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It is no surprise that amidst the increasingly larger hikes in fuel prices driven by the fact that the planet’s supply of petroleum is dissipating, the automotive industry is feeling the pinch more than any other. With many companies falling or are already fallen, the surviving ones are now wisely channeling their resources in developing vehicles which run on alternative fuel and the most popular choice is clearly the hybrid.

Hybrids are the first forms of cars to battle the ongoing fuel crisis. Evidently, the name which pops up anywhere across the world when the term hybrid is brought up is the Toyota Prius. This is mainly because the Prius was the first hybrid vehicle to be built in masses as they have proven among all the other alternative fuel concepts during the late 90s and early years of the new millennium to be the most practical and applicable in real world situations. Basically, hybrids are cars which run on the usual gasoline with the difference being the addition of an extra fuel supply, most commonly in the form of electricity which gets supplied from battery cells. While the Prius has been dominating over all these years, many other hybrids are available on the road today but one of the most notable cars in this segment is the upcoming second generation of Honda’s Insight, a hybrid car designed and engineered specifically to go up against the Prius in a blatant one on one.

While the idea of electric cars have always been a point of discussion but not so in application due to cost and practicality issues, they are hitting the roads lately and one of the one model swarming roads the most across the globe is possibly the Reva G-Whiz. Being under lots of controversy in the automotive industry due to its minimalist nature which is considered unsafe and not up to the standards of being a car, this tiny two-seater from India is in fact labeled as a quadtricycle in markets like the UK’s. On a more fast and furious note, the Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car borrowing the body of Lotus’ well-proven Elise’. While this car is earning rave reviews for its performance despite its electric underpinnings, many are expressing their doubts over the durability and sustainability of the electric cells that power not only the Tesla, but other electric vehicles alike.

Over the years, there have been debates about hybrids not being as good as people are made to think and the technology of electric cars as yet being simply impractical for normal usage. Diesel cars have gained in popularity due to this combined with rising prices at the pumps as cars such as Volkswagen’s entry level green car, the Polo Bluemotion, has on many tests and occasions proved that it can easily dwarf the mpg ratings of a Toyota Prius. Electric vehicles cannot be considered as economical or environmental either as most of our electricity supply comes from plants which burn petroleum to generate the electricity as well.

With ever changing takes on alternative fuel, Honda has made a breakthrough of late, introducing the Honda FCX Clarity, a car which runs of hydrogen and with the debates still going strong on alternative fuel vehicles, the technology Honda is implementing here might be the most significant yet in this battle as hydrogen is unlike the rest, an element which is never likely to run out. Only the world of tomorrow shall tell.

After four years of development, the 16.4, as it will now be called, is ready for series production. The most exclusive sports car of all time is following in the footsteps of the legendary Bugatti, those universally-coveted limousines and unbeatable racing cars of the 1920s and 1930s which today are among the most sought-after creations from the early days of automobile construction.

This brings to an end the era of design models and which since the late 1990s have signposted possible paths to the Bugattis of the future. Design and technological concept have finally become reality in the Veyron model?s final form and will be available from the beginning of 2004 as a strictly limited edition of just 300 cars. Technologically futuristic and packed with creative engineering, the first Bugatti of the 21st century has arrived.

Merging the Past and the Future

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4?s home is in Molsheim-Dorlisheim, the French town where, almost 100 years ago, Ettore Bugatti began to realize his lifelong dream of being a car manufacturer. The new workshop is not just where the engine and vehicle are assembled and tested, it is also the place where customers collect their Bugattis and drive them out onto the streets for the first time.

The aim is to turn Molsheim into an all-round Bugatti centre once again. While up to 70 new vehicles a year are built by hand in the new facility, neighbouring specially-equipped workshops are the scene of expert restoration work on historic Bugatti vehicles. Both past and future have found a new home here. High Performance The car?s safety systems have been designed to cope with its extraordinary performance, acceleration and speed. The single-piece carbon fibre monocoque alone scores maximum points in crash tests, while airbags give the driver and passenger additional protection.

The high-speed tires designed specially for the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (for vmax. > 350 km/h), sizes 265-68 R 500 A (front) and 365-71 R 540 A (rear), incorporate a further innovative safety feature in the form of the PAX System fitted to the wheels and tires, ensuring safe handling even after sudden pressure loss. AnotherBugatti Veyron 16.4 component with a safety element is the rear spoiler. As well as providing the necessary downforce during high-speed travel, it acts as a kind of ?parachute brake? during emergency braking. Once precisely-defined deceleration forces are registered the spoiler tilts and the additional air resistance this generates reduces the braking distance to that of a lorry.

The Art of the Machine

The W16 alloy engine developed by Bugatti for the Veyron 16.4 will have a special and absolutely unique place in the history of sports car construction. Its design employs the space-saving VR principle with two particularly slender eight-cylinder blocks arranged at a 90° angle to each other.1001 horsepower equip theBugatti Veyron 16.4 with a level of acceleration unheard of in the sports car segment, propelling it from 0 to 60 mph in just three seconds and past the 200 mph mark in a mere 14 seconds. Thanks to its 923 lb-ft, theBugatti Veyron 16.4?s enormous propulsive power is not exhausted until it reaches 252.3 mph (406 km/h): the maximum speed for which chassis and drive train have been designed. Any further performance escalation is limited by current design and construction.

Also unique is the power transmission via an innovative directshift gearbox. Without any interruption in the power flow, the sequential seven-speed gearbox transmits the engine?s power to the wheels via permanent four-wheel drive. Put simply, this means uninterrupted acceleration from a standing start to maximum speed: a feeling previously known only to jet pilots. Exclusive, Classical, Functional.

Both exclusive and highly functional, the interior of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 will transport you to a world of your own. Superb leather, also two-tone if desired, quality metallic trim and beautifully designed and ergonomically laid-out controls characterize the Veyron cockpit.

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 instruments, with a large central rev counter surrounded by four smaller additional instruments also conjures up memories of the marque?s legendary motor sport past. The deliberate avoidance of superfluous instruments and modern extras are an unmistakable statement of the car?s uncompromising sportiness.

Unchanged on the series version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is the classical two-tone paintwork. The designers have selected five separate colour combinations for the car: Each of the combinations features the bonnet, roof and rear in the darker of the two colours, with the sides and front wheel arches in the lighter colour.