All this talk about the Porsche Panamera over the weekend (review to follow, eventually) had me thinking about automotive desirability. I reckon when you get to a certain price point, all rational considerations disappear in a cloud of Franklins. Anyone who buys a car for over $100,000 or so owns at least another two or five or twelve other vehicles. So they’re not bothered about any one car’s resale value or reliability. Vehicle choice is purely a question of taste. The higher up you go in this pistonhead pantheon, the more true this becomes. So, while anyone contemplating this choice of whips could probably buy both, I’m interested to see which way our Best and Brightest falls. If you had to put one of these in your garage, would you opt for the world’s fastest Bug or the gold-plated Big Mac?
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I’d take the F1 in a heartbeat. That sound…amazing. Plus, who wouldn’t want to have that seating position?
Beautiful design versus grotesque lump? F1 all the way.
If I could only have one outrageousely expensive car and these were my only choices, the F1 wins.
The F1 wins hands down, except for one thing. Part of the romance of having a supercar is sharing the experience with someone beside you, isn’t it? That just isn’t possible in the F1.
Veyron. It’s the Prius of hypercars.
Veyron. Overkill, overcomplicated engineering just for the sake of it.
Why do you think people buy tourbillon watches?
+1 the F1 every time.
SherbornSean:
With the F1, you can have not one, but two people beside you; the car is a 3 seater with the driver sitting in the middle and the passengers offset slightly back. Talk about romance!
I’d take nimbleness over the extra grunt and luxury of the Veyron any day.
The F1, no question. Much better looking and infinitely more practical with seating for 3! Give it a 7th gear and watch it run down a Veyron.
Which F1… the end of 20th Century BMW powered 3 seat one?
If it’s that one… I’m with the F1.
But if I have that much coin… I could also buy the Veyron, with the change…
@SherbornSean
In the F1 you can share it with 2 other someone beside you
Veyron. Faster, prettier and no recorded kills as yet.
The F1. The Veyron is NEVER going to be working properly. There are just too many incredibly complex subsystems.
I want to get in and go driving. I don’t mind knowing my mechanic by name but I want him to smile when he sees me.
The Veyron is just a beautiful automotive sculpture…
What a useless debate. Neither.
Having said that, if you want a car that will bring you more joy and fewer headaches, any new Corvette is more than adequate to guarantee that, and all the speeding tickets you can handle in a 65mph world. If that won’t do, the new Yaris RS is chic.
McLaren, any day of the week.
Someone of the B&B had the opinion that the McLaren in its over the top quest for lightness and engineering superiority actually stays more true to the Bugatti ideals than the Veyron. Had the Bugatti brand lived on in the Bugatti family, the McLaren is what they would have strived for. In comparison, the Veyron is this times Blower Bentleys. Humongous engine, and that’s pretty much it.
Definitely the F1. The Veyron has so much technology it ends up compromising itself to accommodate said technology (no hood on the engine, high CG, eleventy billion radiators).
The F1 in contrast doesn’t even have power steering, but doesn’t even need it. Its a better-looking ride as well. Real slipstream shape.
The three-seat setup for the F1 obviously favors the driver. In so much as bringing a date, it would be the perfect politician’s car: Wife on the right, retainer-slut on the left (cue Mark Sanford driving F1 with appropriate lady-friends). Not to be too much of a pig, but you won’t be getting road-head while cruising down the 101 by Malibu in this thing. No way anyone could “assume the position” in that tight of a space. I guess the Veyron wins on that count.
Veyron, all day long. Even if you never get your car to its 253mph top speed, you have bragging rights. Besides, it’s a Bugatti, what an awesome name from automotive history.
zora: +1
Anyone who would by either of these lives in the land where Bernie Madoff lives, and that’s just a neighborhood I don’t want to visit.
Gimme a ‘vette, or a Viper, and leave me the fu$k alone….
As an IT person, I’d have to go with the Veyron. This baby has it all: Space Shuttle like complexity, 1001 HP, 253 MPH.
McLaren in a second, no thought required.
The F1 is a pure driver’s car. It’s everything a hypercar should be, and thanks to the safety police and eco-tards, probably never will be again.
The Veyron is a high-powered plaything that most owners will never see the naughty side of 100 with.
Besides, if the top speed record bragging rights are really that important, one could always turbo the F1.
The two are so different in philosophy that we may as well throw in an Escalade.
The Veyron is a heavyweight, turbocharged bruiser in the mold of the GT-R and the EB110. Point-to-point, there are probably no faster cars in the world, especially with unskilled drivers. But really, acceleration is the draw; once you’re past that, there’s nothing particularly novel about the rest of the car.
The F1 is something else entirely. There hasn’t been another car in history that’s so successfully combined power, handling, style, and practicality. That’s why, at 15 years old, it’s worth more than the Veyron.
More from Gordon Murray:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=3075&print_page=y
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/koenigsegg-forum-koenigseggboard-com/90794-gordon-murrays-dismissive-letter-evo-regarding-koenigsegg.html
Incidentally, if you’ve an engineering bent, Doug Nye’s “Driving Ambition” book on the creation of the F1 is probably the most engaging thing you’ll ever read.
