Quite correct, I'm not dissing the XJ220, rather, I'm using it as an example of supercar engineering that didn't live up to the marketing promise. If you call a car XJ220 because you want it do 220 mph then you'd batter make darn sure that it'll do an appropriate speed like 223 or even 221 mph. Not 217. That makes it the XJ217 then doesn't it?

I know I'm being pedantic and that marketing as a whole creates promises beyond the capabilities of the product - a prime example is business software - but when it comes to supercars, I feel that manufacturers ought to put their money where their mouths are. To spew out a slew of superlatives before you have a working prototype is a recipe for embarrasment.

Luw, let's hope this community can stick it out together for the next couple of years... then we can get together and, with the benefit of hindsight, decide whether the Bugatti Veyron was a successful landmark achievement or just simply a record breaker in terms of straight-line performance.

For now the Bugatti still has some annoying kind of aura despite its purported propensity for limp-mode.