The Bugatti Veyron is capable of a top speed of 253 mph. (Courtesy of Bugatti)

I think I’ll keep today’s post short and straight to the point, how about that? If you recall, last week I asked you about the most embarrassing car you’ve ever driven, and we received a pretty good response. This week I have another question for you: What’s the fastest you’ve ever driven a car?

Take a moment and give this question a little thought. Is it 100 miles per hour? Maybe 120 mph or even 140 mph? If you’re a race car driver, and depending on the type and class of car you drive, you may have gone even faster on the racetrack. But let’s just say that once you’re in a car that can approach (or exceed) the 200-mph mark, you’re truly in a different league. Actually, a lot of racecars will easily go this fast (or faster) and somehow sustain this kind of speed for hundreds of miles. We see it nearly every weekend in the IndyCar and Formula One series.

But there are a handful of street legal supercars out there that are capable of going much faster than 200 mph. Of course, most of these exotics will never reach that upper limit simply because there’s no place to safely reach that maximum velocity. The Bugatti Veyron is one of those cars.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video that shows Top Gear’s James May (aka Captain Slow) taking a Bugatti Veyron up to its top speed of 253 mph (407 kilometers per hour). The video is about 8 minutes long, but worth every second, in my opinion. In addition to the outrageous top speed run, the many facts and figures that May shares with us along the way about the Bugatti’s design, horsepower, air and fuel consumption, tire life expectancy and so on make this video one that I had to watch several times to fully grasp. I think you’ll find (much like I did), that the Bugatti Veyron is, quite simply, an amazing car.

I think it’s safe to say that most of us understand that speed can be extremely dangerous. But in a controlled situation — like on a closed track in Germany — a flat-out run in a 1,000-horsepower supercar sure looks like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?

More related stuff:
How the Bugatti Veyron Works
Bugatti Veyron Quiz
What will speed mean in the future?
How Horsepower Works
How Formula One Works