Overview

One man’s hugely expensive folly or an engineering triumph? Dreamt up by Volkswagen’s then chairman Dr Ferdinand Piech, he decided the recently purchased Bugatti brand needed a flagship supercar. He announced that the new car would achieve some startling numbers. A top speed in excess of 400km/h (250mph) and over 1000bhp was promised, VW’s best engineers then given the task of achieving those lofty goals.

Its conception might have proved troublesome, and cost VW countless millions but the engineers achieved what many thought impossible – the Veyron 16.4 arriving, late, in 2005. It really is a moonshot car, a Concorde moment in the automotive world, its 253mph top speed and 16-cylinder, quad-turbo engine massive 1000bhp-plus output still difficult to comprehend.