OUT WITH A BANG

Speed thrills, but distance matters. The combination of a Bugatti Veyron and a limit-free stretch of the German Autobahn is every bit as exciting as you would expect, especially when trying to keep an even-quicker Bugatti Chiron in sight. But the velocities that both cars can conjure in even short gaps in traffic create less adrenaline than the need to maintain a safe gap from other road users. There’s plenty of visceral thrill at 300km/h as the W16 engine bellows and the road surface blurs; but much more in the sight of a flashing indicator in an adjacent lane as somebody contemplates moving out to pass a lumbering truck a couple of hundred metres ahead. At this pace that gap will be covered in less than three seconds.

Yet the time for such adventures is almost certainly nearing the end. The percentage of Germany’s Autobahn network with speed limits rises each year, and the era of the hypercars capable of sustaining such enormous velocities is closing as the end of combustion approaches; even Bugatti is contemplating an electric future. EVs are good at many things, but high-speed cruising isn’t on their list of virtues. It won’t be long before the idea of a world where it was possible to legally exploit cars with four-figure power outputs on public roads will seem as distant as Bugatti’s pre-war racing exploits.

MANY FAMOUS automotive names had an outsized personality behind them, but Bugatti has had two. Founder Ettore Bugatti did much to pioneer the idea of the luxury brand alongside the creation of some of