756 enthusiasts of all ages. Every year, the Monterey Peninsula hosts 0:05:18.756 --> 0:05:22.556 a vintage car celebration known as Car Week. My friend 0:05:22.716 --> 0:05:27.396 Mercedes Benz Pierre Supremo Rob Moran calls this week cars 0:05:27.396 --> 0:05:37.916 at their best, people at their worst, and indeed it 0:05:38.116 --> 0:05:42.396 is a miasma of obscene wealth, jaw dropping cars, and 0:05:42.476 --> 0:05:50.676 state of the art plastic surgery. The acne of Monterey 0:05:50.676 --> 0:05:53.916 Car Week is the Pebble Beach concord to elegance that 0:05:53.996 --> 0:05:57.836 happens on Sunday, but Friday and Saturday are dominated by 0:05:57.836 --> 0:06:01.396 the vintage car races at WeatherTech Raceway, right over the 0:06:01.476 --> 0:06:05.236 hill from Pebble Beach. When I got to the racetrack 0:06:05.316 --> 0:06:08.836 that Saturday, I saw a huge dove gray shipping container 0:06:09.196 --> 0:06:13.836 with the burgundy Bugatti logo on its side. This was 0:06:13.876 --> 0:06:16.796 to be the first public running of the Veyron, the 0:06:16.836 --> 0:06:22.476 first demonstration of its metaphysical capabilities. The assembled journalist had 0:06:22.476 --> 0:06:33.316 popped their popcorn. The moment was vibrating with anticipation. The 0:06:33.476 --> 0:06:37.436 Veyron made its way onto the track. From where I 0:06:37.516 --> 0:06:40.916 was standing on the backstraight leading into turn one, I 0:06:40.956 --> 0:06:44.636 saw the black and red coop streak by sounding like 0:06:44.716 --> 0:06:56.916 some chimera of an F eighteen and a rhinoceros. It 0:06:57.116 --> 0:07:01.796 cleaved the air, It just reeked of lethality, and then 0:07:02.196 --> 0:07:04.676 instead of making the left hand corner and staying on 0:07:04.716 --> 0:07:12.996 the track, it spun right into the gravel track, a 0:07:13.196 --> 0:07:22.516 nimbus of tawny dust. This was highly embarrassing to the 0:07:22.556 --> 0:07:25.756 man in charge of Bugatti's parent company, the Volkswagen Group, 0:07:26.116 --> 0:07:29.676 because the Veyron was a product of his monomaniacal vision. 0:07:30.316 --> 0:07:33.596 He fired just about everyone associated with that moderate misshapp 0:07:33.916 --> 0:07:36.036 and installed a new team to bring the Veyron to 0:07:36.076 --> 0:07:41.916 the road. The man's name was doctor Ferdinand Peck. He 0:07:42.076 --> 0:07:44.876 cut and thrust his way through his family's corporate labyrinth 0:07:45.196 --> 0:07:49.676 to become chairman of the Volkswagen Group. Once there, he 0:07:49.836 --> 0:07:53.436 built it into the greatest carmaking juggernaut the world had 0:07:53.476 --> 0:07:57.716 ever seen. It made nineteen fifties general motors look like 0:07:57.876 --> 0:08:03.036 young brands. To Volkswagen and Audie. He added Bentley, Lamborghini, 0:08:03.556 --> 0:08:08.196 Portia and Bugatti. He was a slight but fearsome man. 0:08:09.156 --> 0:08:12.796 He looked like a German tank commander, ice blue eyes, 0:08:13.636 --> 0:08:18.836 close crops, scalp very deliberate in his small economical movements. 