Bugatti made nine prototypes at a cost of $20m before the final Grand Sport was signed off

I opened my eyes and immediately made a dash for the bedroom window. Still wiping sleepiness from my face, I pulled back the curtains and exhaled a massive sigh of relief. The Dubai skyline was once again engulfed in its customary glorious sunshine. I know it’s not unusual for there to be good weather in the Emirates, but after several years of waiting, my first opportunity to drive a Bugatti Veyron had a few days earlier been tripped up by freak thunderstorms that had flooded our normally dry and dusty roads with several centimetres of accumulated precipitation. Not exactly ideal conditions for getting the most out of a roofless 1000bhp hypercar that costs more than most luxury homes.

Today is absolutely perfect though. The air is clear of dust as a result of the previous day’s torrential rain, allowing clear light to shine brightly on the stunning bodywork of the car that is parked before me. I am standing in-front of the tastefully stylish Dubai Park Hyatt hotel that is today’s rendezvous point, ogling every delicious detail of the Chestnut Grey Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport I’m about to drive. I’ve seen Veyrons numerous times before but I’ve never looked at one in the same context that I do today. Despite the fact that in my role as evo editor I have driven the great and the good of automotive exotica, the Bugatti Veyron was the big one that’d got away.

As a defence mechanism to having given up on ever driving one, I convinced myself that I wasn’t all that interested anyway; that it was just an overweight, overpowered, overrated dragster that was more about incredible numbers than an incredible driving experience. The extent that I was kidding myself only became apparent to me when I found out a couple of weeks earlier that I would finally be getting behind the wheel of the Bug.

As we circle the car, my chaperone for today - Bugatti ‘Pilote Officiel’ and ex-F1 and Le Mans racer Pierre Henri Raphanel - talks me through some of the differences between the Grand Sport and the run-of-the-mill (if you could ever call it that) coupe. Most obvious are the new LED lights and the new wheels that continue the horseshoe theme of the front grille and interior centre console. Strangely (considering the astronomical price) the Grand Sport is also the first Veyron to come with parking sensors, sat nav and a nifty reversing camera - the screen for which is in the right-hand side of the rear-view mirror. There’s also a new digital speed display option in the central rev-counter to stop you squinting down to see what ridiculous speed the smallish gauge shows you are hurtling down the road at. Also, to compensate for the loss in rigidity in removing the roof, Bugatti has used an aerospace- grade ultra-high-strength carbon fibre to reinforce the structure. The doors are also now made from carbon fibre rather than aluminium. The result is the stiffest open-roofed car ever produced and according to Raphanel, the difference in dynamics to the coupe can only be felt at the absolute limits of handling. I’ll take his word for it.

Aesthetically, the biggest difference is obviously that the roof is now removed, but somehow I find that it improves the elegantly muscular looks of the fixed roof Veyron. The front windshield is slightly longer and there are two carbon fibre roll-over hoops that are integrated into the engines air intakes. The Veyron never did much for me in the looks department, but there’s something about the Grand Sport that really turns me on. As strange as it may sound, it’s carved-from-a-solid-block looks remind me of the super hero Iron Man. All it needs is to be painted Burgundy and Gold and it would make the perfect car for Robert Downey in this summer’s upcoming sequel.

After my brief introduction Pierre-Henri and I jump in the car and head out into the Deira traffic, but frustratingly I am in the passenger seat rather than behind the wheel. It looks like I’ll have to wait a little bit longer to pop my Veyron cherry. For the next half hour or so we cruise along serenely at no more than 100kph. We leave the Dubai traffic behind us and all the while, Pierre-Henri recites the same story of the Veyron that he’s told thousands of times before. While it’s clear that his speech is a sales pitch designed to add drama to the occasion, I find myself hanging on every word he utters as it’s mostly fascinating stuff and full of intriguing anecdotes. Here are just a few. Bugatti made nine prototypes of the Grand Sport at a cost of almost $ 20m, before the final iteration was signed off. Bugatti showroom staff need to attain a certificate before they are allowed to move or park a Veyron. The Veyron owner that was famously caught on tape and is all over YouTube accidentally driving his car into a lake has yet to contact Bugatti or any of its dealers to source spare parts to repair the car.

This time spent driving slowly gives me the opportunity to soak in my surroundings, and the most surprising thing is just how civilised the Grand Sport is. The interior is understated but absolutely flawless and other than the wind noise intruding from the open roof things are surprisingly quiet. The noise from the engine sounds like the distant industrial thrum of a clothing factory with dozens of sewing machines chattering away. The engine is barely ticking over and the DSG gearbox seamlessly shuffles up to seventh gear without you noticing it’s even working. I glance over at the power gauge that sits to the left of the rev counter and I can see that we are only using 50 of the 1000bhp as we meander along. Then, all of a sudden all hell breaks loose as without warning Pierre-Henri buries the throttle pedal deep into the carpet. The gearbox automatically drops into second and we are catapulted down the road as if we have just been fired out of a canon. The G forces press me deep into the expensive leather of the seat as the Veyron ruthlessly gathers speed. I’m still struggling to get my head round the other-worldly acceleration when suddenly I’m hanging against my seatbelt as the immense braking capabilities are demonstrated to me, accompanied by the rear airbrake popping up dramatically. To accentuate how stable the Bug is under braking Pierre-Henri removes his hands from the wheel and starts clapping while the car sheds 250kph or so and comes to a halt pretty much dead straight. While he is clearly showing off, he has nonetheless emphatically made his point. I can’t help but let out a deep but slightly nervous laugh. My god this thing is quick!

