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  Regulars > Reviews and Commentary > Long Live the Supercar

   Published in: March 2007
 
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The Next Generation
Bugatti, under the auspices of Volkswagen, has unwittingly spawned a whole cottage industry of small-time carmakers vying for the Veyron's fastest-ever honors. And this, I contend, is going to be a problem.

It’s all very well taking a powerful off-the-shelf engine and slapping a raft of performance aids onto it so that it makes in excess of the Bugatti’s 1000 hp, and then slipping it under cartoonish bodywork, as has been tried by more than a few boastful, over-ambitious companies. They even have the nerve to ask supercar money for it, although nobody has quite yet demanded a cool million euros for their troubles.

These companies are exploiting the current fever pitch being displayed by car collectors and enthusiasts, and are turning the art into little more than a game; a contest of top trumps. But they forget that Volkswagen allegedly loses something in the region of US$4 million on each Veyron they make – thankfully for VW, production is strictly limited. The development process was backed by a multi-national company with all the testing regimes and facilities for making a reliable, beautifully-executed automobile. In contrast, two men in a shed modifying crate engines and bodywork – just so they can outdo the Veyron – do not constitute a car company, in my opinion.

So although the Veyron is really quite unmatchable in a number of ways, there are still supercar makers who have put exquisite design and proper engineering technique above headlining performance numbers – which, let’s face it, are now unlikely to surpass those of the Bugatti anytime soon.

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