0:08:21.356 --> 0:08:24.276 Tom McDonald, the former head of VW Group PR in 0:08:24.276 --> 0:08:28.516 the seventies and eighties, worked closely with PC and experienced 0:08:28.556 --> 0:08:33.796 his unique management style. His rule was law. He fired 0:08:33.876 --> 0:08:37.596 more of his direct reports, let's say, than probably any 0:08:37.596 --> 0:08:40.956 other executive in the history of the automotive industry. Do 0:08:40.996 --> 0:08:44.596 you remember the first time you met him. Yes, we 0:08:44.596 --> 0:08:50.396 were doing an Audi five thousand pre dealer meeting before 0:08:50.436 --> 0:08:53.836 the launch and I met him there and he had 0:08:53.916 --> 0:09:00.796 this very early I would say, weird look. Somebody called 0:09:00.836 --> 0:09:05.356 it Betty Davis eyes. I mean, he had this strange 0:09:06.196 --> 0:09:08.236 look on his face, and he'd be talking to you 0:09:08.276 --> 0:09:10.756 and he'd turn away and you kind of thought, well, 0:09:11.116 --> 0:09:14.916 am I done as he finished or what. Tom was 0:09:14.956 --> 0:09:17.716 the head of PR for the Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche 0:09:17.756 --> 0:09:21.796 brands when the OUTI five thousand started becoming notorious for 0:09:21.876 --> 0:09:27.116 the phenomenon of unintended acceleration, that is, going when it's 0:09:27.196 --> 0:09:31.596 driver thought she was stopping. Great car, very advanced, and 0:09:31.796 --> 0:09:35.796 suddenly in a pot of very hot water, people were 0:09:35.876 --> 0:09:40.516 driving them into swimming pools. People were getting hit. Here's 0:09:40.516 --> 0:09:43.676 how PK, the head of Audie at the time reacted 0:09:43.716 --> 0:09:46.796 to the issue. So p was getting involved at the 0:09:46.876 --> 0:09:54.476 very highest level and it became an absolute nightmare. Had 0:09:54.516 --> 0:09:56.716 to go over to Germany several times to give her 0:09:56.716 --> 0:10:00.196 presentation to PK and the board. What the status was, 0:10:00.236 --> 0:10:03.436 what the PR, what our communication strategy was, what were 0:10:03.476 --> 0:10:06.436 we doing offset it from an engineering point of view, 0:10:06.476 --> 0:10:10.036 from a PR point of view, a marketing advertise point 0:10:10.036 --> 0:10:15.716 of view. And Pier was saying there and he'd listen 0:10:15.836 --> 0:10:21.116 and listen and as system, the problem is your stupid 0:10:21.236 --> 0:10:26.396 Americans don't know how to drive. Oh no, holy crap. Yeah, 0:10:26.476 --> 0:10:33.916 well no, sir, It's not that. P rarely spoke. He 0:10:34.076 --> 0:10:39.156 never carried cash. Reports vary, but he sired either twelve 0:10:39.316 --> 0:10:43.396 or thirteen children from four women. He once threatened to 0:10:43.436 --> 0:10:46.716 fire all of VW's body engineers if they didn't get 0:10:46.716 --> 0:10:50.036 the tolerances between the body panels on their cars down 0:10:50.036 --> 0:10:55.436 to an exceedingly tight three millimeters in six weeks. He 0:10:55.556 --> 0:11:01.396 was obsessive, demanding, strange, and antisocial. Suffice it to say 0:11:01.436 --> 0:11:06.276 that he didn't have many arguments with underlings. This P guy. Now, 0:11:06.316 --> 0:11:08.556 forgive me if I go off piece here for a moment. 0:11:09.276 --> 0:11:12.356 I'm not trying to celebrate him as a person. This 0:11:12.436 --> 0:11:15.316 is a version of the artist conundrum applied to carmaking. 0:11:15.956 --> 0:11:19.276 Artists have been forgiven for nauseating behavior because we have 0:11:19.356 --> 0:11:24.036 long value the public output more than the private interpersonal damage. 0:11:24.596 --> 0:11:28.436 That's changing. Finally, you won't see many more Bill Cosby's 0:11:28.396 --> 0:11:32.236 stand up specials on HBO. We have to confront p 0:11:32.476 --> 0:11:35.236 K the same way we have to square the artist 0:11:35.356 --> 0:11:39.276 against the art. But there's very little recourse when someone's dead. 0:11:40.356 --> 0:11:42.916 So at this moment, the question that most interests me 0:11:43.116 --> 0:11:46.436 is can we get p X kind of brilliance without 0:11:46.476 --> 0:11:50.916 the antisocial behavior. I don't know if we can. It's 0:11:50.956 --> 0:11:55.916 tied to power and the unbridling of social limits it affords. Now, 0:11:56.076 --> 0:11:59.276 we have no record of any specific p X trespasses. 