Top 10 Most Important Cars of All Time

Bugatti Veyron

So far this list has covered cars like the Prius and Mini, practical, everyday vehicles that are efficient drive and totally mundane in their familiarity. The Bugatti Veyron is none of this.

Perhaps the most awe-inspiring production car ever built this ultra-luxurious coupe stickered for a cool €1 million when it was launched in 2006.

At first blush that sounds like an exorbitant figure, but a quick glance at the specifications list and it starts to seem almost reasonable. For starters the car is capable of exceeding 250 miles an hour if you can find a road that’s long enough and a driver sufficiently deranged to attempt the feat.

The Veyron is constructed of a mélange of exotic materials including carbon fiber and titanium. Its mid-mounted engine is a technological masterpiece. For starters it’s a W16 – think of two V8s joined at a common crankshaft. The unit displaces a gargantuan 8.0-liters and is pumped up by a quartet of turbos. Add it all up and the grand total is 1,001 metric horsepower. Did von Braun’s Saturn V rocket that hauled Apollo 11 to the moon generate this much thrust?

A seven-speed automatic transmission handles shifting duties and seems like an afterthought in the process. All-wheel-drive, a prerequisite with this much oomph on tap puts the power to the ground.