FLAT out at 250mph, the Bugatti Veyron gets through almost two gallons of fuel a minute, but after 12 minutes and 48 miles will shut down and coast to a halt, the petrol tank bone dry.

The world’s fastest and most powerful road car is also one of the thirstiest. Indeed, this is a car that is all about superlatives, as it is by some distance the most potent machine designed and built for the public road.

With 16 cylinders, eight litres, four-wheel drive, seven gears and four turbochargers, the Veyron has more of everything and an asking price of £811,000.

The 1,001bhp Veyron will cover 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds, travel from 0-100 in a little more than seven seconds and do 0-190mph in 17 seconds. Driving it, in complete serenity at 150mph, the speedometer needle is little more than halfway round the clock. On the Pergusa racetrack in Sicily, speeds of closer to 190mph are possible before, even here, the tarmac runs out, again frustrating the car’s attempts to go faster.

Even more than the speeds, it is the panic-free way in which the car achieves them, and the controlled power of the ceramic disc brakes, helped by the huge rear wing that turns into an air brake, that impresses.

You sit low in the Veyron. Vision rearwards is appalling, making reversing tricky, and even side vision is restricted because as you look over your shoulder when negotiating junctions the car’s shape severely blocks your view.

To the front, the thick A pillars mean that on twisting Sicilian roads tracing the Targa Florio races won so many times by Bugatti in the 1920s, vision is momentarily obscured through corners. You are forced to switch from looking through the windscreen to out of the side window.

Yet the car is entrancing. The steering is wonderful, not over light, not too heavy, weighted perfectly to give great feel. The brakes are phenomenal and the car, which weighs close to two tonnes, handles astonishingly well. Huge torque means that huge power is always available.

The cabin is a haven of leather craftsmanship, while the steering wheel boss, wheel-mounted gear shift paddles, central console and instrument binnacle make up an Art Deco tribute of gleaming, highly polished metals.

For blistering starts there is computer-controlled launch control. Press a button, floor the accelerator, let off the foot brake and, with smoke pouring from all four wheels — shod with the world’s biggest, widest tyres, courtesy of Michelin — off you go, hitting 60mph in just 2.5 seconds and 45 metres from where you started.

Dr Thomas Bscher, the Bugatti president, said: “If you can drive a car, you can drive the Veyron.” He might be right. It is a docile monster, but the Veyron is sure to open the Bugatti owners, the VW Audi Group (VAG), to criticism from environmentalists alarmed by its fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and safety lobbyists worried over its speed. So why build it? For VAG, building the Bugatti Veyron is the four-wheeled equivalent of scaling Everest. It is the automotive world’s successful moon landing, a car so implausible, so advanced, that for VAG it proves it is winning the automotive techno-wars.

The car, which cost undisclosed millions to develop, is about to be delivered to the first customers able to afford the €1,000,000 (about £690,000) pre-tax price tag, plus in the UK the £121,000 VAT bill — making a total price of £811,000. For that, UK drivers get a car they will only be able to use at less than a third of its potential.

So what is the point? Dr Bscher said: “This car is a technical achievement of the highest order. Veyron shows the world our technological capabilities. It is a car to make us proud. There is nothing else on the road that compares. It is not a race car, though it will do a fabulous lap time at Le Mans, yet it is as comfortable as a Bentley, and you can do the shopping in it.”

Well, only if you want a couple of loaves of bread. The “boot” in the front is tiny and gets so hot that you should forget about buying milk — it will be yoghurt by the time you get it home.

So who will buy it? Well, the rich, certainly, but not necessarily the famous. Bugatti sees the car as being sold primarily to real car fans. Dr Bscher said: “The people we have as customers are car people. I am not interested in having the Beckhams of the world as customers. I want people who understand the car to buy the car.”

Bugatti will build 50 a year, only 300 in total, and has full order books until this time next year. Bugatti admit the car will not make them money, but as a flag waver for their brand, say it is cheaper than racing in Formula One, like rivals BMW and Mercedes.

The Veyron is the Concorde of the car world, the ultimate technological achievement. Whether it will be viewed as a tribute to all things automotive or, in hindsight, as the final death rattle of petrol-engined technology as the car world moves on, remains to be seen.

BUGATTI VEYRON

Engine: 16-cylinder eight-litre petrol engine producing 1,001bhp at 6,000rpm and 1,250Nm of torque from 2,200 to 5,500rpm



Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch automatic using wheel-mounted paddle shifts

Economy: About 7mpg in town, 12mpg overall

CO2 emissions: 574g/km overall

Performance: Top speed 250mph, 0-62mph in 2.5sec

Price: £811,000

Page two: other ways to spend £811,000()PURCHASING POWER: OTHER WAYS TO SPEND £811,000

THERE are cheaper ways of buying 1,000bhp of automotive power. For about £100,000 you could have ten Ford Fiestas sitting outside your house with a combined output of 1,010bhp.

The £811,000 asking price of the Veyron would fill a street with 84 Fiestas, 17 Range Rovers or 150 Kia Picantos. But while rival supercars might be cheaper, none hit the Veyron mark.

The Porsche Carrera GT puts out a relatively measly 600bhp, and while the car is a snip at £321,000 compared with the Veyron, it is a comparative slouch, taking a leisurely 3.8sec to go from 0-60mph and on to an anaemic top speed of 205mph.

Even the present crop of Ferraris struggle to break the 200mph barrier, the 612 Scaglietti reaching 199mph, although at £170,000 it is even “cheaper” than the Carrera GT.

Only one car comes close: the McLaren F1, the 1990s car, with a 6.1-litre V12 engine, producing 627bhp, and which was timed at 240mph. No longer made, the McLaren F1 cost about £600,000 and for many was the ultimate road car.

There are other ways of buying horsepower. A racehorse could swallow your £800,000, although it is down on power, or for the price of the Veyron you could buy a used Falcon 20F private jet.

Or stick with Bugatti and go back in time. An original Bugatti Type 35 might set you back closer to £1 million, or go for a Type 59 Bugatti Grand Prix team car from 1933, such as the one auctioned by Bonhams this year for £1.32 million.

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