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You may not like the look of the thing, or the gaudiness of the interior. You may think Ferdinand Piech a mentalist for ordering such a car be made, and to hell with the shareholders. But you have to love the engineering. You just have to.

It isn't even a straight-line rocket ship, either. On that twisting dual carriageway that comes back down to the ionosphere from the Mont Blanc tunnel, I had it in handling mode, and it's hard to put into words how much grip there is.

Foot down and with 800bhp hitting the front wheels, you get a dollop of power understeer, but it's not like any power understeer I've ever felt because there's still 200bhp going to the back wheels... and that's a number that's growing by the moment. It feels odd at first, but then it feels spectacular.

Nearly as spectacular as the hammer-blow power delivery when the corner's over, or the chuckability when you get to the next. I could describe this car as the Lotus Elise's big brother. So I will. It's that good.

And now I've changed my mind. It's not 'that good' at all. It's better, because I drove this car for 12 hours and emerged in London with no aches. You can't do that in an Elise, and not only because after 12 hours, you'd still have 12 to go.

At a stroke then, the Veyron has rendered everything I've ever said about any other car obsolete. It's rewritten the rule book, moved the goalposts and in the process, given Mother Nature a bloody nose.

Of course, I don't mind changing my opinions about Ferrari and so on. I'm used to it. I spend half my life apologising, and I don't mind finishing up here with another. I'm sorry I laughed at the Bugatti Veyron's gestation. I didn't realise quite what a project it was.

James too is bowled over by the scale of what's been achieved - I knew he would be - but sadly, the praise is not universal. I've have read a couple of reports where commentators are still sneering about the problems of making it, and the supposed soulless nature of the finished product.

Come on chaps admit it. You were wrong and the Veyron makes you look like a twat. I know how you feel. The McLaren F1 did much the same thing to me.

Watch the Bugatti Veyron video