Pagani Zonda or Bugatti Veyron?

What's a better vehicle. I know the Bugatti is faster, but it looks more like a car car (like your average exotic). Where as the Zonda looks like it was made for racing. Would the Zonda outperform the Bugatti on the track, especially if the track wasn't designed to push the cars to top speed? I personally like the Zonda. What's your personal opinion? Which would you rather own/drive?|||This is a challenging question to answer. While the two vehicles are somewhat similar in purpose, they differ vastly in execution.



Horatio Pagani set out to create exotic vehicles at low production numbers that deliver great performance with a particular level of exclusivity. Careful attention is paid to their interiors, making them extremely luxurious and unlike any other manufacturer's products, and the engines dropped into the Zonda R, Zonda F, and Huayra are monster V-12s. Pagani himself is an engineer with a strong background in carbon-fiber manufacturing, and thus he graces his cars with lightweight bodies that contribute to improved handling to complement the power.



Now, onto the Veyron... This was a vehicle designed to do one thing - announce Bugatti's return to automotive manufacturing. The Veyron is a statement, and a loud one - it's literally an engineering masterpiece. It once held the honor of being the most expensive production automobile, with the highest top speed and the greatest amount of horsepower in a production car. While a handful of other cars have now bested the Veyron's original Vmax, Bugatti created the Super Sport edition, which once again shattered the record.



The car was built to do 252 miles per hour with 1001 horsepower, though it reached 253 mph in testing, and even features a "brag gauge" displaying the current power output of the engine. Its 8.0-litre quad-turbocharged V-16 (I refuse to call it a "W-16"), requiring a total of 10 radiators, produces a sound unlike any other engine I've heard. To top it off, Bugatti endowed the Veyron with an exquisite interior, swathed in leather and brushed aluminum, and rocking a $30,000 sound system.



But the ultimate beauty of the Veyron lies in the way it drives. For a vehicle with a curb weight of around 4,200 pounds, reviewers remarked that it does not feel nearly as heavy as it truly is, and they generally found it rather easy to drive. This would likely be in stark contrast to the Zonda, which I expect would offer a harsher ride, more Ariel Atom than Rolls-Royce.



Now, to finally answer your questions... I expect the Zonda to outperform the Veyron on any track but a drag strip (though you might be surprised by the Veyron's ability to handle itself on a track). I respect the Zonda for its capabilities and Pagani for the beautiful machines he creates.



However, I have incredible admiration for Bugatti for bringing the Veyron to reality. Bugatti's engineers toiled for years and finally managed to produce an automotive masterpiece the likes of which I doubt we'll see again in our generation. Mechanically, electronically, aerodynamically, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is a work of art, and if I had endless supplies of money, I would take two in a heartbeat.



EDIT: Re: booyahbd

I respectfully beg to differ. A few key points...



For starters, Bugatti's executives effectively "commissioned" the Veyron to produce 1,001 horsepower - this was a stated design objective for marketing purposes. Obviously, its engine has much more potential, as made evident by the Super Sport's 1,200 (metric) horsepower (1,184 SAE, if you care). In fact, Bugatti admitted that each Veyron engine produces, in reality, at least 1,020 horsepower, for the sheer sake of appeasing any buyer who might try to claim that his engine doesn't really produce 1,001 hp as advertised.



Secondly, the fact that the Veyron has so much more horsepower than the Zonda (~1020 vs. 650) is offset by the weights of each vehicle. The Veyron weighs in at north of 4,200 pounds, while the Zonda F is comparably featherlight at 2,700. It's true that the Veyron offers a marginally better power-to-weight ratio, at around 4.11 lbs/hp versus 4.15 (possibly even worse, as some sources cite a curb weight around 4,400 pounds). However, the Top Gear test track is much more about cornering ability and handling prowess than outright speed, which was the Veyron's original purpose. It's amazing that such a massive car is able to come within 0.3 seconds of the Zonda's time.



Thirdly, the primary reason for the Veyron's outrageous power output is, as previously stated, top speed. Drag force increases with the square of velocity, which effectively means that it takes significantly more horsepower to accelerate a car to 200 mph than 100 mph, let alone 252 mph. In fact, the Veyron only requires around 300 horsepower to reach 100 mph. The rest of the 1,001 are necessary to reach its Vmax, something that isn't presented in this particular Top Gear comparo.



Don't get me wrong - both are fantastic automobiles, and I particularly appreciate the Zonda's passion, that engine note so reminiscent of Formula One cars of yore. However, for me, the technological prowess of the Veyron makes it the quintessential hypercar of our lifetime.



(Also, the Veyron bested the Zonda in a quarter-mile run by nearly 2.5 seconds. AWD + launch control + massive torque = winning.)|||"Only people who don't have a clue about cars seem to like the Veyron."





There are many automotive journalists and racing drivers that would disagree with you completely.





The Zonda may be slightly faster around a track (And I do mean slightly: 0.3 seconds isn't really a lot considering the Veyron cops about 500 more kilos in mass), but the Veyron is much more of an engineering masterpiece considering. The Zonda is close, but the Veyron outclasses it.





It's as easy to drive on the limit as a Golf. At its top speed it is completely stable and planted, the suspension copes with bumps without faltering at all, and the attention to detail is just sublime. The Zonda has a very classy interior and the racecar-style chassis and engineering methods make a very formidable force on a track but for a road car it has a fairly harsh ride and, if you actually watched the full episode of the F Roadster vs. Veyron, the Mercedes AMG V12 started blowing smoke pretty much as soon as The Stig got a hold of it.





As a daily driver I would much rather own the Veyron but if I was only going to be using it on a track I'd take the Zonda.|||Only people who don't have a clue about cars seem to like the Veyron. It has a top speed you can never reach, and they couldn't even hit 1000hp with 16 cylinders and four turbos (yes, contrary to popular belief it only produces 987hp, they measured it in "metric hp" to get that fabled number).





Here's a video of them battling for the best time on a track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CRV6xDpk鈥?/a>





As you can see it couldn't beat a car when it had a 400hp advantage. In fact, in order for the Veyron to beat the Zonda around a track it needs almost twice as much hp as the Pagani, as proven when they lapped the Veyron SS.|||The Bugatti Veyron was judged car of the decade by theTop Gear program, when the same program road-tested the Pagani Zonda ( from memory) bits kept falling off and there was a minor fire on the vehicle, I do agree the Zonda has a very rakish sporty look, but I don't think it would be very practical driving around in suburbia, The Bugatti for me.Oh to be rich !|||If money were no object, I'd pick the Bugatti. It's the fastest "out of the box" car in the world, and isn't near as expensive as some of the others (I think it's the 6th most expensive). I'd pick the Bugatti, simply for the speed. As for cornering.... I live in Montana. All the roads are canted to the side as you round corners (I can take 45mph turns at 85 in my mom's car). And out east... Well... It's flat. So Bugatti, all the way.|||Bugatti veyron how ever mad it is with speed it is still more practical than the zonda and that is really what you want because the price of both them cars your only really going to own one car and have you seen speed bumps try going over one of them in a zonda you will take your front bumper off.|||the pagani will out-perform the veyron on ANY track, the bugatti is designed for top speeds, but the zonda was designed to handle the curves better.|||I'll stick with my '67 volkswagen thanks