World's Fastest Cars 2010

Designed and developed by the German Volkswagen Group and produced by Bugatti Automobiles SAS at their headquarters in Château St. Jean in Molsheim (Alsace, France), the Veyron's chief designer was Hartmut Warkuss, and the exterior was designed by Jozef Kabaň of Volkswagen, with much of the engineering work being conducted under the guidance of a former VW engineer and now Bugatti Engineering chief Wolfgang Schreiber. The car is named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti company. It was named "Car of the Decade" (2000–2009) by the BBC television programme Top Gear. A number of special variants have been produced, including two targa tops.
The Veyron features an 8.0 litre W16 engine with sixteen cylinders in four banks of four, equivalent to two narrow-angle V8 engines mated in a "W" configuration. Each cylinder has four valves for a total of sixty four, but the narrow staggered eight configuration allows two overhead camshafts to drive two banks of cylinders so only four camshafts are needed. The engine is fed by four turbochargers and displaces 7,993 cubic centimetres (487.8 cu in), with a square 86 mm by 86 mm (3.4 in × 3.4 in) bore and stroke. As production of the Bugatti Veyron winds toward its eventual conclusion, Bugatti has created what is likely to be the ultimate version of its world-beating hypercar: the Super Sports. Bugatti sent its official test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel out on Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien high-speed oval with the first Super Sports to see just what it could do. With representatives of the Guinness book of records and German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV) on hand, Raphanel made passes around the big oval in both directions achieving an average speed of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph).