Its massive price tag and limited availability keeps the Bugatti Veyron out of the reach of most. But what if you really wanted to own one yet didn’t want to break the bank? Enter the Bugatti Veyron replica, which costs $40,000 (inclusive of the donor car). This particular vehicle belongs to a rich businessman in New Delhi, India. He uses it as a support car for his Lamborghini Gallardo. The roof can be folded too, which makes it the Grand Sport.
So what car is underneath? It is the Honda City (an Asia specific model), which sits right between the Jazz and Civic. The vehicle uses a 1.5-litre gasoline engine to produce 100 BHP of power and is mated to an automatic gearbox. It really won’t burn the tarmac, but does end up drawing loads of attention for the owner. The modification job seems to be carried out very well, but many things give away the fake Veyron. For starters, the Veyron has never been available in right hand drive guise. The wipers on the above vehicle seem to be completely out of alignment too. What other things can you spot without raising the hood?
Faisal Ali Khan is the owner/operator of MotorBeam.com, a website covering the auto industry of India.
How rich can he be if he drives around in a joke like this?
Being rich in an impoverished country isn’t the same as being rich in America.
I’d buy a Veyron off Ebay before I’d pull this BS.
From what I’ve gathered (working in a university educating members of some of those rich Indian families, as well as more than a few “untouchables” who had earned great grades at IIT), being rich in India *is* different, but not the way you’re implying.
The rich people in India are just as rich there as we are here. But the difference is that one Indian graduate student (who has since gone back to India with a PHD to live like a prince while doing secret government work that he won’t talk about) showed me the math that demonstrates it costs him less to pay a laborer to go to the store, buy a light bulb, and replace it for him — than it does to get a damn light bulb out of the closet and do it himself. Unbelievable, but that and a half a billion desperate people are what income inequality does for you. And, yes, he replaced his own light bulbs while studying in the US.
Being middle class in India vs. middle class in the USA is quite different, though.
At least in the pictures, it looks pretty convincing, they even seem to have gotten the interior right.
The moment this replica will give away its true nature is, however, when the driver starts the engine.
The original Veyron has a V16, which sounds like two fat, growling V-8s running side by side — like a powerboat engine. It´s a really unique sound.
The only truly unnerving thing about driving a Veyron is the number of bystandes and pedestrians who are attrracted to this car in droves, each one with at least one cellphone in hand and filming & taking pictures of the car and of you (if you´ re sitting in it)….. and no one bothers to ask if it´s okay to take your picture, of course.
Makes you appreciate the hardships that truly prominent people go through in public.
Living in Symbolic Motor Cars’ neighborhood, I’ve looked at at least three Veyrons, but this is the first one I’ve seen that doesn’t have a power cord running to a battery tender for its total loss electrical system. My main problem with building a Bugatti replica is that pretty much any donor car one might use is bound to be better looking in its original state.
Wait… You need a support car for a Lamborghini? Anyone more familiar with supercars care to explain?
I get why you’d want to trailer a car that costs more than my house to the track, but they’re clearly not using a hacked up Honda commuter car as a tow vehicle…. So how is this vehicle used to support the other car? Is it so that a mechanic can follow Mr. Bigshot around town with a toolbox and a set of spare front air dams and lower suspension parts?
Maybe he just plans ahead for an incident like this one:
http://usinform.com/2012/04/lamborghini-on-fire.html
Wife: “OK, now that our new Lambo has erupted like a volcano, what are we going to do, honey?”
Husband: “Why, we could take the bus…. or wait for a cab…… or hike back home…..”
Wife: “But, honey, look, there´s Barry the Butler with the fake Bugatti Veyron right behind us! Why not take this strange vehicle to get back home?”
Husband: “Oh, gal, that is so true.You must be the smartest wife I ever had…..”
Or something like that, ya know. ;-)
I took pictures of a Veyron from Roger Penske’s collection. The real veryon is considerably wider and that interior is just AWEFUL. the shifter is crap – the stupid Honda cowel ont he left is crap – I’m just sickened.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38614316@N00/5905887049/in/set-72157627000560809/
If you don’t like it, don’t buy one. Not everyone has the same taste in cars. If you are sickened by this, you must spend a lot of you time throwing up.
Faisal,
FYI, City is built in Brazil and sold all over Latin America.
Thanks Marcelo, other than Latin America and Asia, the City is not sold in the States or Europe.
Hi Faisal1
Toyota is touring the Etios around Brazil. They’re making a big hoopla out of it. I confess I went to the event, sat in one and was immensely dissapointed. It was a stationay presentation, so I couldn’t drive it. Have you had the chance?
How does ot stack up vis-a-vis the Renault/Mahindra Logan/Veritas? As it won’t be sold until December in Brasil, I’m very curious. Maybe you could do a write up for TTAC? In Brazil, in this segment so far I think the Chevy Cobalt is the winner, though the Logan is a better value proposition.
What do yu think?
Sure Marcelo, I will do a small write up on the Etios next week ;-)
I live in a fairly wealthy area in the US, I cannot remember seeing a single Veyron. I haven’t looked at any pictures of the Veyron after looking at the pictures above. From my memory of looking at a few pictures of the Veyron over the last couple years, I can’t honestly say I can point out major differences in the exterior or interior, just a general different shape to both. The entire front end seems swollen, and the greenhouse looks smushed down with misplaced mirrors. The interior looks like it is missing some switches, looks a little too simple from what I remember of Veyron pictures.
If you live in a developing nation and likely will never see a real Veyron, unless you have a poster of one in your room and as the wallpaper on your computer, you probably would be fooled. Of course, if you could afford a real Lamborghini, it seems a bit strange to me that you’d want a fake supercar parked next to your real one. $40k could buy you a nice restored muscle car which I’m sure would be just as head-turning, anywhere in the world.
Maybe the reason is culture? Some cultures just don’t value showy cars very much.
For instance, glassdoor.com says that my new office has a median income of around $100k, but there’s exactly one BMW and one Cayanne in the parking lot. Why? Well, we live in a Midwestern college town, which is at the intersection of two cultures that don’t think much of conspicuous consumption. Everyone else has late-model “normal cars” in good repair, though there are a surprising number of $40k minivans with leather interiors.
So maybe the rich people in your neighborhood can afford Veyrons but just wouldn’t get any satisfaction out of owning one because their friends just don’t care about such things?
P.S. My in-laws live in a neighborhood where about one BMW per house is just about mandatory for full residency, though a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited may be acceptable in some cases. My wife and I live in a neighborhood where a PHD in the household is pretty-much required for full residency, though some other highly specialized occupations are acceptable. Again, it’s the just a matter of what your friends and neighbors respect.
Luke42 – As a future homebuyer, please tell me how do I go about finding a neighborhood like yours? Its easy to spot a flashy, show-off-y neighborhood, but how do I spot a neighborhood that respects (mandates) higher education and highly specialized occupations?
I Work in Santa Monica in the Music business. I would regularly drive my 65 Dart wagon past Bentleys and Astons. I have seen the occasional Lambo and yes a Veyron. It was Mary J Bliges husbands. I always thought it was fun to drive into that garage with my 46 year old beater. But yes it is about the culture and the priorities (in my opinion very out of whack)
That is incredibly impressive. Wow. Take that, Diablo Auto.
I think it looks incredebly cool. With tongue firmly placed in cheek, i’s have one in a new york minute. With a fake rolex, an italian suit and shoes from the consignment shop. you are ready roll. Incredably there are people that are impressed by these things, I would LOVE to see the faces as i park!
Seems legit. Now drive it YOURSELF in Delhi :)
I wish these were more available here, so one could show up in a LeMons race in a couple of years.