The Most Expensive Car in the World

Introduction

One-thousand-and-one horsepower. Top speed of 253 miles per hour. Zero-to-60 in less than 2.7 seconds. Price tag around $2.1 million. When it comes to the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport – the new convertible version of world’s fastest accelerating production car – it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers. Another important number is 150, which is how many of these rarified masterpieces are scheduled for production. And with almost all of them destined for the private collections of billionaires, wouldn’t you love to know what its like to cruise around in $2.1 million? We’re about to find out.

A Brief History Lesson

The Bugatti brand dates back to 1909 when Italian eccentric Ettore Bugatti set up shop in the German town of Molsheim, which is actually now part of France. Bugatti proceeded to build some of the world’s fastest, most technologically advanced cars, dominating Grand Prix racing in the 1920s and 1930s. The legendary marque languished under a succession of owners until 1998, when the Volkswagen Group purchased it and developed the Veyron 16.4, a 253-mph engineering marvel that set the new supercar standard when it debuted in 2006.

The Grand Sport

Now along comes the Grand Sport – essentially a Veyron coupe with a removable transparent polycarbonate roof panel. It’s powered by the same mid-mounted quadruple-turbo 8.0-liter W16 engine (essentially, two twin-turbo V8s sandwiched together). The only significant changes are under the skin: the Grand Sport’s two-piece carbon fiber chassis has been significantly reinforced to make up for the loss of rigidity when the roof panel is removed.

From the Outside

The Grand Sport is surprisingly handsome – “surprisingly” since many superexotics trade good looks for the jagged scoops and ducts needed to defy the laws of physics and provide the downforce to keep these land jets grounded. The Grand Sport’s smooth, pod-shaped profile is free of gaudy aerodynamic accoutrements. And while the Grand Sport retains the typical low-and-wide supercar stance, it’s also surprisingly compact (shorter than your typical midsize sedan). In fact, at first glance, you can’t help but think, “For a 1,001-hp beast, you don’t look so tough. In fact, you’re kind of cute…”

Get Comfortable

Swing open the carbon fiber door, contort your way into the low-slung cabin and you are greeted by the familiar sights and smells of a luxury performance car: finely stitched hides (reminiscent of those from VW stablemate Bentley) and sport seats fitted around a carbon fiber shell available in seven different shapes. A solid hunk of three-spoke aluminum anchors the center of the thick, leather-wrapped steering wheel. A plate of the same machined metal also covers the cascading center stack, which is stunning in its simplicity: a round clock; two air vents; and symmetrical controls for the audio and AC systems, respectively. And that stereo system? It alone costs $30,000, by the way.