0:12:00.196 --> 0:12:03.516 People didn't talk about him, and he rarely did interviews. 0:12:03.956 --> 0:12:08.236 But stories like the one Tom told aren't great stupid 0:12:08.276 --> 0:12:13.636 American driver. Just as in good marketing, imperiousness enables the 0:12:13.756 --> 0:12:17.676 vision and what Piek wanted to build. The car he 0:12:17.756 --> 0:12:21.036 invested with all his power and brilliance would be nothing 0:12:21.116 --> 0:12:25.076 less than the capstone of his career. It would be 0:12:25.116 --> 0:12:28.836 hard to beat what he'd already accomplished. He helped develop 0:12:28.876 --> 0:12:33.516 the Portion nine eleven and the Lamong winning nine seventeen simultaneously. 0:12:34.676 --> 0:12:38.356 He's the guy behind Audie's Quatro system. He was maybe 0:12:38.396 --> 0:12:42.596 the greatest automotive industrialist that ever lived. Henry Ford be damned, 0:12:42.956 --> 0:12:45.116 and he wanted to go out by building the most 0:12:45.156 --> 0:12:49.116 astonishing car in the world, a car that defied physics, 0:12:49.516 --> 0:12:53.836 not to mention logic and economics. That was his vision 0:12:54.116 --> 0:13:00.316 for the Veyron. Once you experience it, you don't forget it. 0:13:00.316 --> 0:13:03.396 It's like your fondest lover, always lingering in the back 0:13:03.436 --> 0:13:08.076 of your mind, a distant channel emitting a faint hum. 0:13:08.196 --> 0:13:10.036 I wish I could have cured when to drive for 0:13:10.116 --> 0:13:12.836 this episode, to be back on that stretch of one 0:13:12.876 --> 0:13:16.276 on one south of San Luis Obisbo. But these cars 0:13:16.276 --> 0:13:19.636 are impossible to find. They don't exactly have them at 0:13:19.676 --> 0:13:23.196 the Hurtz Gold Counter. They are all squirreled away in collections. 0:13:24.156 --> 0:13:26.756 In the eighteen years since the car came out, I 0:13:26.876 --> 0:13:33.716 have never seen one on the road. To get up 0:13:33.716 --> 0:13:36.396 close and personal, we had to make a pilgrimage to 0:13:36.396 --> 0:13:40.476 the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Here I am 0:13:40.516 --> 0:13:43.876 with my producer Sam in their second floor gallery, so 0:13:43.956 --> 0:13:46.996 cool there. It is the very ron So it is 0:13:47.716 --> 0:13:50.516 hard to get a sense of how small it is 0:13:50.556 --> 0:13:53.516 when it's up on the slinth like this. But it's 0:13:53.556 --> 0:13:58.156 basically just shrink wrapped around the engine and transmission. I 0:13:58.196 --> 0:14:02.396 mean it is just a it's a very small car. 0:14:02.436 --> 0:14:04.036 It's sort of like the size of an Audi TT 0:14:04.276 --> 0:14:09.116 or something. The presence is gigantic, but the size is small. 0:14:09.516 --> 0:14:13.076 And here's a back of an envelope drawing by doctor Peck. 0:14:13.596 --> 0:14:18.116 He sketched an eighteen cylinder engine on an envelope while 0:14:18.476 --> 0:14:21.316 riding on a train in Japan. This turned out to 0:14:21.356 --> 0:14:25.316 be a sixteen cylinder engine with four turbos on it, 0:14:25.356 --> 0:14:28.076 but the idea was to go big from the start. 