The legendary W16 is about to be retired! Bugatti announced the end of an era with the Roadster Mistral, limited to 99 units. An era that began in 2005 with the Veyron. With a top speed of an unbelievable 407 km/h, the Veyron was the fastest production car in the world in 2005 and almost 20 years later the prestigious project is still impressive. Not only because of its sheer presence and impressive performance figures, but also because of the enormous cost!
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Used Bugatti Veyrons are currently not available for less than 1.2 million euros, while special models can sometimes cost almost three million euros. But not only the purchase price of a Veyron is enormous, the maintenance costs can quickly amount to several tens of thousands of euros per year. The annual oil change alone for the 8.0-liter W16 should cost between 20,000 and 23,000 euros. It’s a good thing that Bugatti has recently started offering the “Passeport Tranquillité” service package. Here, owners whose factory warranty has expired can take out a service package for two or four years that covers all maintenance costs.
That’s how much a set of tires costs for the Veyron
If desired, the package also includes the tyres. A point that is very expensive, especially with the Veyron. When the hyper sports car came onto the market in 2005, there were simply no road tires that could withstand the enormous loads at over 400 km/h, so Michelin developed a high-performance tire especially for Bugatti. A set of these tires costs between 35,000 and 40,000 euros, depending on the source. There are also rims, which are also anything but cheap.
In the USA, an original complete wheel of a Bugatti Veyron was vandalized recently. Why are you wondering? Quite simply to find out what makes the wheel so special (expensive) – and of course for the clicks. With success: After about a month, the video on the YouTube channel “Waterjet Channel” has almost 700,000 views. It shows how tires and rims are cleanly cut open with a water jet cutter.
At the beginning it is explained that the original complete wheel would cost around 35,000 euros new – however, there are different information on the exact prices for tires and rims of the Veyron. It is a fact that tires and rims are extremely expensive. Since the 365 tire from the video has a DOT 37/16 (i.e. was produced in the 37th week of 2016), it is practically unusable, because Bugatti specifies that the tires on a Veyron should ideally have all four, but at the latest all five years, must be exchanged. It is also recommended that the rim be X-rayed each time a wheel is changed to detect hairline cracks.
The rim is made by OZ
The rim may have such hairline cracks or other damage. Maybe it was just too old, because the rims are supposed to be renewed after only two tire changes. That’s because the high-performance tires are bonded to the OZ-made wheels. Either way: After the water jet cutter has cut out a decent piece in around ten minutes, the tires and rims are no longer usable anyway.
When it was presented in 2005, the Bugatti Veyron was the fastest production car in the world.
The findings on the destroyed wheel are manageable, because ultimately it is also just a (very expensive) aluminum rim. It is interesting that a kind of plastic ring is mounted between the rim and the tire, which is intended to support the tire in the event of damage. Adhesive residues can only be guessed at on the wheel rims, the adhesive may have already decomposed over the years.
Jewelry is made from the leftovers
Even if cutting open this wheel did not bring any fundamentally new insights, it is still remarkable that someone dared to cut open the rim and tire of a Bugatti Veyron. And in case you’re wondering what happens to the broken rim, it’s recycled as artist Patrick Air uses it to create 50 handmade rings. Cost point: from the equivalent of 2900 euros.
