The Bugatti Veyron is a car like no other.
It is without argument a technological marvel, an engineering achievement without match in modern automotive history, but above all an exploration of what a car designed without limits might be like. It may be true that with a top-speed of "only" 253mph it is no longer the fastest production motor-car in history, that honour now going to the SSC Ultimate Aero TT, but the Bugatti is something more than a list of statistics - it represents the culmination of over a hundred years of automotive development.
In the next century where the benefits of frugality and fuel economy are likely to usher in a new era of a different kind of performance car, it may well turn out to be an end-stop - the high-point of bludgeoning horsepower married with electronic know-how. But if it is an anachronism, it is a wonderful, elegant and charismatic one destined to capture a place in the imagination for years to come.