The setting for this judgement day run is Volkswagen's top-secret test track...
at Ehra-Lessien, a massive complex,
built in a former Cold War no-fly zone near the old East German border.
At its heart is this 13-mile oval-shaped track,
which includes this 5.5-mile arrow-straight straight.
It's one of very few places on earth where you can actually max a Bugatti Veyron.
Nothing was left to chance by the Bugatti boffins.
We even had to wait until the middle of the day
when the air was at its thinnest before I was finally given the all-clear to run.
There's one thing making me very slightly apprehensive.
I said, "How long do the tyres last at 258 miles an hour?"
And they said, "Well, we know how long they last at 248 miles an hour.
It's 37 miles."
I said, "Yeah, but what about 258 miles per hour?"
What they actually said to me was,
"Ask an admiral how deep his submarines can really go.
He doesn't know until they try it."
As I ventured onto the track, I was quite glad that they aren't ordinary tyres,
but ones that cost £20,000 a set.
I do feel a nervousness about that extra five miles per hour.
It takes me beyond the known borders of car performance.
I'm hanging my ass over the ragged edge like Chuck Yeager.
Anyway, concentrate.
The super-accurate speedo read in kilometres
so, the magic number we'd be looking for is 414 kilometres per hour.'
If I reach maximum speed, I'll be drinking fuel at the rate of 1.7 gallons a minute.
The radiators will be sucking through four tonnes of air an hour.
Just before the 5.5 mile straight is some steep banking,
which I'd have to enter at exactly 125 miles per hour.
And then I have to change down as I pass a series of bollards,
ready to give it the beans, as I come out the other end.
Here we go. Here's the banking.
Here comes the first bollard.
Change down one.
Here's a bollard. Change down two.
Here's a bollard. Change down three times.
Godspeed, Captain Slow!
Whoa!
Bloody hell, look at the speed of that!
Doing 258... 260. I'm going faster than I can speak! 300! 320!
That is amazing! It's so stable. I'm already up to 340.
Bloody Nora!
It's unbelievable! Look how fast everything's going past!
There's 400.
In Queen's English, that's 248 miles per hour.
Come on, come on, come on!
I'm past my old record.
Now we were into the unknown.
Slightly twitchy.
Come on! Come on!
Yes! I think I may have whupped your ass.
And the speedo kept climbing.
417!
Bloody hell, that was exciting.
Hang on. No, no, wait!
No!
I'm sorry...
Are you seriously suggesting that now we open the Guinness Book of World Records
next to you and it says, "Fastest man on earth, James May"?
-Not exactly. -What do you mean, not exactly?
Well, after I'd done my run, Bugatti sent their test driver out,
because they thought he'd like a crack at it
and this is what happened.
So, there he goes.
He's got to do a run in each direction and take an average.
There's my old record already going for a Burton.
As we can see, the speedo is still climbing.
There's him celebrating.
I added my congratulations soon afterwards.
Damn him!
So, he obviously did it both ways, which you have to do.
-Yup. -What was his average, then?
431 kilometres an hour.
-And what's that in Church of England? -267...
-In a car with windscreen wipers? -And a CD player!
In a road car? That's staggering.
We ought to find out, really, how fast this goes round the track.
Anybody want to see that?
Yes!
Okay, well, that, of course, means handing it over to our racing driver.
Some say the Scottish released him a little bit too soon.
And that he spent all week pushing an effigy
of Rubens Barrichello through his desk fan.
All we know is, he's called the Stig!
And he's off and just look how fast that thing fires off the line,
smoking all four tyres.
Okay, first corner. Simply flies into those. It's almost cartoonishly fast.
It's just sensational.
And in the midst of this ferocious speed still has a stereo to listen to.
Takes it gently round Chicago, now popping off the limiter,
Hammerhead, air brake goes vertical generating 0.7G of braking,
same as the actual brakes of a Fiesta.
50 kilos lighter than the original Veyron but still a heavy car.
Your brain honestly can barely take in how fast this thing is.
What's really weird is it hardly makes any noise. Listen!
Just staggering. Two corners to go.
Here we go. Using all the grip of those 20 grand tyres.
This is the Stig on maximum attack and there he is, across the line!
So...
Here's the old Veyron 1.18.3.
We're expecting this to be a little bit faster.
Yup.
But is it fast enough...? Well, look at these.
These are the ones, 17s. The Gumpert, the Ascari and so on.
Well, this one, the Super Sport, did it in 1...
16.8.
Fastest car ever...
ever to go round our track.