The McLaren… because I don’t go in for lux barges. I’d certainly have CCW make a set of wheels I can live with. I’m not a fan of those on the car. I bet the F1 also comes with some spec tires… I suppose if I can afford the car I can also afford to keep it on R-comp tires with a 50 wear rating.
Veyron.
Not even a question. F1. Give the other thing to Paris Hilton.
Neither. Where can I drive 230 mph without getting killed or killing someone? They are both beautiful designs however.
Neither.
For that amount of cash I’d rather buy something that will appreciate in value, even if you actually USE it, something neither the F1 or the Bug will do. So I’d pick something like a 300sl roadster. In fact you buy a complete set of 300sls for that price, one coupe, one roadster! Or how about a Lambo Miura? Or a Ferrari 275GTB/4? Even a C-type Jaguar can be found for a million bucks.
All will only appreciate in value compared to the two choices presented.
–chuck
The F1 is half the weight of the Veyron.
F1 – all day every day.
“Plus, who wouldn’t want to have that seating position?”
I think the McLaren is a beautiful classic, but you couldn’t physically get me in there even if you sawed me in half and used a bucket of axle grease.
The Veyron is a hideous carbuncle that I wouldn’t bother to look at twice.
Purity over Complexity.
I’ll take the F1.
The Veyron is a silly toy for rich folks with more money than sense. This car was designed for the middle eastern oil shiek crowd NOT for rich folks that truly appreciate fine works of automotive engineering.
Honesty, Bugatti is nothing more that a “name” that VW/Audi purchased the rights to. So what if the car is built in France! The engineering is all VW/Audi overkill.
On the otherhand the McLaren F1 is an automotive engineering marvel designed and built by a true speciality racecar builder. The F1 will continue to increase in value and prestige like such cars as the orginal Ferrari GTO while the Veryon will be merely an expensive footnote of an era of silly excess.
The video is just a bit misleading… It calls the Veyron the “Fastest car in the World”, which is incorrect. The fastest production car in the world is the Shelby Aero. It’s made right here in the good old US of A. Amazingly, it’s made in Washington state. You can check it out here http://www.shelbysupercars.com/
I saw an F1 in the flesh for the first time at the Marin County Concours last month. I still can’t stop thinking about it. What an amazing car. Purposeful, beautiful, and incredibly well built without looking garish in the least. Truly a car for an aficionado.
My reaction to the Veyron was that it was ill-proportioned, over-sized, over-wrought, and just plain ugly. I can appreciate the exercise of building a car capable of going that fast, I just don’t have any desire to own one.
Then again, I also share the viewpoint that if I had $1 million plus in car-money burning a hole in my pocket I’d buy a warehouse AND a fleet of interesting vehicles to fill it with before buying one super-exotic high-maintenance PITA. To me, having fun with cars has little to do with outright speed anyway. Track days are fun, but outright top speed is little more than an academic argument even if you have unlimited track access or a tiny penis.
They are both truly great cars and I would love to have either, however I’d much rather have the F1.
I’ve never been a fan of the F1, so I’d have to go with the Veyron.
Veyron is the absolute king and once again proves it.
I swear the speed of that car defies the laws of physics, it’s an absolute landmark in engineering, the concorde of our times.
When I see a Bugatti I feel like I’m looking at something handcrafted and artistic, but its not very alluring. When I stand next to an F1 or even just look at pictures of it I get an overwhelming sense of how special it is and how supremely capable it is in more then just a straight line. The F1 has true mechanical beauty and is the only drivers car in this duo
F1 without even the slightest second thought.
MCLAREN F1-as that great philosopher Bart Simpson put it-“Duh!”.
Bunter
Veyron. I need the AWD in winter.
For a million bucks, I want a perfectly legal car with a 60′ Taser lead that seeks to neck of the slow poke driver holdin’ up the line (like, all the time).
F1
Since everyone on this board is dreaming, what we really want and need for our million is a car that handles like a real Formula 1, looks like the latest Audi LMP, comes standard with the power of Top Fuel, and has the amenities of an Escalade…all with the reliability of a Toyota. Please, never wake me…
F1 – raw, pure, unfiltered, same as my cigarettes (kidding there I quit years ago).
If I understand the specifications correctly, neither of these has a stick shift, and so neither are for me.
JohnHowardOxley
If I understand the specifications correctly, neither of these has a stick shift, and so neither are for me.
Whatchatalkin’about? F1 comes with 6-speed stick AND clutch pedal.
F1 all the way. And it still the world fastest naturally aspirated car! (Beat that VW!) Powered by BMW, designed by Formula 1 engineer, no ugly spoilers and patented 3-seat cabin. What not to like? I have the book how it was built. Cost me 50 quid.
The hell with the rules, I’ll take both. and the Veyron being in Grand Sport Mode.
F1.
Car that was designed and engineered on drawing board, by hand. Not by computers. “One man’s vision” cars have always been extraordinary.