For the magazine’s 600th issue the team decamped to Chateauroux Air Base in the central region of France, with a dozen of the fastest production cars on the planet. Plus of course one F1 car and a Le Mans prototype.

The driver of the LRGP R30 was Nicolas Prost, son of two-time F1 world champion Alain Prost and it wasn’t just a Veyron and F1 Car that the magazine brought along for the test, the 0 – 300 km/h time trial included a Porsche Panamera Turbo S, Pescarolo LMP1 driven by Christophe Tinseau, Audi R8 V10, Cadillac CTS-V, BMW X6 M, Nissan GT-R, Mercedes SLS AMG and a Suzuki Hayabusa ridden by Baptiste Guittet..

Driving the production cars was none other than ex-F1 driver and 4-time Le Mans winner, Yannick Dalmas.

The film features exhilarating footage of the best road cars in the world trying to attain a speed of 300km/h before the R30, driven by Nicolas Prost.

To save you pausing the video, the times recorded were as follows:

Some context..

We’ve extracted a few times from a previous Sport Auto Germany test to provide context to the above and if you’d like to delve deeper and take a look at highly modified tuner vehicles, then I suggest you visit the 0-300-0 section within the Sport Auto website.

If you’d like to read the full story (and can parles français), the feature will be published in late December together with the final video. Keep an eye on the sportauto.fr website or follow them at @SportAutoMag.

As an additional bonus, sportauto.fr have published a 16-minute arty teaser of their own. It’s a little odd (i.e. much of the video is silent and in slow motion), but the sound is turned up for the in-car shots, so it’s worth staying with it.

In some respects we’re glad Etorre is no longer around, for he would be tormented to see what’s happened to the marque he so lovingly fostered. A few days ago Katie Price, formerly known as Jordan, posted this tweet..

Sadly this could be the end-of-the-road for this once-proud marque, to be paraded in the tabloids as Katie’s latest trinket. In pink no less.

I’m sure Katie would argue that it’s her money and she can do what she wants with it – but think of the children – you know, those ones with Bugatti Veyron posters who’ll be ripping them down from their bedroom walls now that the fastest car in the world has lost its cool..

To remind you what a real Bugatti is like, take a look at the following video..

Now take a look at Afzal Kahn driving Katie’s new Veyron

The new Jaguar XJ for example is a fantastic car; it is bristling with innovative technology and superb engineering. The engines are nothing short of remarkable, more power yet better economy, a very neat achievement.

But this car is also a turning point in the history of the marque. You see, I am fairly certain that this will be the last big piston engine Jaguar will ever build.

Let me explain why.

The development timeline

The current 5-litre V8 petrol engine was the last project I worked on as an engineer for Jaguar. Naturally I am very attached to it, having seen it grow up from its early faltering steps on the test dyno, to its coming of age as it entered production. And it is a spectacularly good engine, exceeding its design targets with ease, even though as with any modern engine, it took a huge amount of work to get it there. To quote someone much bigger than me; “..It’s been emotional”.

With it now happily in volume production, you would be forgiven for thinking that work should have begun on its successor, but despite a very long history of ever more impressive petrol engines at Jaguar, there will never be such a successor. No my friends, I think this is it. The most powerful production petrol engine Jaguar will ever make.

Of course there will be upgrades over the years, it may well win races as a competition engine, deliver even higher outputs than the current 503 bhp supercharged version, but that basic engine will not be replaced.

And it’s not just Jaguar either, far from it. Large, multi-cylinder combustion engines of all permutations grace some of the most exciting cars this year, but they too mark the swansong for the breed.

In the USA, where big V8s have ruled the market for decades, customer demand began shifting towards smaller and more fuel efficient cars. Then the recession hit, and some of these stalwarts fell on their knees, only kept alive with emergency CPR from the US government.

As part of this automotive rescue package the US car makers must achieve fuel economy and CO2 emission targets unheard of in the country that brought us Motown. It’s highly unlikely that the US government would sanction development of another new V8 engine, far less the cars they would be power.

So we’re probably looking at the end of the American V8 too.

Ford in the US are spending big bucks to stem the migration of their customers to Japanese brands and respond to the increasing appetite for small frugal cars in the land of pick-up truck. Click to view their latest ads on SkiddPlayer.