0:14:32.356 --> 0:14:34.956 We went to the Peterson because the museum had recently 0:14:34.996 --> 0:14:40.996 mounted a hypercar's exhibit featuring the Bugatti. So what is 0:14:40.996 --> 0:14:45.276 a hypercar? A hypercar is not merely a sports car, 0:14:45.676 --> 0:14:49.916 some bauble for the wealthiest ten percent. It's not merely 0:14:49.956 --> 0:14:55.276 a supercar for the ostentatious one percent. A hypercar is 0:14:55.276 --> 0:15:00.476 a car that seems to defy possibility, sanity, and decorum. 0:15:00.516 --> 0:15:04.236 A car for the point zero zero zero one percent. 0:15:05.636 --> 0:15:08.636 A hypercar is of that rare class of machine that 0:15:08.716 --> 0:15:13.556 has le avishly hand constructed, ultra rare, sickly capable, and 0:15:13.676 --> 0:15:18.916 grossly expensive, a car worthy of being celebrated in museum galleries. 0:15:21.116 --> 0:15:26.316 Hypercars are atomic wedges, winged pizza slices, MiGs on wheels. 0:15:27.356 --> 0:15:30.356 In pet terms, the supercar is to the golden retriever 0:15:30.676 --> 0:15:34.156 as the hypercar is to the Zebra. You need Zebra 0:15:34.236 --> 0:15:37.516 money to own one. And the car that started at all, 0:15:37.956 --> 0:15:41.756 the very first true hypercar, the car that created the 0:15:41.836 --> 0:15:47.196 category was p X Veyron, the million dollars car. The 0:15:47.276 --> 0:15:50.116 hypercar exhibit at the Peterson had super rare cane eg 0:15:50.156 --> 0:15:54.196 Zaggs and La Ferraris and Hennessy venoms, but the first 0:15:54.236 --> 0:15:56.596 thing that greets you when you enter the gallery is 0:15:56.596 --> 0:16:01.796 the Bugatti, the centerpiece. The Bugatti has long been enshrined, 0:16:01.836 --> 0:16:30.196 and sung I was ahead of Bugatti. Batt I don't 0:16:30.196 --> 0:16:35.556 know what now it is enshrined in the halls of 0:16:35.596 --> 0:16:43.636 automotive history. Excellent curating, gents, this is car show. We'll 0:16:43.676 --> 0:16:56.756 be back with a Veyron after the break back at 0:16:56.756 --> 0:16:59.556 the Peterson. We are in the thrall of this beautifully 0:16:59.596 --> 0:17:04.436 lit brown Bugatti. Many many cows were killed for this interior. 0:17:04.996 --> 0:17:08.796 I mean it is exquisitely done. Everything is leather wrapped 0:17:09.156 --> 0:17:13.196 or real metal or real carbon fiber or titanium. It's 0:17:13.236 --> 0:17:16.596 just exquisite, exquisite materials and everything you touch is heavy. 0:17:16.836 --> 0:17:19.276 It feels great, and this car is super heavy. Do 0:17:19.316 --> 0:17:22.196 you see references to any of other of px kind 0:17:22.236 --> 0:17:25.076 of calling cards in this or is this a true 0:17:25.076 --> 0:17:28.436 original for him? Well, it's funny because Bugatti was an 0:17:28.436 --> 0:17:33.716 Alsatian brand pre war at Tory Bugatti the carmaker. His 0:17:33.836 --> 0:17:38.476 cars were beautifully French, They were live, and they had 0:17:39.676 --> 0:17:43.156 terrific flowing bodywork. Even the race cars had these beautiful 0:17:43.196 --> 0:17:45.596 boat tails and they were really elegant. This is a 0:17:45.596 --> 0:17:47.636 little bit more German like the widest part of the 0:17:47.676 --> 0:17:51.516 car is at the base. It just feels very planted, 0:17:51.596 --> 0:17:54.796 and it's more of a German styling vernacular. It's a 0:17:54.796 --> 0:17:58.596 little bit more like if you imagine the most insane 0:17:58.676 --> 0:18:02.476 Portia nine to eleven of all time, it's kind of this, right, 0:18:02.676 --> 0:18:05.276 got it? So, Eddie, how would you describe the experience 0:18:05.316 --> 0:18:11.036 of driving it? Disorienting? Crazy. It's the fact that it's 0:18:11.076 --> 0:18:14.196 so heavy adds to the sensation of momentum and speed, 0:18:14.236 --> 0:18:18.076 and it's like, how is this thing that is so 0:18:18.156 --> 0:18:22.116 heavy and so kind of a nert feeling going this quickly? 