A Day With A Bugatti: Test-Driving The Veyron Grand Sport

In the summer of 2011, I had just started my career as a junior Freelance-Creative Partner, specializing in copy writing, photography and video production. You can probably imagine my excitement when a message that I left at a local automotive blog was met with an invitation to the first test-drive and photo/film shoot of the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport. My first real car-job and it was one of the fastest and most expensive cars on the planet - I was ecstatic.

I arrived at the massive estate at an undisclosed location near Toronto to find the beautiful marvel of engineering sitting quietly at the base of the stairs to the house. The Bugatti didn't remain quiet for long. Before I could snap my second photo since walking up the driveway from the guest-house, the Bugatti representative turned the key, bringing the 1001 horsepower 8-liter W16 to life. We brought the car further onto the estate to get some pictures around the stunning property.

  

Full photo shoot here.

After a while, it was time to take the car out to the open roads. There was a lot of traffic on the city roads, which as you can guess garnered a lot of attention. Attention isn't the best thing to have when you're leaning out the window of a chase car with a camera filming a million-dollar supercar - believe me. I got a ticket for it.

Me, pretending to be badass enough to get a ticket in a Bugatti.

After being pulled over and questioned, we were off again. If you've never seen a Bugatti, I can assure you, this car lives up to the hype. It's loud, gorgeous and faster than a bat out of hell. Although most of the footage I have was contracted away to the automotive blog I was freelancing for, there is a bit of footage for your viewing pleasure:

Like what you see? Contact me via my website!

I hate the R8 Spyder. Yes, even the GT.

Now before those of you who clicked on this post in a rage take out your anger on me, hear me out: I love cars. I love Audi's. I love just about every car except the Pontiac Aztec, any Hummer after the H1 and the Ford Pinto. I understand different cars have different purposes, and with those purposes come different audiences. Even so, I seriously cannot make myself like the Audi R8 Spyder. Not even the GT version.

I'm sure the car is fast; it's still the R8. I'm sure it's comfortable; it's an Audi. I'm sure it's a pleasure to drive, but I truthfully cannot get past the sickening appearance of this once beautiful car. I used to dislike most convertibles, especially the rag-tops, but that's not what the case is here.

One place the Audi design team went wrong was the rear-end. They kept the oh-so-Audi fins under the lights, which I love (even though there's less of them), but everything above that is a complete let-down. One of the most beautiful features of the R8 was it's glass engine cover. That's gone. In its place is a disappointingly bland and opaque ventilation-style cover. I understand that this might have been necessary due to the addition of the drop-top, but that brings me to my biggest problem with the R8 Spyder: No big side panels.

The panels on the side of the R8, be they carbon fiber, white, black, gold or what-have-you look fantastic. They defined the R8. With the rear end of the R8 so low, there was no room for the side panels, and in there place sits a gaping hole that looks like somebody sanded down the side of a Lamborghini. When Audi announced their R8 GT Spyder, I had a glimmer of hope for a rear-end redesign. Those hopes were soon shattered. Although the overall appearance of the R8 GT Spyder improved slightly, it still just doesn't sit right.

The R8 GT Spyder. Close, but still so far.

In the performance department, the Spyder just doesn't measure up to the original R8 GT. The 0-60 time is slightly more than to original, and I'm sure the drop-top experiences the standard minute loss of handling that all convertibles are susceptible to. In addition to that, the car comes strictly with the Audi R Tronic automated manual transmission - no exceptions. I don't know what the R Tronic transmission is like, but I've heard from a few sources that not only does it feel clunky, but it occasionally causes a plethora of problems for some owners.

In short, I feel like Audi didn't do a very good job of making the Audi R8 GT Spyder an outstanding sports-coupe. It feels more like a luxury convertible coupe to me. Couple the list of issues I have with the car and the nearly $200,000 price tag, and you have a car which I can honestly say would never cross my mind if I were in the price range or category. I'd spend the little bit extra and take a Lamborghini any day - but that's just my opinion.