Now for the first time since the Model-T we see European cars such as the Ford Fiesta becoming serious propositions for the American buyer. Ford in the US have pushed big advertising budgets behind one of the smallest cars in their global portfolio, directly targeting those Japanese compacts that have stolen the hearts and minds of ‘their’ customers.

These are certainly changing times.

But what about supercars?

Ferrari has just launched their fastest road car ever, with a fantastic engine using the latest direct injection technology. They have an enviable track-record of designing some of the most fantastic V-engines in the world, but even they are not immune to the steady increase of tightening emission standards – the challenges we face in terms of diminishing resources and the environmental impact of fuel-hungry economies are global and ever car maker is affected.

Ferrari have 'reluctantly' joined the emissions race with their 599 HY-KERS, but we're more likely to see smaller engined and lighter cars before the Italian marque gives up on the piston-engine.

Ferrari showcased their 599 HY-KERS at this year’s Geneva Autoshow and whilst it shows their commitment to the development of new engine solutions, they are clearly reluctant to forego such an important ingredient in the character of their cars.

Amadeo Felisa, General Manager of Ferrari SpA, said recently “Our customers are looking for the essence of Ferrari – the emotion, the performance, the technology and so on. The way in which we fix emissions is not their problem but ours. If we are not able to fix it, only then will it become a problem for them.”

He then went on to say, “[Hybrids will come in] 2015, if we are forced to by the [government] regulations. The issue of emissions for Ferrari is more a political one than real one. Lowering emissions of every Ferrari will not save the planet, but it will cost us a lot of money… In the next five to 10 years, hybrid technology will develop and maybe something else will come up. Maybe it’ll be hydrogen, but for our cars only hybrid is ready.”

If Porsche's 911 GT3 R Hybrid were the future of motoring, then I don't suppose that any of us would mind.

So what happens next?

It usually takes at least seven years to bring a new engine from concept through to full scale production – durability testing in extreme environments, running cars for hundreds of thousands of miles, fine tuning any glitches, and building and testing production tooling, the list goes on. In short, it’s a substantial and costly task.

The latest Jaguar V8 started life on a piece of paper in 2001, it recognised that we demand more performance, but also that emissions regulations and CO2 targets would be tougher too. Since then the world has concluded that it’s socially irresponsible to produce unnecessary green-house gases (unless of course from aeroplanes), and so zero emissions has become the moral badge of honour paraded by the likes of Honda, Toyota and Nissan in their recent products.

The world has changed, and so the plans for the next decade have shifted towards zero carbon emissions, rather than just a little less.

Honda and Nissan still have a lot of work to do before they can appeal to the enthusiast driver.

For decades major car makers have had vague plans for electric cars in ‘the future’. Prototype and experimental cars have been displayed at motor shows, but the plan to put them into production always got pushed back. Until now.

After the huge social and economic challenges of the last couple of years, all those ‘future’ plans have been brought forwards with astonishing pace, the first step will be hybrids as the infrastructure and familiarity builds, then once customers are used to the idea we’ll see more full electric-powered vehicles. And this will probably happen over the next ten years, so there is absolutely no point in anyone designing a new big piston engine.

According to Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn, when the Nissan LEAF goes on sale later this year – which will be the first of eight all-electric models to launch – the company will be able to mass-market up to 500,000 zero emission vehicles.

In fact Nissan has already received 13,000 orders in the U.S. and Japan for its new electric car, the LEAF, exceeding current production capacity.

Is there any good news in all of this?

But that doesn’t mean the end of performance cars; on the contrary, as electric drive technology finally gets some proper funding the performance will match, and then exceed that of even the most powerful petrol cars.

Imagine having a 1000 bhp hub motor on each wheel, ultimate control over traction and stability, but with the power of four Bugatti Veyrons…

You see there is one thing that always drives engineering forward, and that is human desire. As car enthusiasts our basic desire is for obscenely powerful cars, no matter how that is achieved. Make no mistake, the future is still bright.

The Tesla Roadster is a genuinely entertaining car to drive, despite its lack of aural appeal its torque is instantaneous and highly addictive.

If we look back into history we can see people lamenting the end of steam power, but very soon after the big corporations started putting real resources into diesel-electric engines and the technology soon matched and then exceeded the efficiency of even the finest steam engines.

