This car would have cost NOK 20 million or more if it had been real. It is a replica that costs "only" 2 million, but which everyone wants to believe is real.
Discounted price
In recent days, international media have written about a Bugatti Veyron replica with British plates. Recently, a video was published about the car from Drive Tribe - a team there in the past Top Gear reporter Richard Hammond is with. I had the pleasure of studying the car last year at London Classic Car Show while it was on display at the car company Total Head Turners. Last year the replica was priced at £240. Now the price has been reduced to £000. The project is said to have taken 150 years and cost £000, which is a pittance compared to what you would pay for a real Veyron. A real car will set you back at least £7.
Built from the ground up
The project did not start with a donor car. The car in the picture has been built from the ground up with a welded steel tube frame, carbon fiber bodywork and details made with 3D scanning and 3D printing. I did not have the opportunity to study the interior in detail, but the video shows that it is made of hard plastic and cheap materials using 3D technology. The part that fascinated me the most was the cover over the engine. The shape is 3D-scanned from an original car, cast in hard plastic that looks confusingly like aluminium. Everything to be looks authentic, but falls through when touched.
Damaged windshield
When building a replica, it is often possible to use parts bought over the counter, but not for the Bugatti Veyron. Only 450 cars were built, so there are no local parts warehouses, and you are unlikely to get help if you approach the factory to buy parts for a replica project. So modern 3D technology has solved many challenges for the replica project - but not all. One of them is the windshield. It is actually the only part that is original. It originates from a real Veyron that has been in to change the windscreen. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see a chip from rubble at the bottom right.
I realize that even if I sold everything I own, I would hardly be able to finance a real Bugatti Veyron. But what do you get in a replica, then, for 1.992.000 NOK (equivalent to £150,000)?
The drivetrain in the car originates from an Audi C5-based RS6. It's not the nice V10 engine that one would think, but a former 4,2-litre Audi V8 twin turbo that delivers around 450hp – half of what a real 8-litre quad-turbo WR16 Veyron engine delivers. After all, the Veyron Super Sport is considered the world's fastest production car for public roads. Although Audi's drivetrain is nowhere near Bugatti's, it is hardly inferior to other cars you can buy here at home for NOK 2 million.
Can be expensive
A real Porsche for NOK 2 million will look like a car for NOK 2 million, while a fake Veyron looks like it costs 10 times as much. Parked inside an open garage door or in front of the house, everyone will sense that this is a real Veyron. There is nothing about the car that gives away that it is fake when you study it from the outside. I thought it was real myself, until I read the description. As you can see from the pictures, there were people hanging around the car the whole time - many more than there would have been around a Porsche or similar car at the same price. The problems with owning a replica like this arise when something needs to be done to the car. Then you should be able to help yourself, possibly know a mechanic with Audi expertise. It can be worse to get a rear light or a side mirror if you have been unlucky in a car park.
It is perhaps that - as well as the fact that the car has a left-hand drive - that has made it a "shelf warmer" at the British dealer. But, - wait a minute! The car was for sale at Total Head Turners 9 days ago - but now I can no longer find it on the websites. Maybe it's sold?
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