Bugatti have finally admitted defeat and revised the performance claims for the delayed Veyron. The new 1000 PS supercar was to have taken the McLaren F1's crown and run to a maximum speed of 252 mph, but the difficulties in finding an engineering solution to the high-speed instability of the car have forced a reduction to a claimed 218mph.
Whilst this figure is academic in most circles, the change is still a source of huge embarrassment to the company who have been making bold claims about the Veyron's capability for quite some time. A team will carry on with engineering work in order to carry out speed trials to prove the 252 mph claimed maximum but customer cars will be limited.
Dave Jenkins - 28 Feb 2004