Categories
Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Audi Bentley BMW Bugatti Chevrolet Ferrari GM Gumpert Honda Hyundai Infiniti Jaguar Kia Koenigsegg Lamborghini Motor Shows

2013 Geneva Motor Show in pictures – part 1

2013 Geneva Motor Show

The Geneva Motor Show is still underway over in Europe and while we’re sure almost all of our readers would love to be there we’re doing the best we can to bring you a little closer to the action. Here is the first installment of over 250 pictures from the show, from Alfa Romeo to Lamborghini, which includes some of the great and not so great models on display.

That Lamborghini’s not getting any prettier is it.

Categories
Bugatti

Bugatti Grand Sport Bernar Venet revealed

Bugatti Grand Sport Bernar Venet

Renowned French conceptual artist and sculptor Bernar Venet has helped to create Bugatti’s most recent work. It’s the one-off Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Bernar Venet and features the artwork of the 71-year-old. It’s been described by the carmaker as “the fastest artwork ever.”

Venet, who has experimented with logic and mathematical equations in his artwork since the 1960s, sought inspiration from scientific formulae used in the creation of the Veyron. These have been integrated with the car’s paintwork and Venet wanted to create the impression of the lettershapes being swept away by the Grand Sport’s immense speed.

“A Bugatti is already a work of art in itself, one that transports both its beholder and its driver into new dimensions of reality,” explained Venet. “I realised how I could translate my passion for mathematical equations and scientific treatises into three-dimensional form. My works are usually self-referential. So I found the idea of translating the equations of the Bugatti engineers onto the bodywork of the car very appealing.

“It was, so to speak, a logical conclusion and a new challenge in terms of the specific form of collaboration and implementation. To me, the result is also exceptional when measured by artistic standards and bestows the object with a mythical character.”

The Veyron Grand Sport Bernar Venet premiered as part of the Rubell Family Collection in Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach.

A video after the break shows how the artwork was applied to the Veyron and a gallery of images showcasing the car can also be seen.

Categories
Bugatti

Galibier: “The best luxury sedan in the world”

Bugatti Galibier Concept

While poking around for extra info on yesterday’s R8 e-tron story we came across an interview with Wolfgang Dürheimer from late August, when he was still with Bugatti and just before he started with Audi. He’s been quite the mover and shaker in the Volkswagen Group, especially if we cheat a little and count his time at Porsche in that mix.

Anyway, we thought we’d share Dürheimer’s thoughts on the four-door Bugatti Galibier, which is not due until 2015 and will follow the next-gen Veyron. Dürheimer states the Galibier will be, “Simply the best luxury sedan in the world, the most beautiful large four-door in the world, powered by a 16-cylinder engine with over 1000 hp, and faster than anything on the market.

“And that includes tuning cars, which now stand at around 235 mph. And I can assure you that we will include a few innovative ideas that are a first in the automotive business as a whole.

“I thought I had seen everything after 10 years at the top of Porsche’s R&D.
I was wrong.”

Sounds impressive, hey.

[Source: Car and Driver]

Categories
Bugatti

VIDEO: Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse

 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse

These days the Bugatti Veyron is almost the forgotten hypercar. Bugatti addressed this back in March by revealing the Grand Sport Vitesse at the Geneva Motor Show. Now they’ve reminded us of their creation by releasing a new video to YouTube, with the accompanying intro:

Watch the revised video of Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse in action. 1200HP, 0-100km/h in 2.6 seconds and a top speed of 410km/h are just a few of the car’s vital statistics. However, words alone will never do justice to this automotive masterpiece. This is a car that demands to be seen, a car guaranteed to send shivers down your spine the moment you hear the distinctive roar of its W16 engine.

Categories
Bugatti

DIY Bugatti Veyron

Bugatti Veyron configurator

Want to build your own Bugatti Veyron? Well, thanks to the official configurator on the Bugatti website you can. We’ve shown you a few images of our Veyron 16.4 carbon grey/gray green combo here, but really, you should let yourself run wild. You can even make your own Grand Sport or Super Sport if you wish.

And don’t forget to export your specs to a PDF file. You know, just in case.

To help get you in the mood Bugatti has teamed with Jeremy Clarkson to produce a short promo video, which you can see after the break. Have fun now!

Categories
Bugatti

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse

If you checked out our Geneva Motor Show photo galleries you will have noticed Bugatti is still pumping out new versions of its now seven-year-old Veyron platform. This time it’s the Grand Sport Vitesse.