0:18:22.196 --> 0:18:25.916 How is it kind of reversing time? It goes so fast, 0:18:25.956 --> 0:18:28.876 it's like reversing the rotation of the Earth. And it's 0:18:28.916 --> 0:18:32.356 it's weird, Like you see how menacing it looks, just 0:18:32.436 --> 0:18:35.636 sitting still. It's wild. I had this thought like when 0:18:35.636 --> 0:18:38.196 we came around to the front of it, like like 0:18:38.276 --> 0:18:40.436 what if it was like bearing down on you? It 0:18:40.516 --> 0:18:43.956 would be the hell out of the way. Yeah, it is. 0:18:43.996 --> 0:18:46.876 It's sinister. It's almost hard for your mind to wrap 0:18:46.916 --> 0:18:52.196 itself around the extremes of this thing, the extreme luxury 0:18:52.356 --> 0:18:57.396 and the extreme performance. It's totally totally maxed out. Is 0:18:57.436 --> 0:19:02.156 this our guy? Yeah? Hey, how are you Patrick? How's 0:19:02.156 --> 0:19:06.036 it going doing well yourself? Good? Good? This is Patrick Thomas. 0:19:06.636 --> 0:19:09.676 He works for the Peterson Museum. He looks like the 0:19:09.756 --> 0:19:13.876 lost beach Boy, a clean cut Wilson relative. He's the 0:19:13.956 --> 0:19:17.796 Peterson's resident Veyron fiend. So we wanted to ask you 0:19:17.916 --> 0:19:21.996 some questions about the Veyron. Are you a Veyron head 0:19:22.316 --> 0:19:24.556 a little bit? And so kind of why I like 0:19:24.676 --> 0:19:27.756 cars so much? As I first saw this growing up. Really. Yeah. 0:19:27.756 --> 0:19:31.556 It all started back when I was in elementary school 0:19:31.556 --> 0:19:33.596 and they did the scholastic book fairs every elementary school 0:19:33.636 --> 0:19:36.196 kid went to and they had this car on the 0:19:36.276 --> 0:19:39.076 cover of it, and for some reason, like a little 0:19:39.116 --> 0:19:41.036 switch just went off on heads, like I wanted to 0:19:41.076 --> 0:19:42.996 read this whole book. I still have it in my 0:19:43.076 --> 0:19:47.236 childhood room back in my parents house. It's called Fantasy Cars, 0:19:47.916 --> 0:19:49.916 and I just cleaned out that room and I found 0:19:49.956 --> 0:19:51.716 it again, and I just felt like a kid, and 0:19:51.836 --> 0:19:53.716 I was reminded that, oh, hey, we have this at 0:19:53.756 --> 0:19:56.556 my workplace, and this is where it all began. All 0:19:56.596 --> 0:20:00.076 began in the sense of what curiosity I got that 0:20:00.196 --> 0:20:01.996 thing when I was oh four was when I first 0:20:02.036 --> 0:20:05.076 saw that book, I believe. And now we're in twenty two, 0:20:05.156 --> 0:20:07.516 eighteen years later, and I'm still just as in love 0:20:07.516 --> 0:20:10.396 with the cars. And so it was the look of 0:20:10.436 --> 0:20:12.156 the thing. It was the look of the thing. It 0:20:12.236 --> 0:20:14.556 was the numbers, it was the price, it was the exclusivity, 0:20:14.556 --> 0:20:17.116 it was the whole shebang. Everything about it just made 0:20:17.116 --> 0:20:19.436 it so appealing. It's like, my little seven year old brain, 0:20:19.876 --> 0:20:22.396 is this still the pinnacle for you as far as 0:20:22.476 --> 0:20:26.356 hypercars go? Yeah, personally, I think so. They were the 0:20:26.356 --> 0:20:31.636 first to make the whole uber one million plus dollar hypercar, 0:20:31.956 --> 0:20:34.956 and that just stuck with me ever