Bugatti Veyron v Lamborghini Superleggera v Porsche GT3 RS v Audi R8 v Aston Martin DB9 Sports Pack (January 2008)

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Wheels Magazine
December, 2007

» Bugatti Veyron
» Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
» Porsche 911 GT3 RS
» Audi R8
» Aston Martin DB9 Sports Pack

If one fact dominates this assembly of five of the hottest cars on the face of the planet, it's this: the Veyron costs nearly twice as much as the combined price tags of all our four other challengers. You could put the Aston Martin DB9, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Audi R8 and Lamborghini's lightweight, ultra-sports version of the Gallardo in the garage and then add a Ferrari 599 and 430 Scuderia for around the price of the Bugatti.

It would be fair to say that, for this very reason, we approached the Veyron with the sort of scepticism more normally reserved for door-to-door salesmen. Only one of us had actually driven the thing before, and that was on the mostly straight roads of the original launch venue.

The big Bug's amazing straight-line performance was never in doubt, but on the twisty French mountain roads on which we'd chosen to drive this group of cars, the early consensus was that the Veyron would fare about as well as a whale halfway up a beach.

Yet we were wrong. By the end of our day with it, the Veyron had turned all of us into believers, and even those who found they couldn't muster outright affection for something so big and brash came away with unashamed respect for it as a piece of engineering.

But the real high-speed stuff came later, when journo Chris Harris took the Veyron into Germany for a run down a derestricted section of the A5 Autobahn. Even at two in the morning there was still a fair amount of traffic lumbering around, so it's perhaps fortunate that Bugatti didn't provide us with the special second key necessary to allow an attempt on the full 407km/h top speed.

Even so, the Veyron managed 365km/h with almost effortless disdain, Harris reporting that it felt utterly composed at that velocity. A kilometre every ten seconds, as easy as driving to work.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. And be aware, too, that this is not a comparison test in any traditional sense of the term. To compare any of these cars directly with the Veyron would be an entirely pointless exercise. Think of it instead as a celebration of all things wonderful when it comes to fast cars...

» BUGATTI VEYRON
It's difficult to describe what this sort of thrust feels like on a public road

We don't have long with the Veyron - just 24 hours - so I can't resist climbing aboard. There's a slight sense of anti-climax when you get into the Bugatti because, at the end of the day, it's still only a car.

Initially you climb inside, run your fingers over the turned aluminium that swathes the centre console, feel the comfort and support of the big bucket seat, maybe prod one of the beautifully crafted aluminium indicator stalks ($10,000 a pop, by all accounts) and you think: it's very, very nice in here. But it's still only a car. How can anything on four wheels be worth this much money?

So you turn the key and then press the button, and the 8.0-litre W16 quad-turbo engine bursts luxuriously into life. Wap-wap on the throttle and the crank instantly responds, not quite with the same fury as a competition car's but very crisply for a big-capacity turbo. And even then you start to wonder. Perhaps it is worth all that money.

Certainly beside even the Gallardo - arguably the next most exotic machine here - the Veyron feels different, more expensive, more complex. Even the way its steering responds so smoothly as I edge out of the carpark separates it from the other cars here. There's a polish, a depth of mechanical sophistication, that simply isn't present in any of the other cars, not even in the Aston Martin (especially not in the Aston Martin, if we're being brutally honest).

A few hundred metres up the road and the Veyron is already doing things that the other cars absolutely do not do. When I drove this car on its launch in Sicily in 2005 I was gobsmacked by its performance and by its refinement, true, but I wasn't blown away by it overall. To be honest, I thought it was slightly devoid of personality.

But on these roads, which are tighter and twistier and way more entertaining than any of the roads I drove on in Sicily, the Veyron is bursting with energy, character, personality; call it what you will. Even after five minutes it feels so much more convincing as The Ultimate Creation.