With 1200hp sourced from its 7.9 litre W16 quad-turbocharged engine it proudly carries the label of the world’s most powerful roadster. Think that 1200hp sounds bonkers? Well how’d you like 1500Nm of torque to go with?

In practice those massive numbers translate to the small number of 2.6 seconds, which is the time required to go past 100km/h. Just 10 seconds dead will see off the standing quarter. Bringing big numbers back into frame the Vitesse has an electronically limted top speed of 375km/h. But if you ask the computers nicely and find yourself a closed track, with a very long straight, you can push it to 410km/h.

If reckon the Grand Sport Vitesse is alright then you’ll need to find around AU$2.2m if you want in.

We really like the Jet Grey colour combo featured above, but even if we had a couple of mill to blow we’re not sure we could do it. But if you could, lend us the keys will you!

Categories
Aston Martin Audi Bentley BMW Bugatti Chevrolet Citroen Ferrari Ford Honda Hyundai Infiniti Jaguar Koenigsegg Motor Shows

2012 Geneva Motor Show in pictures – part 1

2012 Geneva Motor Show

After a couple of days for press previews the doors to the 2012 Geneva Motor Show are about to be opened to the public. Figuring you probably can’t make it we’re bringing you our biggest photo gallery ever. That’s right, there’ll be over 200 images from the floor of Geneva for you to enjoy.

We’ve kept things varied and ensured there’s dream cars, like the Ferrari F12berlinetta and Lamborghini Aventador J, as well as everyday stuff like the new Audi A3 and the Subaru Impreza Hatch. Then there’s the Valmet Automotive Dawn. We’re not quite sure what that is and you’ll see it in part 2 of our gallery, to be added later today.

After the break you can enjoy the first installment where we’ve taken an alphabetical approach and presented manufacturers from A–K.

Categories
Bugatti

Chris Harris describes the Bugatti Veyron SS

The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is a stupidly quick car; we know this. It has a top speed over 431km/h and can reach 100km/h in just 2.5 seconds. Here, in this short teaser video, Chris Harris explains what that speed feels like.

Categories
Bugatti

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport photo gallery

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

Recent reports suggest Bugatti will shelve sportscars for luxury saloons once the Veyron has reached the end of its production cycle. With that in mind, now seems a good time to pay homage to the all-conquering Veyron. So, over the last couple of days AUSmotive has raided the Bugatti press archive and come up with 75 images of the 431km/h Super Sport.

Not content with just pics, there’s a couple of bonus PDF downloads to be had after the break as well. There’s some great detail images included; let’s face it, this is probably as close as many of us will ever get to a Veyron. Enjoy!

Categories
Bugatti

Bugatti planning A8 derived saloon

Bugatti Galibier Concept

Reports from Germany suggest Bugatti will end its sportscar production in favour of a return to luxury saloons. It is understood the next Bugatti creation will be based on the Audi A8 and should come to life in 2014.

At last year’s Geneva Motor Show Bugatti presented the Galibier Concept (pictured above). The Galibier is the most recent four-door saloon from the famous marque and no doubt gives us an idea as to what Bugatti has in mind.

While the all-conquering Veyron has a projected production run of just 300, it is expected the company’s next foray will result in much higher numbers.

[Source: Spiegel Online | translated]

Categories
Bugatti

One Veyron for the price of two

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport

If you think our Luxury Car Tax is bad then spare a thought for those unfortunate Bugatti Veyron buyers in India. You see, the Indian government laughs in the face of our measly 33% rate and says if you can afford to buy one Veyron you can afford to buy two. Only trouble is, you still only get one Veyron for double the money.

That’s right, the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, which is about to go on sale in India, gets slugged with a 110% import tax. The final cost is a cool 160 million rupees. If that doesn’t mean much to you, it works out to be around US$3.6 million. Ouch! Other markets charge taxes, too, but none are quite as high as in India; for comparison a Grand Sport would cost you US$2.2 million in America or €1.6 million in Europe (around AU$2.25m).

Of course, after buying a Veryron, the real problem for Indian consumers is finding some space in their Dharavi mansions to park their new wheels.

[Source: Autoblog]

Categories
Bugatti

“It is absolutely clackers!”

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

Well, with 1200 horsepower, 1500 Newton metres of torque and costing around £2,000,000 what else would you expect him to say?

Him is Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar and the car is the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Yep, that’s the one that set a new landspeed record back in June. The magic number then was 431km/h and that stands as the fastest speed set by a production vehicle.

In case you haven’t already done the sums, the Aussie dollar conversion is around $3.2 million.

Check out Sutcliffe’s review after the break. Lucky sod!