Perhaps they've changed it, perhaps it just works better over these roads; either way, I'm completely knocked out by what the Veyron can do. Not merely by how fast it is when you put your foot down (and it really is heroically, cataclysmically fast) but also by how well it steers, how nimble it is over these narrow roads, how serenely its seven-speed DSG gearbox works, and how cleanly it rides and handles, even over quite lumpy surfaces. It is genuinely hard to believe that this car weighs 4,156 lbs from the way it snaps so incisively from one direction to another, or how swiftly it stops when you lean on the middle pedal.
But the best bit, of course, is what happens when you find a straight piece of road and put your foot down. Because only then do you get to feel what it's like to have 987hp under your right foot. I've driven the car that won Le Mans for Audi in 2002 and I've driven a Jag F1 car that had 900hp, and I can tell you here and now, the Veyron feels quicker than either of them within the confines of a winding mountain road.
OK, in reality it's not quite as accelerative as an F1 car, because F1 cars have similar amounts of power to the Bugatti but weigh three times less. But factor in the Veyron's torque – all 922lb ft of it, twice that of a modern F1 engine – and you start to understand how and why it's as quick as it is. Truth is, in a straight line it would obliterate any car that lines up on the grid for this year's Le Mans 24 Hours. And above 180mph, even an F1 car would start to go backwards beside the mighty Veyron.
It is difficult to describe what that sort of thrust feels like on the public road, harder still to understand how the Veyron deploys so much firepower so neatly and effortlessly to the asphalt. And that might be the most impressive thing of all about this extraordinary car: how calm and controlled it is, considering how quick it is from point to point.
Once more, with feeling
For a little perspective, I climb out of the Bugatti and into the Superleggera and drive it over the exact same roads I drove the Veyron over. It's amazing how much less civilized the Lamborghini feels straight away, and how crude its gearbox in particular feels by comparison.
The Lambo's ride is also miles harder and noisier than the Veyron's. You feel things in the road surface that weren't there in the Bugatti, and the stripped-out wheelarch liners fizz with stones and whatever else the Gallardo's big sticky Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires
can pick up and fire into them. The din this car makes just driving along the road at 50mph is quite stupendous by comparison after the Veyron.
But it's not slow, the Lambo, and when you do open it up enough for the engine and exhaust to drown out all the rest of the interference, the sound is nothing if not impressive. It's not an especially tuneful noise, but in terms of volume it's up there in the AC/DC league of impact. And you never tire of the sound it makes, either.
The real surprise, though, is discovering how rapid the Superleggera feels, even after the Veyron. No, it's not in the same class when it comes to raw energy, but you can cover ground in the Lambo very, very quickly indeed. To the extent that you'd need to make full use of what the Veyron can do and be a decently good driver to get away from the Superleggera.
That's partly because of the Lambo's tires and brakes, both of which have been designed to deliver other-worldly performance so long as you are prepared to really lean on them. The flip side to this, of course, is that if you drive it slowly the Superleggera's tires feel oddly lacking in bite, while its carbon ceramic brakes are equally dead in response to begin with. But the point is that the Gallardo is the only car here that stands any chance at all of living with the Veyron if the Bugatti decides to go for it.
Throw it down the road by the scruff of its neck and the Gallardo will develop sufficient performance, grip, balance and braking ability to just about keep the Veyron in sight – so long as you don't come across any genuinely long straights.
Not even in the 911, as we'll discover a little later, is there enough pure performance to be able to do this. It's the difference, in the end, between 522hp in a 2,930-lb car (Lambo) and "merely" 409hp in a 3,030-lb car (GT3 RS). And it's the difference between being dropped by a Veyron in a heartbeat or having enough pure performance to at least keep the game alive for a while longer.
Which isn't the case with the Aston or Audi R8. Driving the DB9 over the same roads as the others is a fascinating exercise, because it teaches you that speed is not everything. Compared with any other group of cars, the DB9 Sport would be a hugely fast and accomplished machine, but in this company it feels like driving down the road in your favorite armchair. Yet it's a delightful car to drive, the DB9, in spite of its softer chassis responses and comparative lack of straight-line go.