Much the same thing is happening now with electric powered vehicles, and we can expect to see parallels between the modern piston engine and those steam powered engines of old. There will probably always be piston engine enthusiasts, just as there remain steam enthusiasts today. There may well be a few niche companies still making one off piston engines in the far future, and crowds will gather as these relics of a bygone age are fired up – there is nothing quite like the growl of a V8 or the howl of a V12 at full chat to stir the soul.

In fact engine sound is a very emotive thing, it changes the way we feel, alters our mood and affects our decisions.

It’s such a powerful factor in our driving enjoyment that engineering companies such as Lotus are developing and synthesising the most appealing sounds and integrating them as a part of new car designs. It might sound like cheating, a bit artificial even, but it works, and it’s likely to become an important option on the spec lists of future electric cars.

Time to sing one last beautiful song

Going back to the latest 5-litre Jags, if you can afford it then buy one whilst you still can – seriously. Not only because it’s such a good car, but because it is the triumphant finale of more than a century of development of the good old piston engine. The next ten years will see further improvements in these engines, special editions, race versions and hybrids in a superb closing chapter, like the final piece of the most rousing orchestra. It has all built up to this moment and we, the audience, should be on our feet cheering.

Jaguar's 5-litre V8 engined models are the last of their kind, so make sure you enjoy them whilst you still can.

It’s a rare moment in time, a turning point, something that will be written about in the history books. So however you choose to receive the advance of these new electric-powered vehicles, make sure you enjoy the heck out of the current V8, V10 and V12 combustion engines – they’re not long for this world, so let’s give them a thoroughly LOUD send-off.

The following quote comes from the Galveston Daily Dews;

LA MARQUE — Police on Friday identified a Lufkin man who accidentally drove a $2 million Bugatti Veyron, a rare automobile that is perhaps the world’s fastest, into a saltwater lagoon.

Andy Lee House, 34, owner of Performance Auto Sales, told The Daily News on Wednesday that a low-flying pelican distracted him, causing him to jerk the steering wheel a bit — and he then dropped his cell phone.

The crash, however, was captured by someone filming the car as it traveled on the northbound frontage road of Interstate 45 about 3 p.m. Wednesday. The man filming was traveling north on I-45. No pelican was visible in the video, which shows the car veering from the road and splashing in the lagoon.

With the Veyron in more than 2 feet of saltwater, House declined to give his name at the scene near Omega Bay.

Driver Offers Thanks

House posted a comment to The Lufkin Daily News, thanking everyone who was worried about him and the car.

“I have taken my exotic cars to school events, rallies, and allow anyone to take pictures of my cars and even rides in them,” House wrote. “I have allowed many people into my home to see my cars that I don’t even know. … Say what you want about me, but there is a man in heaven right now looking over me and that’s all that matters!”

The 2006 Veyron is thought to have been one of only 200 made and one of only 15 in the United States.

Police Report Released

A police report, made public Friday, lists House as the driver and owner. The pelican caught his eye as it was quite close to colliding with the car, House said. House never said he was using the cell phone at the time. Dropping it added to the distraction just enough, sending the front passenger wheel off the road and into the soft, sloppy, muddy shoulder.

A Daily News reporter arrived at the scene about 15 minutes after the car entered the water just in time to see the gurgling exhaust stop bubbling like an outboard motor as the 1,001 horsepower engine died.

House, who was looking at real estate in Galveston the day of the crash, was not injured. The Veyron is capable of speeds of more than 253 mph, but House hadn’t risked driving it on a private fast track to test the limits, namely because the insurance company wouldn’t cover any resulting mishap, he said.

Insurance Company Takes Car

House called Gilbert Harrison, the tow truck driver who carefully winched the Veyron from the lagoon, telling him it was OK to release the car Friday to the insurance company. No information on the extent of the damage to the car’s electrical system, engine and components was available.

Harrison remembered House saying his phone rang frequently after the crash. House seemed quite calm, Harrison said.

“What I told him was I’d be as gentle as possible,” Harrison said of the tow that cost less than $1,000. “I did this tow like I do every car — like it was my own.”

According to the Lufkin Daily News, the owner Andy Lee House purchased the Veyron, carrying a $1.25 million price tag, from a dealer last month.

