Life, The Universe and Pune

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Winding Road is this free online auto magazine......

The latest issue has a story about the Bugatti Veyron, which is the new supercar (Pg. 28) and then there is a satirical piece (Pg. 15) on the anti-supercar and the author has decided to call that car - The Karthikeyan... and he says the chief engineer will be Eddie Jordan..:).....I just find that very funny

Anyways small excerpts from both articles...

The Bugatti Veyron...

Take the Veyron's official top speed of 253 mph. The Veyron is actually capable of pushing on past 257 mph, with each further 1 mph beyond 248 mph requiring an additional 8 hp to overcome air resistance. At maximum speed, the 8-liter W-16 engine is consuming fuel at a rate of 2.3 mpg, meaning the 22-gallon tank would run dry after just 12 minutes (or 51 miles) of flat-out motoring............According to Bugatti, 0-60 mph takes under 2.5 seconds,0-125 mph 7.3 seconds, 0-186 mph 16.7 seconds and 0-250 mph 55.6. To put it in perspective, if a fully wound-up McLaren F1 went past a poised, stationary Veyron at 100 mph and the Veyron driver gave it the gun as the F1 passed, the Bugatti would still reach 200 mph just before the McLaren did. Head spinning, I retired to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.


The article on The Karthikeyan

And just as the Veyron was named after a racing driver, so should we name the anti-supercar. Now, pipe down in the back:Despite the obvious parallels with this wheezing, underachieving snail of a car, we will not be calling the antisupercar “Little E.” After all, it will be an endearing, characterful car with go-kart handling, not a self absorbed prima donna who reeks of Old Spice. The namesake driver should be slow, but charmingly so. Karthikeyan it is then – but what’s in name?


Ohhhhh and BTW...... their cover article is on the Corvette ZO6...*grin*