since. So that's 0:20:34.996 --> 0:20:38.636 what qualifies hypercar's hypercar nowadays is if there's only like 0:20:38.916 --> 0:20:42.436 twelve of them made in some tiny little barn out 0:20:42.436 --> 0:20:46.436 in eastern France, and then the engine was made by 0:20:46.476 --> 0:20:49.476 a bunch of magical ferries, And that's what makes a 0:20:49.556 --> 0:20:54.836 hypercar hypercr Before the Veyron, no one dared to charge 0:20:54.836 --> 0:20:58.316 one million for a production car, not even McLaren with 0:20:58.356 --> 0:21:02.276 its limited run F one three seater, but a Prey 0:21:02.356 --> 0:21:06.676 La Bugatti, the Deluge. The Veyron made the world safe 0:21:06.716 --> 0:21:10.196 for million dollars cars, for hypercar and for the lucky 0:21:10.236 --> 0:21:12.756 souls who buy them. So tell me about the engine 0:21:12.796 --> 0:21:15.396 a little bit. Yeah, this is an eight leader W 0:21:15.596 --> 0:21:19.036 sixteen configuration. It's called the sixteen point four because the 0:21:19.076 --> 0:21:21.596 sixteen cylinders that come in the motor with the four 0:21:21.636 --> 0:21:24.116 turbos attached to it. It was one of the first 0:21:24.116 --> 0:21:25.876 of its kind as far as more than just two 0:21:25.876 --> 0:21:32.916 turbos goes sixteen cylinders four turbos, and PC originally wanted 0:21:33.076 --> 0:21:36.596 eighteen cylinders. So tell me about the brakes inside. Of there. 0:21:37.116 --> 0:21:40.116 What's going on? They look like dinner platesgantic. Yeah, you 0:21:40.116 --> 0:21:42.276 could probably fit like three turkeys on the side of that. 0:21:42.916 --> 0:21:46.996 The calipers about the size of American football and they're 0:21:47.036 --> 0:21:49.556 meant to they're meant to stop you from two hundred 0:21:49.556 --> 0:21:51.356 and fifty six miles an hour in a safe amount 0:21:51.396 --> 0:21:56.276 of time. And the body work, it's all rendered in 0:21:56.356 --> 0:22:01.076 this beautiful carbon fiber, the sort of dark bronze carbon 0:22:01.116 --> 0:22:04.396 fiber with this clear code over it. The bodies are 0:22:04.436 --> 0:22:07.076 carbon fiber, correct, that's correct. The bodies are carbon fiber. 0:22:07.156 --> 0:22:10.036 But since it is part of the hype car class, 0:22:10.476 --> 0:22:14.076 it's all very bespoke. So the original customer of this 0:22:14.116 --> 0:22:17.676 car said, I want a carbon fiber exposed body, and 0:22:17.756 --> 0:22:19.316 I want a clear coat with a little bit of 0:22:19.316 --> 0:22:23.316 gold overtones too. He says, that's real gold. I wouldn't 0:22:23.316 --> 0:22:25.356 say it's real gold. I'm just saying the overtones are gold. 0:22:29.636 --> 0:22:32.156 Are there any memorable reactions you've had from people who 0:22:32.236 --> 0:22:35.956 come in and see it? Actually, yeah, there was one 0:22:35.956 --> 0:22:38.116 the other day. I remember there's a kid that just 0:22:38.156 --> 0:22:40.236 turned the corner behind me and just like threw both 0:22:40.236 --> 0:22:42.596 of his hands on his cheeks and just like just 0:22:42.796 --> 0:22:46.396 like his mouth hit the floor and he could really speak. 