Street racing isn’t any less idiotic when the cars involved are high-dollar exotics, but it does make it a lot cooler to write about. Case in point? This battle between a Bugatti Veyron and a Ferrari 599, which occurred in traffic on a busy highway in the UK. Apparently, the cars battled for over ten minutes and hit more than 130MPH. The driver of the Veyron got tagged by the cops, but the Ferrari driver managed to get away. Guess not having a license plate comes in handy. Get the full story over on the Sun

That seems to be the stance of Men’s Vogue editor Michael Mraz, who got a chance to visit the Bugatti assembly plant in Dorlisheim, France.

Designed by the German architect Günther Henn, the building has a floor-to-ceiling glass faade, giving workers a nice view of the Vosges Mountains. With its natural light, gray floor, and hushed and unhurried ambience, the atelier seems more like a materials-testing lab at Stanford than a car company. Missing are the sounds and smells of ordinary car-building, the shrill muezzin of air guns, the hammer clanging, the bitter white sparks of welding. When Kruta and I walk through, there are about 12 cars on the floor or suspended on racks, in various states of assembly. And that’s what it is: assembly. Nearly every part of the Veyron — including the monstrous aluminum-and-magnesium quad-turbo engine — is manufactured somewhere else, mostly in Germany. The body panels are formed and pre-painted, the seats and wheels pre-skinned, the electronics pre-wired. Still, these are probably the most complicated cars ever made, and that’s reflected in the work rate — two cars per week.

He also got a chance to drive one of these supercars, though the video is kind of crummy. But I did like the photo below–too bad there aren’t more online. I guess they want you to go buy the magazine.  

For most people, a stock Bugatti Veyron comes with a luxurious interior. But the people who buy Bugatti Veyrons are not most people. In fact, the people who buy Bugatti Veyrons do not even talk to most people. The people who buy Bugatti Veyrons have "people" which talk to "common people." And when the people who buy Bugatti Veyrons deign their "people" to speak—out of necessity of, course—with "common people" at all, they probably instruct them to complain, quite specifically, about the dismal environs of Bugatti’s Veyron. Thankfully, French fashion house Hermes have designed a Bugatti Veyron which should please even the most exacting clientele. And it comes in a different color. And with a different interior. And with center cabs. And it only costs, like, a million dollars more than the supercar does stock. Which means it only costs, like, two million dollars. Thank heavens! Tons more photos after the jump.

Source: Bugatti via CarScoop

The Melbourne Motor Show didn’t disappoint. Along with this wicked Holden Coupe 60, there were a ton of killer exotics on hand. This classic Maserati racer drew a bunch of attention, as did this electric-green drop-top Gallardo. And there was even a Veyron on display! Head over to the events section and check out all our photos!

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy—whew, say that three times fast!—just released a list of the greenest and meanest cars in America, and on the green side, Toyota’s Prius came up a big, fat loser. Sorry. It actually came in second, behind Honda’s greener-than-Kermit-the-Frog-on-a-lilly pad Civic GX, which runs on compressed air. As expected, small cars and hybrids make up the remainder of the green list, and also as expected, the rides on the mean list look way, way more fun. The VW Tourage—with the CFC-belching diesel V10—took the top "honors," while dream machines like Bugatti’s Veyron and Lamborghini’s Murcielago came in at numbers two and six, respectively. Of course, neither one of those models probably sees 1/10 the annual miles a Ford Focus—number nine on the green list—does, so in reality, they probably pollute a lot less. But whatever, check out the full breakdown over at Wired.

Looking for a Veyron but don’t feel like joining the riff-raff on the Bugatti factory waiting list? Then this one might be perfect. It’s already got a sick monochrome paint job—to make you stand out from all the other two-tone Veyrons on your block—and a "Buy it Now" price of 1.8 million. No word on the whether the factory undercoating is intact. Check out more pics after the jump.

But it’s OK. Really. This isn’t like the Lambo video. The public road is the German Autobahn, so while hitting that speed at night might not be the brightest thing to do, it’s perfectly legal. Dangerous, but legal. I’ve watched this clip a few times, and I still can’t believe how cool that V16 sounds. Wow.

Ralph Lauren is known as a gigantic car nut, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that he owns a Veyron. This story on the GT Planet forums is pretty funny, and there are a bunch of great shots of the car. From the sound of it, he’s a pretty cool dude.

When the Bugatti Veyron debuted, it redefined the term "supercar," and there’s still nothing on the market which can compete with its level of luxury and performance. Sure, Lambo, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes make absolutely fantastic supercars, but when it comes down to it, the Bugatti takes the cake. So it seems only fitting that the car to knock the Veyron out of it’s top spot is—another Veyron! Behold the Bugatti EB Veyron 16.4 Pur Sang! This special-edition rocket sports a body made of aluminum alloy, a carbon fiber monocoque body, and no paint, leaving the raw beauty of this supercar exposed for all eyes to see. Those changes shave 100kg from the standard Veyron, so the 1001 horsepower motor should also pack more pep. Want one? Better hurry—they’re only making five.

…If you’re a super-smart computer geek, that is. The techs at the CG site 3DM3 claim that building virtual cars is much easier than it looks, but as a layperson I can’t help but goggle at the detail and precision of these rides. The site seems pretty heavy on automotive content, with lots of amazing cars along with "tutorials" on how to replicate them.  Don’t forget to check out their especially impressive 2005 design competition to create lavishly souped-up tuners for the video game 3D Street Race: I almost think I’d take this red tuner Trabant over the Veyron!