Bugatti Veyron

McLaren’s CEO, Ron Dennis, has cracked the reputation of the Bugatti Veyron by calling it ‘a complete piece of junk’. He also stated that he can look at a range of women and see beauty in most of them, but he can not look at a Bugatti and think positive about it. He said:

It’s just pig ugly, the Veyron doesn’t do anything for me. I’ve been looking at it for years, and I don’t see one single thing that makes me feel good.

What reason Sir Dennis had for this is unknown, maybe it has something to do with the recent unveiling of his own MP4-12C supercar. The MP4-12C, which will be sold for close to $ 250,000 next year, is believed to boast a top speed in excess of 320km/h.

Still, his criticism had not ended. He also claimed that a recent road race on BBC, Top Gear, organised in Abu Dhabi between the Veyron and the McLaren F1 road car had to be fake to make the Veyron look quicker than it was.

I know that they have to cut the car open to take the engine out. To make an engine in that configuration, you know, it doesn’t go around corners. When we did the race in Abu Dhabi, we beat it off the line so many times that the film crew was getting frustrated because the outcome was supposed to be for the Bugatti to win.

So we had to do that whole thing about ten times before it managed to get off the line cleanly and catch us up. Because every time they dropped the clutch it bogged down and we were gone.

Just jealousy or can you find yourself in Dennis’ way of thinking?

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22 COMMENTS

  1. Well I can understand Ron Dennis. The Veyron is only a status symbol for the real wealthy people it’s fantastic on a straight line and you can also travel some kilometers with it but it doesn’t fascinate as much as a F1 does nor does it have the abilities to go fast around sharp corners.
    A McLaren F1 can outlap a Veyron easily on the racetrack event though it’s over 10 years old.

  2. The story Ron Dennis states is true. We heard the exact same thing when we discussed the topic during our trip in the UAE.

    Top Gear asked Bugatti for a Veyron to do the drag race, but they didn’t gave one to TV makers. So a local person handed them a car, but the problem with the Veyron used was the amount of horsepower. It generated a lot less than official is stated. People from the region know that.

    The race was one big fake thing…

    MR

  3. Yeah I also found that ‘race’ strange, The thing wit the veyron and it could be just me, but it does not excite me in the same way that the Mclaren F1 does. I mean my favourite Maclaren F1 is the orange test coloured one and I think that car does more for me than the Veyron ever will. Ron dennis should have said in ‘ronspeak’ the following…”I find that organic beauty will infinitely surpass mechanical beauty with the object in question!” or something to that effect!!

    peace out.

  4. For the price they are asking Hes right ..I can buy a Lambo and put twinturbos in it and get more hp out of it than a stupid Veyron…underground racings Gallardo can do the standing mile at 241.8 mph and the Veyron hits the mile at 220mph ..slow as shit for 1.8 million …sorry 2.1 million ripoff

  5. You just cannot neglect the engineering achievement the veyron really is and will always be. I doubt we’ll see a supercar like this in the nearest future!

  6. For me, the veyron is clearly THE hypercar. I don’t think that you can compare it to other supercars like a Murcielago or a Pagani, because if you’re doing 340 km/h in it, you think you’re driving on a german autobahn in a “reasonably priced” S-Class…
    This car is just a magnificant state of the art symbol and an engineering masterpiece.

    Who cares if a bloody brit-mclaren is faster around a corner than the veyron?! – how many people drive a veyron on a track as a racecar?! i would rather use a MC12 or an Enzo (NOT a lambo) for funny stuff like that..

  7. First of all, the story about the TG dragrace between the Veyron and the Mc F1 has also to the with the fact that the Veyron suffers from a turbo lag caused by the extreme desert heat. The same race in other conditions, for example in Germany, would give an other result. Nevertheless, the Mclaren F1 is a great car and the Veyron is also a great piece of engineering. Both cars are the pinnacle of automotive engineering of their time.
    Therefore the comment made by LamborghiniMan doesn’t make much sense if we take a look at reliability. Making a car faster and more powerful than a Veyron isn’t though. Making a car also reliabele and easy to drive is another thing.

    Ow, and about Ron Dennis: he is known for his remarkeble quotes and way of speaking. In the F1 the term “Ronspeak” is coined for the style of speech used by Ron Dennis. Also, the Board of directors of Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) weren’t amused with Dennis’ arrogance and way of speaking.

    More interesting is the opinion of Gordon Murray, the creator of McLaren F1:

    “The chassis/body structure is hybrid like the last Bugatti (EB110) with carbon fiber used for the primary structure and aluminum alloy for the body and front crash structure. In this respect, the all-carbon McLaren F1 and the RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) carbon Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren are, in fact, more advanced.”

