Bugatti Veyron

Oh how everyone laughed when Volkswagen announced its plans for Bugatti. The bold claims included an engine producing over 1,000bhp and a top speed in excess of 250mph. The tittering continued as the Veyron, rather understandably, took a little while longer to develop than had originally been planned, but the snickering was quickly replaced by awe when the car eventually hit the road. The Veyron actually exceeded Bugatti's claims, the engine's output officially quoted at 1,001bhp, but ask a Bugatti engineer and they'll tell you it's comfortably in excess of that.

All that power creates a car that's quite ridiculously fast. It has achieved a top speed of 253mph, and can reach 62mph in just 2.5 seconds. Yet it's ridiculously easy to drive, feeling just like a loony-fast Bentley. An engineering masterpiece, around £810,000 will secure you one of the 300 Veyrons scheduled to be produced; owners including Ralph Lauren and Tom Cruise. Such is its appeal a British-based financier Bob Manoukian paid £1.1m in a charity auction in May 2006 to get one of the first cars out of the factory.

Tuesday November 13