But why? Whats the point in producing more and more powerful cars for the road. Unless they fly I cant see the point other than to prove they can.... Let me guess ...either next year or the following they will unveil ....wait for it, ...the worlds most powerful roadster! ...What a waste of time and resources.

Why not just pour twenty gallons of gasoline on the ground, then light it on fire? If you want, go vroom-vroom. What a boring waste of technology.

@Ross

Actually they are doing it to prove that they can, because it takes about 2 or 3 times more money to make a veyron, it's not a profit for Bugatti, they're just pushing the limit.

Ross just stay under the bed where it's safer and you don't have to be threatened by others who strive for more.

I wish I had the money to buy one, just so I could pay another company to build something to blow the doors off of it. Something powered by a huge diesel engine.

Gale Banks has a Duramax diesel truck engine that makes 1200+ hp and 1200+ ft-lbs of torque which is about 1626nm. Plus it will get better mileage.

Outdated way of thinking + internal combustion technology engines.

@Todd:

The automotive industry has limited resources, disproportional to what needed to make people's life easier. Wasting [limited] resources in order to make a car go from 431Km/h to 440Km/h is NOT a top priority.

Why don't they strive for fuel efficiency? Or maybe a car that could fly?

Looks nice, but as a couple of commentators noticed above, HP is complete nonsense. There's no doubt it could be done. Good work, engineers! But I dare to say, increasing the HP is among all challenges engineers face when designing such car one of the less in not the least complex one. There is lots of other parameters, that make a great car, but are much more dfficult to perfect and ultimately make a good driving experience. But what do I know, never had a chance to sit in a car like that, so I wouldn't mind Veyron despite being a four wheeled nonsense, I guess... ;)

But anyway, if they talk about pushing the limit, where money is clearly no object, why not change that piston engine for a jet turbine combined with generator and two or four electric motors? That would make it stand out even more. It's a gas guzzler anyway...

You have to realise that these people are sooooo rich, that this is their way of having fun.They dont give a tinkers cuss about the rest of the world, just view Piers Morgan's programme on Marbella.

@jimbo: Technology for automobiles should stagnate then? How about racing technology? Do you think that what they learn on cars like this just stays within the sphere of that one car or group of cars?

@Short Fuse: There's no doubt that that much HP could be produced. The challenge was building a vehicle that could safely be driven on public roads with that much HP. Before, all vehicles with that much HP or more were strictly track run or salt flat run. It was never a question of wether or not they could make the HP.

As for the rest crying about the fuel consumption factor:

1. There aren't that many of these cars on the road so the overall impact on world wide fuel consumption by these vehicle is negligible.

2. Come up with a viable alternative. And don't fall back on the green communities baby, the electric car. If petrol (gasoline and diesel) burning vehicles are replaced with electric, where is all of the extra, necessary, electric power going to come from? Burning of more fossil fuels of course. And you can't discount the fuel needed for the equipment to mine and transport these fossil fuels either.

Fossil fuels are a part of our lives that will not go away unless someone, somewhere, somehow comes up with a workable, mass scale fusion power plant or develops a perpetual motion device as wind is not consistant enough to replace fossil fuels and to redirect enough water into enough water driven power plants would be detrimental to the environment as would installing enough tide driven power generators to replace fossil fuels.

As dinosaurs go, it is quite pretty. What a shame the Bugatti company doesn't care about the environment and has not realised just what is going to happen when peak oil really kicks in.

That's a bit more power than the average WW II fighter had in the first year or so of the war.

Now if they invested the same time and energy on performance electric, that would be understood, but even if their is a consumer market for this, there is absolutely no way they can enjoy the top speed anywhere either legally or without killing themselves. And it's the top speed which they are trying to sell it on. So this is research into danger, the wealthy could die in this and there's a website which is all about this. No, nothing justifies this, unless the US military wants it or just to make a good Hollywood movie where the hero pushes the limits. This isn't innovation.

@ rt1583

Finally someone said something intelligent. Let me add that this is more about helping you people save a few bucks at the gas pump. The oil industry employs over 7 MILLION people. Take an economics course for the love of pete.

Second, I'm going to make one quick comment about the whole "flying cars" debate. There are over 6 million car accidents PER YEAR in the United States. Can you imagine Joe Shmoe flying a car? The day that happens, I will never go outside again. Picture drunk drivers flying their cars into residential homes, buildings, and schools. Flying Cars? Really? I certainly hope not. Invest that money in driver's ed programs, safer cars, and stricter licensing requirements and start saving some lives first.

Here's what can happen when you have a one million dollar, over powered Bugatti:

Ummm, it has a "speed limiter. Yep, same way you do in a Corolla. OK, it's a speed limiter that cuts in at 258 mph, but it's a speed limiter all the same. Seems as though the suits at the Volkswagen Group, which owns Bugatti, aren't prepared to shoulder the risk of you going any faster, even if you paid them more than $2 million for the privilege." http://www.insideline.com/bugatti/veyron-164/2011/2011-bugatti-veyron-164-super-sport-first-drive.html . So, you're limited to 258 MPH.WTF? 258 MPH is safer than its top speed??? WTF ^ 2 !

This has nothing to do about pushing the limits , Has everything to do with Milking this same platforum for everything its worth lol

Horsepower is easy to make these days

In a few Months they come out with something deferent , New color new head lights or they well take out all the creature comforts and call it a track ready car and charge you 3 times has much for less lol

Never understood why anyone would pay this much money for a car that has never proved itself on a race track

Its time to move on this thing is showing its age already

Its comforting to know that companies other than Ferrari still produce machines designed to cull the too-much-money portion of the international population. Consider for a moment the accelerated transfer of wealth each time one of these guys bites the dust - a boon to the economy it is :-)

The truth, though, is that most of these guys are just like you and me, including their tendency to make mistakes behind the wheel. Every hundred horsepower increase magnifies driver error by, at least, a factor of two. Add the cost of tires and gas and you have a driver who has earned the right to enjoy his vehicle just a little before parking it, losing his license or launching it a great distance in the air.

I would love one of these as I only commute 5 miles to my shop every day so gas use is not a issue. could some one please buy me one of these or send me a sample

listen to all the poor people whine about what money could be used in a better way. you must understand this is how it works, you keep improving on things and something better comes along eventually, if they had the say so we would all be driving VW Bugs .. yuk

tho no auto guy could fault the technical achievement here , i must interject the design is horrible ,and i won't accept form follows function.ettore didn't.

@ Cowfy - What form do you have in mind to carry ten radiators (to name just one system) in such a way that they function as needed? It could also be said that function followed form. Afterall, this design allows the vehicles various systems to operate in just the right way to be capable of such high speeds while at the same time being relatively stable.

To all of the detractors here: 1) it's unlikely that anyone posting here could afford to own a car that's even 1/10th the price, such as a Bentley Continental GT and 2) realize that some car must be the fastest so why not this one? You should turn your green scorn toward owners of run-of-the-mill SUVs & mini-vans.