Bugatti Veyron Pur Sang news - The super-exclusive Veyron - 2007

The hulking Lamborghini Reventon wasn't the most expensive, or even most exclusive, car on display at the Frankfurt motor show this year.

That honour goes to this: the Bugatti Veyron Pur Sang. Not that it was on display for long in Frankfurt, as the million-quid supercar was hidden from public view and, once unveiled, swiftly veiled again to keep it from prying eyes.

That didn't stop all five Pur Sangs being bought up on the spot, though. Rumour has it that several of the cars changed hands for a somewhat higher figure than the £1,000,000 asking price, but we reckon you'd need IRS-style access to some hefty offshore bank accounts to find out if that's true or not.

Nonetheless, the Pur Sang - that's 'pure blood' in literal translation - makes the £700,000, limited-to-20-examples Reventon look a bit, well, common.

The main difference between the Pur Sang and the standard £800,000 Veyron is that stunning paint job or, rather, lack of it: the finish is raw aluminium and carbon fibre. We reckon it looks great - certainly better than any other two-tone Veyron we've seen around. 

The Pur Sang is also some 100kg lighter, and as Bugatti hasn't told us about any other mechanical alterations, we can only assume that's some damn heavy paint on the stock Veyron.

And, of course, the weight loss does mean that the Pur Sang could be a fraction quicker. Top Gear selflessly volunteers for the Pur Sang versus garden Veyron group test.

That said, £200,000 is a lot to pay to have the paint taken off your car. We know a bloke down in Shepherd's Bush who'll do it for a tenner. And unlock your mobile phone at the same time.