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Bugatti's record-breaking speed run required special wheels and nerves of steel
Speed kills. That had to be on the minds of Bugatti and Michelin engineers (and driver Andy Wallace), when together they pushed a modified Chiron to 304.77 miles an hour. As you would expect, driving a production car that fast involves more than just finding a straight path, strapping in and hoping for the best. Instead, it required adjustments to the car, the wheels and nerves of steel.
Watch Bugatti test the first 3D-printed brake caliper
Back at the start of 2018, Bugatti revealed that it was working on the first 3D-printed brake caliper. Now that the year is winding to a close, it's finally ready to show the caliper in action. Bugatti has posted a video (below) of a test that simulated braking at speeds as high as 249MPH. As you might imagine, it was quite the show -- the disc alone reached temperatures up to 1,877F, and there were plenty of flames and sparks as the caliper and disc reached their limit.
This driveable Bugatti Chiron is made out of 1 million Lego blocks
Lego's Bugatti Chiron Technic kit is a stylish recreation of the sports car at ⅛ scale. But what about making one at 1:1 scale? The wholesome toy company teamed up with the automaker to create a life-size model of the performance vehicle out of Technic blocks. And it works! The recreation drives itself, though its "engine" made of over 2,300 Lego set motors ekes out an estimated 5.3 horsepower. That doesn't quite reach the blistering speeds of its real-life version, the but the Lego Bugatti Chiron is a pretty neat execution of a dream to build a car completely out of bricks.
Bugatti's 'Gran Turismo' concept car hints at life beyond the Veyron
Bugatti's monstrous 1,000HP-plus Veyron supercar may be riding into the sunset, but you won't have to wait long to get a hint of what the exotic automaker is planning next. The company has taken the wraps off of its own Gran Turismo virtual concept car, the not-so-cleverly-titled Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo. This in-game prototype is a direct hint at both the brand's "future design language" and the kind of performance it's aiming for in an ideal world. Not surprisingly, that means something supremely quick. On a simulated Le Mans track, the VGT is powerful enough (thanks largely to its W16 engine) that it can reach 250MPH four times each lap -- ultimately, it's about as fast as the speediest real-world Le Mans prototypes.
OCZ goes SSD crazy at CES, leaves no port unplugged
OCZ came rolling into CES this year with a pile of SSDs in tow. Most are pretty firmly aimed at the enterprise market but, what's impressive, is how the company has made sure to cover practically every interface . If you're looking to fill up some PCIe slots, the Z-Drive R5 and are R4 CloudServ have you covered. The former is based on the Kilimanjaro platform, designed with help from Marvell, and can deliver a staggering 2.52 million IOPS and 7.2GB/s. The latter is an evolution of the existing R4 line, but with nearly double the performance in a card that can carry up to 16TB of solid state storage. If rack-mount servers are more your style, the SATA 3.0-packing Chiron delivers a respectable 560MB/s and 100,000 IOPS in a 3.5-inch package. The most exciting item, at least for consumers, is the Lightfoot -- an external, compact SSD ready to take over your under-utilized Thunderbolt port. Lightfoot will be available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB sizes, though, price and release dates are still very much up in the air. Check out the gallery below and complete PR (with a few more products) after the break.