0:22:46.436 --> 0:22:48.556 His dad was just like laughing, and I knew exactly 0:22:48.596 --> 0:22:49.636 what was going on because I was the same way 0:22:49.636 --> 0:22:50.956 the first time I saw one of these cars at 0:22:50.956 --> 0:22:54.916 that age. Well, Kevin McAlister full Kevin literally the Vincallister, 0:22:55.076 --> 0:22:57.316 like the right here, right in his cheek bones, mouth 0:22:57.396 --> 0:23:00.836 on the floor. Surely the interior is just as over 0:23:00.876 --> 0:23:04.156 the top. No, yeah, the interior is all leather. It's 0:23:04.276 --> 0:23:06.596 very sensitive. You can just take your thumbnail and ruin 0:23:06.876 --> 0:23:09.316 its value, just like if you just nick in the 0:23:09.356 --> 0:23:11.596 wrong direction. So this this is a car bought by 0:23:11.596 --> 0:23:18.156 people who defy gravity. They have they exert no weight 0:23:18.196 --> 0:23:23.276 onto the seat. They are special humanoids who never scuffed 0:23:23.316 --> 0:23:26.076 the leather, who you know can drive this thing with 0:23:26.916 --> 0:23:29.836 one pig key, that's true. Or they just don't to 0:23:29.956 --> 0:23:37.956 pay taxes. I can't tell. It's a glory to behold. 0:23:38.236 --> 0:23:41.476 It really is. Ah. I remember we were received it 0:23:41.556 --> 0:23:44.396 this day. This is only two weeks in this exhibit 0:23:44.436 --> 0:23:46.476 so far. I was there when we received an I 0:23:46.756 --> 0:23:48.956 was just felt like I was that kid again. I 0:23:49.036 --> 0:23:52.476 was like, ah, there you are, I missed you. Meet 0:23:52.516 --> 0:23:55.396 your heroes, right, meet your heroes. And then often sometimes 0:23:55.396 --> 0:23:57.356 they disappoint, but this one definitely did not. I'll tell 0:23:57.396 --> 0:24:07.796 you that the Vey Run was built to be the 0:24:07.836 --> 0:24:11.516 fastest production car in the universe and also the most expensive, 0:24:12.516 --> 0:24:16.196 But it was also a highly personal project. As with 0:24:16.316 --> 0:24:20.516 Patrick our museum guide, Doctor pas obsession was tied to 0:24:20.596 --> 0:24:24.156 a book. He wanted the car to produce a thousand 0:24:24.156 --> 0:24:27.196 and one horsepower because his favorite story as a child 0:24:27.596 --> 0:24:31.236 was A thousand and one Arabian Nights. He wanted it 0:24:31.276 --> 0:24:33.636 to go two hundred and fifty three miles per hour 0:24:34.036 --> 0:24:37.516 because his Porsche nine seventeen and Durance Racer topped out 0:24:37.516 --> 0:24:40.036 at two fifty two on the Mosan Strait at Lament 0:24:41.356 --> 0:24:45.236 In Pax a half like pursuit, the Bugatti became less 0:24:45.276 --> 0:24:48.236 a car than a physics problem, a solution to a 0:24:48.316 --> 0:24:52.956 cascading series of impossibilities. It's the old if you give 0:24:52.996 --> 0:24:56.436 a mouse a cookie scenario. How can we make a 0:24:56.516 --> 0:25:00.436 thousand and one horsepower hypercar that anyone's grandmother can drive 0:25:00.876 --> 0:25:03.596 and make sure it starts every time at minus thirty 0:25:03.636 --> 0:25:07.676 degrees fahrenheit. To make all that power, it will need 0:25:07.796 --> 0:25:11.956 sixteen cylinders and four turbos. With all that plumbing, it 0:25:11.996 --> 0:25:15.356 will need twelve radiators to keep its engine from imploding. 0:25:16.276 --> 0:25:18.876 To get that power to the ground, it will need 0:25:18.916 --> 0:25:22.116 all wheel drive. The added weight of the all wheel 0:25:22.196 --> 0:25:26.516 drive system will require stronger suspension and tires, and at 0:25:26.596 --> 0:25:29.956 top speed, even the strongest tires will rip themselves apart 0:25:29.996 --> 0:25:33.196 before the car runs out of fuel. So the custom 0:25:33.276 --> 0:25:36.756 Michelin tires are unit with the wheel and cost seventy 0:25:36.796 --> 0:25:41.556 thousand dollars a set to replace. Final total price tag 0:25:42.116 --> 0:25:46.196 a whopping one million euro a copy, and Bugatti still 0:25:46.196 --> 0:25:52.396 lost money on each one funny story about the tires. 