I did something in a Rs 16-crore Bugatti Veyron that perhaps not many people on this planet have done. No, it’s not the acclaimed 407 kph top speed run. Nor is it decelerating from that mind-numbing 407 kph to zero in just 10 seconds. No, I did not demolish the quarter-mile drag in 9.8 seconds. Nor did I do what F1 cars do — touch the century mark in 2.5 seconds.
So what unique thing did I do in a Bugatti Veyron (Grand Sport or even the bog-standard spec) that not even a microscopic fraction of the seven billion people on this planet would have done? No, it’s not what you think either.
What I did was... honk!
After my drive was done and we were back at the Bugatti facility (that looks more like an exclusive golf resort rather than a factory), I just had to do it. Now it could have been the Indian in me or it could have been a natural curiosity as to how a Veyron horn sounds. Whatever it was, I had to do it. It was not important how it sounded (to be frank, it was like any other umptimillion Volkswagen Group models!), but the effort involved in honking was unusual — for the first time, I needed to use extra muscles to depress that central steering boss.
And why was that? Here is the revelation: “If it were light and easy, the horn would activate itself every time you accelerated or decelerated hard, that’s why.”
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