IN THIS FEATURE What 'fast' really is Not power, but torque Not a perfect car A small twang of fear Privileged beyond words

Video Test Drive: Bugatti Veyron

So you think you know fast? I did too. But I was wrong. Until today and in the context of road cars, I had no idea what fast meant - and I've been lucky enough to drive almost every car that, until now, the world has thought the fastest.

But today, and thanks to the Bugatti Veyron, the bar as been reset, laughably beyond the reach of anything else ever to go into production - and I'm not just talking about a top speed in excess of 250mph.

So let me tell you what fast really is in 2005. Fast is accelerating from 150mph so hard that the slightest ripple in the motorway starts the traction control light flashing - this from a car with permanent four wheel drive. Fast is the ability to abolish straights. Exit a corner in third gear and however long the straight that follows, by the time you have come to terms with what's happening to you, you need to be on the brakes. Fast is a 0-62mph time of 2.46sec, an achievement this makes it every bit as accelerative from rest as a modern Formula One car.

A towering engineering achievement

It is so easy to be critical of the Veyron. It's size, its expense, its excess in all areas. But what cannot be denied, at least not by anyone who's actually had the privilege of driving one, is the towering engineering achievement that it represents.