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Old 02-27-2004, 02:24 PM   #10
ArchangelGTR
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Re: Official Veyron Tops Speed... 218mph!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peloton25
I totally agree with what Mr. Bernoulli has stated.

Archangel- I would counter that even though Dr. Thomas Bscher was very closely associated with getting McLaren Cars to go racing with the F1 GTR, I really don't believe in his new position he would make any compromises to the Veyron project to protect the reputation of the F1. That's a fairly absurd suggestion in my opinion.

As a late entry to the project, I fully believe he is playing the hand he was dealt in the best way possible at this point.

>8^)
ER
Well I think the absurdity was probably the way I phrased it rather than the thought.

If you drive a car at speeds well beyond the norm.. say even 150 on a regular basis. You become acclimated and knowledgeable about good vehicle high speed dynamics.... its behavior. If you drive another car that exhibits "strange" behavior, then that car is not considered stable and should be driven at lesser speeds more suited to its vehicle dynamics. Dr. Bscher has experience to know what good dynamics is. Theoretical calculations may be more inclined to be proven wrong than someone with real world experience.

I think the compromise may have been for customer safety than anything. To claim a vehicle can do certain speeds, when it can (but not safely) will only get customers to try and prove the claims. A lot (not all) of customers that are able to afford these high performance machines have little track or high speed experience. The Veyron may in fact be able to surpass 218, but with such instability that he does not want to risk having the Veyron name associated with deaths due to the afformentioned high speed instability. (The closest example would be the Mercedes CLK-GTRs of recent LeMans past. Super fast cars, but had the tendency to flip at a certain point on the Mulsanne straights. Fortunately, no-one perished. But there have been those that have perished proving a cars high speed.) All it takes is one death and the entire Bugatti name will go back into history instead of remain in the present.

As they say in racing: In order to finish first.. you must first finish.
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