Pulled over on the side of the desert road that leads to Kalba we exchange seats as it becomes my turn to take the wheel. Push the starter button at the bottom of the exquisitely machined centre console and the 8-litre W16 engine fires up sedately. Flick the oblong-shaped, leather-clad gearlever to the right, ease off the brake, feather the throttle and the massive 365/710 tyres start to roll. The way it pulls effortlessly away makes it feel just like a torque-converter auto. The steering is smooth and linear and quite light and if I hadn’t been sat alongside Pierre-Henri for the last hour or so I would have been shocked at how effortless it is to drive. The ride is quite stiff, but not jarring. Such is the torque and so smooth are the gearchanges that cruising along is a real pleasure.

‘I’m pressed deep into the expensive leather, as the Veyron ruthlessly gathers pace’

But I haven’t come here today to cruise.Flick the left-hand paddle down to second gear, maybe 50kmh on the speedo and hear the faint click of the throttle hitting its stop. The engine note hardens, overlaid with multiple turbos drawing breath and then....everything goes quiet. Simultaneously the huge sand dunes on either side of the road melt into a rich beige blur. In that instant your neck tries and fails to fight the Gs, your head is pinned against the seats and your lips involuntarily form a four-letter word. Flick the right hand paddle back, keep the throttle pinned and the intense, ferocious acceleration keeps getting stronger, gear after gear. The road ahead is free of traffic and speed cameras so I continue to forge ahead. The speedo is now past 300kph and we continue to gather pace at a rate that most supercars would struggle to achieve at 200kph. The Veyron remains utterly stable and I am now travelling faster than I’ve ever gone before, and keep going until the digital display reads 343kph, just seven shy of its roof-open top speed of 350. With the roof on and the rear-wing in its lowest-drag setting Bugatti says the Grand Sport will hit 407kph. I look in my rear-view mirror and the Golf GTI that snapper Alejandro and Bugatti’s PR lady are following in has completely disappeared. I slow down to give them a chance to catch up and minutes later they finally reappear. I want to keep charging but the need for photography means I have to return to cruise mode as we hit the Emirate’s best driving road that links the Hajjar Mountains to Kalba’s picturesque coastline. When we hit the sleepy northern town on the border of Fujairah, the Bugatti is certainly the centre of attention. Everywhere we go the camera phones come out and curious passers-by come over for a closer look. Two particularly intrepid fans follow us from location to location and insist on having their picture taken with the Veyron. We oblige and finally they leave us to get on with things.

With both photography duties and the sun now behind us we bid our chase-team farewell and retrace our steps back through the sweeping mountain roads, but this time at a far more electrifying pace. On these roads, the Grand Sport is a revelation and comes alive. There is a bit of turbo lag but the Bugatti shrugs off its two-tonne weight and feels light on its toes, tacking into turns eagerly and allowing you to use much more of the performance to blast out of the corners than you’d ever believe possible. It feels pointy, hyper-alert, yet with no hint of nervousness. I hadn’t expected that, to be honest. The aural aspect of the Grand Sport also comes into play now as the engine makes a booming noise reminiscent of a powerboat at full chat, interrupted by a cacophony of whooshes and whistles that ricochet off the rock walls every time I lift off the loud pedal. This is not the type of car that you would want to powerslide through corners and to be honest, I doubt even Lewis Hamilton would consider switching off the electronics. Nevertheless, the grip and traction, and the willingness of the Bugatti to change direction show that this is far from just a straight-line supercar. The speed I’m able to carry through bends is mind blowing and I emerge out of the other side of the mountain pass amazed and deeply impressed.

‘There’s no doubt, this is the ultimate representation of the modern supercar’

As my time with the incredible Bugatti comes to an end, I begin to reflect on what I have experienced. The Grand Sport combines luxury, striking looks and usability with open-air thrills, earth shattering straight-line speed and truly nimble handling. The Veyron doesn’t feel as alive or as characterful as the best Italian exotics but I’m left in no doubt that this is unequivocally the ultimate representation of the modern supercar. Now if only I had a spare $ 2m dollars tucked away in a piggy bank somewhere.

	Bugatti Grand Sport
Engine	W16, quad-turbo
Location	Mid, longitudinal
Displacement	7993cc
Max power	1000bhp @ 6000rpm
Max torque	922lb ft @ 3500-5500rpm
Transmission	Seven-speed DSG twin-clutch gearbox, four-wheel drive
Weight (kerb)	1990kg
Power-to-weight	510bhp/ton
0-100kph	2.7sec (claimed)
0-200kph	7.3sec (claimed)
Top speed	407kph (claimed)
Basic price	$ 1.95million
Star	5 stars