Bugatti celebrates 20 years of the iconic Veyron

20 years ago, a paradigm-changing car was introduced to the world - the Bugatti Veyron. And Bugatti Singapore is marking this anniversary with an exclusive showcase held at the Wearnes Tower, with several unique examples of the car (and other Bugatti models) on display. 

The Veyron heralded the revitalisation of the French brand under the stewardship of the Volkswagen Group, and when introduced, immediately garnered headlines for being the fastest car in the world. With 987bhp from its 8.0-litre W16 quad-turbo engine (essentially two conjoined V8 engines), the Veyron had a top speed of 408km/h, and held the title of the world's fastest production car. It was also the first street-legal car to breach the 400km/h threshold. 

Specially designed Michelin tyres were designed for the Veyron - the tyres had to be glued on to the rim to allow the car to cross the 400km/h threshold

And it's not just a matter of making a huge-displacement engine churning out tons of horsepower. To achieve this feat, the Veyron also pioneered new standards in aerodynamic performance and cooling efficiency, as well as tyre technology (Michelin developed a new set of tyres specifically for the Veyron that cost US$25,000 a set). 

Since the original Veyron 16.4 model was introduced, the targa top Grand Sport was released. Subsequently, the Super Sport and Super Sport Vitesse followed, which brought even more power and an ever higher top speed. 

The Veyron had a total of 10 radiators to provide the necessary air intake to deal with the massive amount of heat being generated 

But beyond just the eye-boggling numbers (of which there were many), the Veyron's lasting legacy is also in heralding a new age of luxury and performance - in some ways, it can arguably also be seen as the car that kickstarted the hypercar era. 

Besides the ludicrous performance, Bugatti and the Veyron pushed the envelope on technology, engineering and luxury, with the likes of new upstarts like Koenigsegg and Rimac joining established supercar manufacturers like Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini in further extending the limits of performance and quality 

20 years on, the original Veyron can be seen as the car that heralded in the hypercar age - ultra-performance, ultra-luxury, ultra-exclusivity

Ultra-performance meets ultra-luxury meets hyper-exclusivity. And that of course also consequently raised the bar on the kind of money that buyers were willing to spend. The Veyron was the first production car that crossed the €1m threshold. 

Only 450 units were ever produced across four model variants and all kinds of special editions. 

Fast forward 20 years since the Veyron's introduction, and 1,000+bhp supers cars heck, even are not quite the unicorn proposition it used to be, especially with the advancements in technology and particularly with electrification. In fact, such ludicrous performance is no longer simply the realm of the super car - there are four-door sedans and even trucks that can boast such figures. But there's no doubting that the Bugatti Veyron was the first car that pushed through into that stratosphere.