Last week House brought the car to Air Cooled Engines in Lufkin to show store employees — a usual occurrence whenever he got something new, according to 20-year employee Alan Arrowood. Arrowood said he’s sad to hear the negative things that have been said about House, calling him a “nice guy.”

“He brought that Bugatti by here last week and we all got to sit in it and look at it — a once-in-a-lifetime deal,” Arrowood said. “He’s a really nice guy. Last year he brought by a Ford GT to show us. That was a nice car.”

The car was insured through Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance, according to the La Marque Police report. An insurance sales agent with the Grundy Agency, the company that underwrites for Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance, said that it would cost around $8,000 yearly to insure a 2006 Bugatti Veyron. “There’s no coverage limit but typically the vehicle would be insured for the value,” Grundy Agency sales agent Lauren Gindele said. “Also, policies are paid yearly and not monthly.”

Sounds like the Veyron driver, Andy Lee House made a genuine mistake and however stupid it might seem in hindsight our sympathies go out to him. He must be gutted.

No words can fully capture what happens, so you had better take a look.

The creator of this YouTube video, exoticcar2009 describes the scene:

“I recorded this 5 miles away from my house in Galveston County, Texas. We have a very rich neighborhood right next to the beach. I was stunned! Third or fourth Veyron Crashed. A distracted owner of a Bugatti Veyron, one of the world’s fastest production cars, accidently drove Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, into a lake in Galveston, Texas. The driver was uninjured, but the car, which can sell for around $2 million, was partially submerged in three feet of water.”

The local paper, The Galveston Daily News, reports;

“LA MARQUE — The owner of one of the world’s fastest production automobiles accidentally drove his fine-tuned, French-built car into a saltwater lagoon Wednesday.

The man, who police said was from Lufkin, was uninjured after escaping the partially submerged Bugatti Veyron as it came to rest in about 2 feet of saltwater. The man, who refused to give his name, was looking at real estate in Galveston.

About 3 p.m. a low-flying pelican distracted him as he traveled north on Interstate 45 just south of the hurricane levee near Omega Bay. The man jerked the wheel, dropped his cell phone, and the car’s front tire left the frontage road and entered a muddy patch, which foiled his attempt to maneuver away from the lagoon. The Veyron’s powerful engine gurgled like an outboard motor for about 15 minutes before it died.

Police and firefighters blocked the frontage road until MCH Towing employee Gilbert Harrison carefully wenched the car away from riprap and onto the soft, muddy bank. It’s the rarest car in the world, not something you can just replace, the man said.”

The saddest part is at around 3 minutes into the video, the tow-truck driver decides to clean his hands by washing them in the muddy water before reaching in to the Veyron and turning it’s exquisitely covered leather steering wheel – he doesn’t even bother to wipe his hands on his clothes before doing so, presumably because he didn’t want to dirty them… Oh dear!

The Zenvo ST1 is powered by a 7-litre V8 bio-fueled engine (running on E85 fuel or 98 octane unleaded) and is fitted with both a supercharger and turbocharger. The resulting 1,104 bhp and 1,054 lb-ft of torque is claimed to power the ST1 from 0-62 mph in 3 seconds on its way to a limited top speed of 233 mph.

Zenvo fit a six-speed manual gearbox as standard with a paddle-shift controlled auto box available as an option

The interior of the ST1 looks far less cohesive than the exterior – featuring a derivative mix of designs including the instrument binnacle from a Porsche Boxster and a rather dominant 7.5 inch nav screen. It will not be to everyone’s taste, however Zenvo Automotive is planning to produce only 15 cars.

During its first run at the Salt Lake Flats in California last month, the TKR hit a top speed of 260.1 mph – 3 mph more than the existing title holder, the Shelby Aero TT, and 7 mph faster than the official time recorded for the Bugatti Veyron. In accord with the rules laid down by Guinness Book of World Records, the recording breaking run must be repeated to make the record official.

The TKR is believed to be powered by a 7.0-litre Corvette-based engine that produces 1800 bhp.

Tony Keating, founder of Keating Supercars, said: “The Keating TKR realises our ambition to take on the world’s finest supercars and win. This car rivals them all for looks, handling, performance and exclusivity. And best of all, it’s British.”