The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, the pinnacle of human engineering. Powered by a 8 Liter 1200 BHP behemoth of an engine, it produces 1200 pounds of torque, which is almost enough to jump start a dead planet. The power from this engine is delivered to the wheels via a 7 speed double clutch gear box. This means that the Bugatti Veyron does 0-60 mph in almost 2.5s and 0-100 in less than 4.0s and it tops out at close to 262mph. The problem then arises when one tries to slow down this 2 Tonne monster.
Bugatti had to employ these massive brake calipers just to attempt to slow down and stop it. They calipers were made of a special carbon-ceramic alloy and are able to withstand temperatures upto 1100 degrees centigrade. However, stopping a car this big from such high speeds is extremely difficult and even such large and powerful cannot accomplish this task and fail.
As one can see in this video, the Bugatti's brake calipers are glowing red from being too hot. Bugatti had to solve this problem before the Veyron's brakes started failing out and they came up with an extremely effective solution. They took the idea of flaps from airplanes and applied them to the Bugatti and the results were incredible. A flap like brake was attached to the back of the Veyron and it produced as much braking force as a normal four door sedan. It could move. Therefore, it had the ability to be deployed when needed. This was truly a subject of good design as it was effective and solved the problems that the Bugatti design team was facing.
Super ingenious. What's even more impressive is the original designer of the air flap brake. Just a super smart way of using simple physics to solve problems with simple solutions. And yeah the Veyron Super Sport is an incredible feat of automobile engineering.
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