This car, you're familiar with.
The Bugatti Veyron, the Concorde of the road.
The meeting point for the most amazing collection of numbers.
One million pounds,
1000 horsepower,
and a top speed of 252 miles an hour.
But spin the clock back 15 years, and in the 1990s,
this was the ultimate road car.
The McLaren F1.
Like the Bugatti, the McLaren is an orgy of mind-bending numbers.
It was the fastest with a top speed of 240 miles an hour.
It was the most expensive, costing half a million pounds in 1993.
And, like the Bugatti, the McLaren was built utterly without compromise.
The engine bay was lined with gold because gold is the best heat reflector.
An entirely new and unique gearbox had to be developed,
because no existing gearbox could survive the torque
from the 6.1 litre BMW engine.
It was the first carbon-fibre-bodied car.
And although these cars have so much in common,
the McLaren and the Veyron are actually poles apart.
Whereas the Veyron is loaded with technology...
the McLaren gets nothing.
No traction control, no ABS.
Its gizmo cupboard is completely bare.
The F1's creator wanted his machine to be just the greatest,
the purest driving machine,
in the same way that Bugatti's creator
wanted it to be the most amazing technical achievement.
And that shines through in the way they feel.
Changing gear...
It's like sliding a bolt action forward on a rifle.
that well-oiled, mechanical, metallic feel.
And you sit slap-bang in the middle for that racing-driver sensation.
Oh, dear Lord.
Okay. What I shall do now is climb out of the McLaren F1
and get in to the Bugatti Veyron.
Not a bad day, this one, so far.
Right. To business.
Because for the first time ever,
these titans will now go head to head in a one-mile drag race.
I shall be in the Veyron.
And in the McLaren, a man who has no idea that he's about to make history.
He is quite excited, though.
He saw his first camel today.
Actually, I'm quite glad it's him in that car
because today, that McLaren is worth 2 million quid.
If we do come together, though, he does know the drill.
Run and meet at the border.
Nearly ready.
On paper, the Bugatti's got over 1000 horsepower,
370 more than the McLaren, but the McLaren weighs less.
So it's got more power to weight.
Nought to sixty, the Bugatti should have...
I don't know, this is the real world.
We'll have to see what happens.
Three, two, one, go!
Yes, this it! Forward into history.
What? How is that happening? How is that happening?
The old pretender is still there. It won't give up its crown!
We're now doing 240 kilometres an hour.
Come on, Bugatti!
I'm getting him. I'm reeling him in.
A thousand horsepower, there's no way past that.
I'm gonna take it, yes!
Three hundred kilometres an hour.
Three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour!
Yes!
Three hundred and twenty, and I have clearly taken it!
The Bugatti takes the prize.