Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Bugatti Veyron

How would you begin the design process for an engine this powerful? If you have read How Car Engines Work, you know that if you want to create a 1,000-horsepower engine, it has to be able to burn enough gasoline to generate 1,000 horsepower. That works out to about 1.33 gallons (5 liters) of gasoline per minute.
We need a 16-liter engine to burn 1.33 gallons of gas per minute. That actually makes sense -- the engine in the Dodge Viper is 8.0 liters in displacement and produces 500 hp.

But there's a problem: A 16-liter V-8 engine would be very large. And the pistons would be massive, so there would be no way it could turn at 6,000 rotations per minute (rpm). It might turn at a maximum of 2,000 rpm, meaning that you would need an immense 48-liter engine to generate 1,000 hp. Clearly an engine that big is impossible in a passenger car.
Bugatti did two things to create a compact engine capable of producing 1,000 hp. The first and most obvious thing is turbocharging.

If you have read How Turbochargers Work, you know that one easy way to make an engine more powerful without making the engine bigger is to stuff more air into the cylinders on each intake stroke. Turbochargers do that. A turbo pressurizes the air coming into the cylinder so the cylinder can hold more air.

If you stuff twice as much air in each cylinder, you can burn twice as much gasoline. In reality, it's not quite a perfect ratio like that, but you get the idea. The Bugatti uses a maximum turbo boost of 18 PSI to double the output power of its engine.

Therefore, turbocharging allows Bugatti to cut the size of the engine from 16 liters back down to a more manageable 8 liters.

To generate that much air pressure, the Bugatti requires four separate turbochargers arranged around the engine.

The second thing Bugatti engineers did, both to keep the RPM redline high and to lower lag time when you press the accelerator, was to double the number of cylinders. The Bugatti has a very rare 16-cylinder engine.

Engine
8.0L 1001hp W16 Std.
Horsepower (@rpm) 1001 @ 6000
Torque (@rpm) 922 @ 2200
Displacement (cc) 7993
Bore X Stroke N/A
Compression Ratio N/A
7-Speed Automatic Overdrive: Std.
- City/Highway (mpg) 8 / 15
- 0-60 (sec) N/A
Interior
Max. Seating 2
Front Legroom (in) N/A
Back Legroom (in) N/A
Exterior
Wheelbase 106.7
Length (in) 175.7
Height (in) 47.4
Amenities
Sunroof/Moonroof N/A
Air Conditioning Std.
Leather Seats Std.
Power Seats Driver Std.
Passenger Std.
Power Windows Std.
Power Door Locks Std.
Navigation N/A
Stereo Radio, CD Player
Safety
Front Airbags Driver Std.
Passenger Std.
Side Airbags Front N/A
Rear N/A
Side Curtain Airbags N/A
ABS Brakes Std.
Payload/Towing
Trunk/Cargo (cu ft) 4.0
Std/Max. Payload (lb) N/A / N/A
Std/Max. Towing (lb) N/A / N/A
Fuel Capacity
Tank Size (gal) 26.4

1 comments:

Matt B said...

That is a sexy beast of a machine. Hopefully one day, I can have one of these rides in my garage. For now my mint 929 will have to do :(

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