Farewell, Bugatti W16: one last ride in the 16-cylinder Veyron and Chiron

On 20 June we’ll see Bugatti’s next hypercar, one powered by an all-new V16 engine, and that means the reign of the W16 is over.

And what a reign it’s been. The numbers from the unique 8.0-litre, quad-turbo, sixteen-cylinder leviathan might not seem all that remarkable in a world of 2,000bhp electric supercars, but when the Veyron was unveiled in 2005, its 987bhp (1,001PS) output was staggering.

Over the next two decades, power went up to 1,200PS for the Super Sport model, the arrival of its 2016 successor (the Chiron) saw a rise to 1,500PS, and its own Super Sport variant took us to 1,600PS – and over 300mph.

Let’s not get lost in the numbers though, despite the Top Trumps statistics. The Veyron was the world’s first hypercar, it and the Chiron normalised four-figure outputs, and the pair remain the only true luxury hypercars. Nothing else has such a colossal breadth of abilities.

To celebrate the W16, we took the Veyron and Chiron on one final road trip with Bugatti's chief test driver Andy Wallace, who shared a few secret stories – including one of jumping a Chiron at over 250mph.

Over to Top Gear magazine’s deputy editor, Ollie Kew…