0:25:52.956 --> 0:25:55.476 When Pech told Michelin that he needed a road tire 0:25:55.516 --> 0:25:57.916 that could survive the car's two hundred and fifty three 0:25:57.956 --> 0:26:01.036 mile an hour top speed, they told him he was nuts. 0:26:02.236 --> 0:26:05.236 They said that customers who wanted to experience the car's 0:26:05.236 --> 0:26:08.876 phenomenal top speed capability would have to take the regular 0:26:09.116 --> 0:26:12.796 tires off the car and installed dedicated racing tires to 0:26:12.876 --> 0:26:17.476 make the run. Then, proving that Michelin was indeed correct 0:26:17.516 --> 0:26:21.476 about PC being nuts, he allegedly threatened to cancel all 0:26:21.516 --> 0:26:25.116 of Michelin's tire contracts for all of the VW Group's cars. 0:26:26.036 --> 0:26:29.556 We're talking millions of units per year times four. If 0:26:29.596 --> 0:26:32.116 they couldn't deliver a street tire that could go all 0:26:32.156 --> 0:26:36.556 the way from zero mph to two fifty three without delaminating, 0:26:37.556 --> 0:26:44.076 guess what happened. So, yes, the Vay Run only exists 0:26:44.116 --> 0:26:47.236 because the guy in charge was steaming furiously toward this 0:26:47.276 --> 0:26:49.556 thing in his head and willing to lay it all 0:26:49.596 --> 0:26:52.876 on the line to make it happen. And it only 0:26:52.916 --> 0:26:55.876 exists because he was willing to lose wads of money. 0:26:56.676 --> 0:26:59.876 Even though the car costs seven figures, Bugatti only planned 0:26:59.916 --> 0:27:02.316 to make three hundred of them over the entire run. 0:27:03.396 --> 0:27:06.636 That would hardly cover the cost of the dedicated headquarters 0:27:06.636 --> 0:27:10.316 and factory he built to make the car in Moulzheim, France, 0:27:10.836 --> 0:27:15.716 at the ancestral home of the original Bugatti family. As 0:27:15.716 --> 0:27:18.716 our friend Patrick at the Peterson made clear, the price 0:27:18.796 --> 0:27:23.716 tag was significant because it crossed a psychological chasm unprecedented 0:27:23.756 --> 0:27:32.076 at the time one million dollars. But and this is 0:27:32.116 --> 0:27:34.396 going to be rare for the show, I'd like to 0:27:34.436 --> 0:27:38.236 focus here on the performance rather than the psychological chasms. 0:27:39.116 --> 0:27:42.316 Without the performance, there'd be no way to justify the 0:27:42.356 --> 0:27:46.876 helicopter adjacent pricing. But the most important thing about the 0:27:46.956 --> 0:27:50.276 Veyron's performance is that it crossed a threshold that was 0:27:50.356 --> 0:27:55.156 as significant as it was invisible. It was faster than 0:27:55.276 --> 0:28:01.196 gravity free fall acceleration equates to zero to sixty miles 0:28:01.196 --> 0:28:05.076 per hour in two point seven seconds. That's the force 0:28:05.076 --> 0:28:12.116 of gravity. The quantifiable accelerative speed of one. Previously zero 0:28:12.196 --> 0:28:14.836 to sixty and two point seven seconds, or the rate 0:28:14.876 --> 0:28:17.516 of free fall, was thought to be the physical limit 0:28:17.556 --> 0:28:24.236 of car acceleration on the road, but the veyron slipped 0:28:24.316 --> 0:28:28.036 past that rate. It hit sixty miles per hour in 0:28:28.116 --> 0:28:33.396 two point five seconds. So this thing, in a manner 0:28:33.396 --> 0:28:38.036 of speaking, this thing out accelerated gravity. Well, firstly, that 0:28:38.156 --> 0:28:42.396 is not a meaningful sentence. Yes, and no. Gravity will 0:28:42.796 --> 0:28:46.156