World's 14 fastest cars

August 7, 2008

'Neighbours envy, owner's pride'. Nothing can express it better when you speak of these cars.

Most of us can only dream of owning one of these speed monsters. And you will be forgiven if you in one of yours sinister dreams harbour thoughts of stealing one of these and go for a spin.

Anyway let's get back on earth and find out which are the world's fastest cars.

Note: This is NOT a ranking of the world's fastest cars, but only a listing of the world's speediest demons. Of course, the astounding speeds that they can achieve have also been given. So decide for yourself which do you think is the fastest of this lot.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4
0-60mph in 2.5 secs
253 mph

Head of Design Hartmut Warkuss and his team were faced with a Herculean task: they were to design a car that combined its classic heritage and state-of-the-art modernism in a unique and unmatched way.

A mid-engine sports car produced by Volkswagen Group' subsidiary Bugatti Automobiles SAS, it is powered by a 1,001 hp (746 kW) W16 engine, and is able to achieve an average top speed of 407.47 km/h (253.19 mph).

The car is handcrafted in a factory Volkswagen built near the former Bugatti headquarters in Chateau St Jean in Molsheim (Alsace, France).

It is named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the '24 hours of Le Mans' in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti firm.

Image: Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is displayed at the Paris Auto show | Photograph: Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images