Perhaps they've changed it, perhaps it just works better over these roads; either way, I'm completely knocked out by what the Veyron can do. Not merely by how fast it is when you put your foot down (and it really is heroically, cataclysmically fast) but also by how well it steers, how nimble it is over these narrow roads, how serenely its seven-speed DSG gearbox works, and how cleanly it rides and handles, even over quite lumpy surfaces. It's genuinely hard to believe that this car weighs 1888kg from the way it snaps so incisively from one direction to another, or how swiftly it stops when you lean on the brake pedal.

But the best bit, of course, is what happens when you find a straight piece of road and put your foot down. Because only then do you get to feel what it's like to have 736kW under your right foot. I've driven the car that won Le Mans for Audi in 2002 and I've driven a Jaguar F1 car that had 670kW, and I can tell you here and now, the Veyron feels quicker than either of them within the confines of a winding mountain road.

Okay, in reality it's not quite as accelerative as an F1 car, because F1 cars have similar amounts of power to the Bugatti but weigh three times less. But factor in the Veyron's torque - all 1250Nm of it, twice that of a modern F1 engine - and you start to understand how and why it's as quick as it is.

Truth is, in a straight line it would obliterate any car that lines up on the grid for the Le Mans 24 Hours. And above 300km/h even an F1 car would start to go backwards beside the mighty Veyron.

It's difficult to describe what that sort of thrust feels like on a public road, harder still to understand how the Veyron deploys so much firepower so neatly and effortlessly to the asphalt. And that might be the most impressive thing of all about this extraordinary car: how calm and controlled it is, considering how quick it is from point to point.

Yes, it really is quite unlike anything else on the planet.

» LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO SUPERLEGGERA
The real surprise is discovering how rapid the Superleggera feels, even after the Veyron

Lamborghini has a refreshingly simple attitude to mid-term product revisions: make it faster, make it handle better and, if all else fails, apply the sort of graphics that would have a Bankstown boy racer wondering if he'd gone too far.

Yet the Superleggera pretty much gets away with it, especially in the graphite grey of the test car Lambo scrambled for us. It's a 'stripper' in the manner of the 911 GT3 RS, although the standard climate control still chills the cabin with an icy efficiency that belies its Audi-engineered roots. Yet despite having four-wheel-drive and a V10 engine, it tips the scales at 45kg less than the Porker. Throw in 390kW and you're looking at the only car here that manages more than 70 percent of the Veyron's power-to-weight ratio.

So for a little perspective on how this translates to the real world, I climb out of the Bugatti and into the Superleggera and drive it over the exact same roads I drove the Veyron over. Straight away, it's amazing how much less civilised the Lamborghini feels, and how crude its gearbox in particular feels by comparison.

The Lambo's ride is also a hell of a lot harder and noisier than the Veyron's. You feel things in the road surface that weren't there in the Bugatti, and the stripped-out wheelarch liners fizz with stones and whatever else the Gallardo's big, sticky Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres can pick up and fire into them. The racket this car makes just driving along the road at 80km/h is quite stupendous by comparison to the Veyron.

But it's not slow, the Lamborghini, and when you do open it up enough for the engine and exhaust to drown out all the rest of the interference, the sound is nothing if not impressive. It's not an especially tuneful noise, but in terms of volume it's up there in the AC/DC league of impact. And it's not a sound you tire of, either.

The real surprise, though, is discovering how rapid the Superleggera feels, even after the Veyron. No, it's not in the same class when it comes to raw energy, but you can cover ground in the Lambo very, very quickly indeed. To the extent that you'd need to make full use of what the Veyron can do and be a decently good driver to get away from the Superleggera.

That's partly because of the Lambo's tyres and brakes, both of which have been designed to deliver other-worldly performance so long as you are prepared to really lean on them. The flip side to this, of course, is that if you drive it slowly the Superleggera's tyres feel oddly lacking in bite, while its carbon ceramic brakes are equally dead in response to begin with.

