Bugatti Veyron: TopGear's Clarkson on the Bugatti Veyron

Ok, to make it short. This is a must read. Jeremy Clarkson is talking about making a mistake with the Bugatti Veyron.

'The Veyron has rendered everything I've ever said about any other car obsolete'

On this basis, I'd be similarly dismissive of the Bugatti Veyron. I mean it's on sale now at £840,000. And, for that money, you could buy a house.

If there were any consistency in my life, if I had even a shred of Jamesishness, I would have refused a test drive.

Why bother? It's too expensive. I'm not going to dangle such a thing under the noses of the readers knowing full well their chances of having enough money to buy one are about the same as being gnawed to death by a platoon of woodlice.

I didn't, though. I packed my little suitcase and went to Italy, where I was presented with quite the most stunning piece of automotive engineering ever created. (This opinion may change at some future date but I'm sticking with it for now).

"Oh, F1 is nothing," he said. "They don't have anything like the power of a Bugatti and only have to last two hours. The one in the Veyron has to work for 10 or 20 years."

Small wonder it took 50 people five years to make the damn thing work.

They weren't fighting to beat Mercedes or BMW. These guys were fighting to beat heat, and friction and lift. They were fighting nature.

At a stroke then, the Veyron has rendered everything I've ever said about any other car obsolete. It's rewritten the rule book, moved the goalposts and in the process, given Mother Nature a bloody nose.