A few episodes later, James May drove the Veyron at the VW test track and took it to its top speed of 407.16 km/h (253.00 mph). During the second episode of the 13th season, Richard Hammond raced the Veyron against the McLaren F1 driven by The Stig in a one mile drag race in Abu Dhabi, commenting on Bugatti's "amazing technical achievement" versus the "non gizmo" racing purity of the F1. While the F1 was quicker off the line and remained ahead until both cars were travelling at approximately 200 km/h, the Bugatti overtook its competitor from 200 to 300 km/h, and emerged the victor. Hammond has stated that he did not use the Veyron's launch control in order to make the race more interesting.
The Veyron also won the award for Car of the Decade in Top Gear's end of 2009 award show. Clarkson commented "It was a car that just rewrote the rule book really, an amazing piece of engineering, a genuine Concorde moment". When the standard version was tested, it did not reach the top of the lap time leader board, which was speculated as being due to the car's considerable weight disadvantage against the other cars towards the top. The SuperSport version, however, achieved the fastest ever time of 1:16.8, as well as being taken to a (verified) average top speed of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph) by Raphanel on the programme, henceforth retaking its position as the fastest production car in the world.
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
Bugatti Veyron