But the point is that the Gallardo is the only car here that stands any chance at all of living with the Veyron if the Bugatti decides to go for it.

Throw it down the road by the scruff of its neck and the Gallardo will develop sufficient performance, grip, balance and braking ability to just about keep the Veyron in sight - so long as you don't come across any genuinely long straights.

Not even in the 911, as we'll discover a little later, is there enough pure performance to be able to do this. It's the difference, in the end, between the Lambo's 390kW in a 1330kg car and 'merely' 305kW propelling the 1375kg GT3 RS. And it's the difference between being dropped by a Veyron in a heartbeat or having enough power and dynamic talent to at least keep the game alive for a while longer.

» PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS
The GT3 RS felt damn near as smooth and refined as the R8, but had a much bigger punch down the straights

For proof of Weissach's encyclopaedic knowledge of its customers, look no further than the 911 GT3 RS. In recent years the 911 has been pretty much separated into two distinct model ranges. On one side of the divide there's 911-as-grand-tourer: the lesser Carreras, Turbo, Targa and Cabriolet. And on the other there's the 911-as-ultimate-driving-device, with the GT2 and GT3. And then, as if that's not enough, the even harder-core 'lightweight' RS variant.

RS-ification brings fatter wheel arches covering a wider track, a perspex rear screen and the loss of most of the sound insulation. Buyers also get to choose between some of the most lurid paint schemes ever released into the wild, with our test car's intense orange the best of the lot. Porsche even gives punters the chance to opt for their RS with the no-cost option of having the aircon removed, saving 35kg. Whether it's a German summer or Australian one you're planning on experiencing in your GT3 RS, we'd urge you to think very carefully before ticking this option.

I was in the GT3 RS when the Veyron appeared in the mirror. Colleague Chris Harris was driving the Bugatti; the deal had been that he would leave the carpark 20 seconds after I set off. Then we'd see how long it would take him to catch me and, when he did so, whether it would be possible for him to get past.

On the way down the mountain, the GT3 RS completely blew me away. I expected it to have explosive throttle response, fabulous steering, mighty brakes and fantastic body control. And it did, just like the regular GT3 I drove a couple of months back.

But I also expected it to ride like a rollerskate and be generally pretty evil to drive unless I was at absolutely flat stick in it, but no. The RS felt damn near as smooth and refined over the ground as the R8, only the 911 had a much bigger punch down the straights and a lot more bite at its front end. "Perhaps he won't be able to catch me at all," I started to think.

And then it appeared, hovering like a missile behind me, its xenon headlights burning two big holes in the back of my head. As the road got tighter and twistier, I became aware that I was driving the GT3 RS about as hard as I'm prepared to drive a car on the public road, yet the Veyron refused to be shaken off.

It just sat there, watching me; me glancing at it. Waiting. Then a shortish straight appeared, I caned the 911 as frantically as I could in third gear and, whoosh, Harris and the Bugatti just blew by me and the GT3 RS like we were standing still.

» AUDI R8
So is it a sports car? Is it a supercar? In truth, the Über-Audi is a bit of both

This is genuinely the most civilised supercar the world has ever known. You climb into the R8 and somehow know instinctively where everything is and how it works. It has an amazing sense of logic and clarity to its design, and that stretches to the way it drives. If the fact that there are no surprises whatsoever lurking in its closet makes the R8 just a teeny bit plain and sensible in this company, then in the real world that's an enormous compliment.

Here is a genuine 300km/h supercar that sounds and goes and handles very much like the real deal it is. But it's also a car you can jump into and drive for vast distances in almost as much refinement and comfort as offered by the Aston. From most angles it also happens to look rather sensational.

So is it a sports car? Is it a supercar? In truth, the über-Audi is a bit of both, sharing some mechanical components from the undoubtedly super Lamborghini Gallardo to provide serious rivalry to the Porsche 911. Even Audi has been surprised by the demand: European punters putting their names down for an R8 join the back of a two-year queue to take delivery.

Sharing essentially the same 4.2-litre FSI V8 as that fitted to the RS4 means the R8 does look a bit short of ponies in this company: only the Aston saves it from having the poorest power-to-weight ratio. But 309kW is hardly to be sneezed at, especially when it's delivered by a sonorous, free-revving V8 that shows such willingness to work hard up towards the red zone. With the pedal mashed to the carpet, the engine wound up near its 8250rpm fuel cut-out, the muffler bypass flaps cracked wide open and the induction system adding just enough to the symphony, the R8 really does sound sensational.

Then there's the handling. No, the R8 doesn't have the iron-fisted, race-car-for-the-road feel of the Lambo or the Porsche, but neither does it feel as though it should. There's real compliance to the suspension, which storms over the terrain with smooth, buffered strokes. Corners are sucked in with a largely flat, neutral stance. Also worthy of mention is the near transparent stability control. It takes some serious provocation to get the R8's tail to edge out, and the electronics ensure it never gets lurid. You can turn it down to a lower level, however, or shut it off completely, but most owners will simply relish the vast grip and probably never touch it.

Yet within the context of this particular group of cars the R8 is blitzed by the three real thoroughbreds; the Aston Martin, not surprisingly, it can handle. But if you encounter and try and match pace with a Superleggera or a GT3 RS in your new R8, be warned: you will come very unstuck very quickly. And if a Veyron happens to appear in your rear-view mirror, it's best to wave a white handkerchief out of the window and pull over, if only to save yourself from the ignominy.

Still, the V10 version due next year will do plenty to offset any real power disadvantage, and in the meantime the R8 is vying with the Veyron to be the coolest car here, certainly to judge by the number of French kids who turn and point as it goes past.

» ASTON MARTIN DB9 SPORTS PACK
It makes a lovely noise, one that's almost as loud as the Lambo's blaring soundtrack but more textured in quality

Does the DB9 really belong here? Not the sort of question you'd think a 335kW super-coupe would have to face, but then, this isn't an ordinary comparo. And although on paper the Aston's melodious 5.9-litre V12 is putting out a class-competitive amount of urge, there's no doubting that it's down on both performance and dynamic intent when compared to the rest of our ultra-hardcore rivals. A 4.9sec 0-100km/h time is hardly a disgrace, but it does make the DB9 the slowest car here.

The case for the Aston's defence rests on the optional 'Sports Pack': offered from July 2006, and available on new orders, or retro-fitted to a standard car, it consists of lightweight five-spoke alloys, firmer springs, revised dampers and modified front anti-roll bar. The mods, in concert with a 6mm lowered ride height, have put a bit of steel into the standard DB9's slightly soft suspension and, on previous experience, sharpened it up enough to earn it at least the right to be compared to the rest of the metal here.

To be fair, the Aston is unlike the rest of the field; a true luxury GT with small occasional rear seats and a boot, it's by far the most practical and comfortable machine here, both in ride and cabin accommodation. It also has the best high-speed noise insulation.

Driving the DB9 over the same roads as the others is a fascinating exercise because it teaches you that speed is not everything. Compared with any other group of cars, the DB9 Sport would be a hugely fast and accomplished machine, but in this company it feels like driving down the road in your favourite leather-clad armchair.

Yet the DB9 is a delightful car to drive in spite of its softer chassis responses and comparative lack of straight-line go.

For starters it makes a lovely noise, one that's almost as loud as the Lamborghini's blaring soundtrack but more textured in quality: think Mahler symphony as opposed to a Guns 'n' Roses rock anthem. It also steers beautifully and rides with way more sophistication than the Gallardo.

The Aston is also so nicely balanced and such a sweet car to drive that it feels game for anything you'd care to do with it, be that stroking it along at 70km/h or scrubbing the shoulders off its tyres drifting it at 100km/h. But it's a classic GT machine, and ultimately not in the same game as the others.

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