    “Weight saving should be by design and not a post process. Weight is the car designer’s biggest enemy.”

    “The restrictions on styling and innovations are apparent in the Veyron — the all-wheel drive and power targets must have made the designer’s life a nightmare. Although the Bugatti is quite short, it is very wide and suffers from most of the rear mid-engine problems, such as high cowl height, pedal offsets, no luggage space and poor three-quarter rear view.”

    “To be absolutely fair, the Veyron team did not set out to challenge the McLaren F1, Enzo or Porsche GT as the ultimate driving machine. This it certainly doesn’t do at two tons with turbo lag. It also falls short of the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and the Mercedes SLR McLaren for high-performance touring because of the outward vision problems and lack of luggage space. Where it absolutely succeeds is as a massive technical achievement — a statement for VW AG. And it will be guaranteed a place in automotive history because of the performance figures.”

    “The Veyron’s design team must be applauded because the starting point was so wrong. Arbitrary targets of 1000 hp and 250 mph and 0-60-mph in under 3 seconds were set at the very beginning of the program. But worse still, a styling model was shown and accepted! This is a bad starting point for any car, but for a high-performance car, it’s a disaster.”

    “One final point is that I have always felt a little responsible for starting this lunatic chase for top speed with the McLaren F1 (even though top speed was never one of our targets!), and the Bugatti Veyron should put an end to this nonsense and let the designers get on with the job of designing good fun, efficient sports cars.”

    http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/data/technical_analysis_anatomy_of_a_supercar

  8. Ron Dennis is afraid he will no sell as much of his mp4 12c, because its design is just too plain, is not ugly buy its not pretty either, let it be no surprise that next he’ll start talking about the 458 italia.

  9. I think he needs a punch in the face to clog up the jelousy inside that the veyron shat on his F1.

    actualy i was reading on a reputable site that the veyron F1 race was indeed staged to some extent, only because the F1 would have been left in its dust, so they let it catch up for a bit to make it more exciting.

    it dosnt take a genious to figure out the veyron is high above the F1,

    its not even a car, its a technological and engineering masterpiece, its a piece of art. its unlike anything else.

    what was that on topgear? race to 200mph, let the F1 get to 120 before the veyron starts and the veyron still beats it to 200?

    come on mr donnis. you know where to shove it

  10. I also agree with you MR, and fix myself.

    the Veyron would not have anywhere near all its BHP in that part of the world, because of the heat, which would make the turbos nearly useless. and the F1 has no turbos which is an advantage eh?

    and to the lambo man. you cant compare the twin turbo lambo to a veyron, because being fast isnt the only thing it achieves. it achieves that speed with its huge weight, luxury and gizmos, and it does that over many many years to come. i doubt the lambo would last a whole day on the track or on the road without breakdowns.

  11. Bugatti factory says that the Veyron’s engine produces from 1001 up to 1100 hp. That depends on air density. When the air temperature is high, density is lower, so that means that engine sucks less air, and that means that the engine produces less power.
    Bugatti tested Veyron in Arizona, and during the test, engine produced around 1001 hp, and the conditions in Arizona are similar to those in UAE. So that story, about engine power isn’t true. Truth is that Richard Hammond didn’t use launch control at start, to make drag race more interesting. (he stated that later)

  12. I do not agree with Ron last time they fined $100m when they were found with Ferrari papers. Veyron is the king of all automative and I am dreaming of having one.

  13. What amaze me. Is Ron is speaking 2 his head. Bugatti is saying nothing. They say backing dogs they sold om bite….4gve my poor english.

  14. Ron is right the Veyron is butt ugly, but I don’t see Top Gear’s motivation for rigging the race in Dubai. It doesn’t really matter because the king of the hill is the SSC Ultimate Aero TT made in my Washington State, USA!

  15. I don’t care for the looks of the Veyron either, but I can not hate on any engine with 4 turbo’s that actually work correctly. If you follow F1, you know old Ron Dennis is also known for his RonSpeak :) Long live the McLaren F1.

  16. Reminds the old fable – The Fox and the Grapes. When the Fox couldn’t reach the Grapes it says that the Grapes is too “green”.

  17. the veyron is a road car and that’s how it feels to drive. no matter what they say, the f1 is a race car. only a race car driver can appreciate the twitchy handling of the thing. the veyron looks like a million pounds, the f1 doesn’t. i want a veyron, i don’t want the f1. ron sold half of the mclaren f1’s to the sultan of brunei who leaves them to rot in the humidity of the rainforest where no one will have a chance to see them. lunatics :)

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