2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Photos

The soft top is a flimsy carbon-fiber-and-canvas umbrella that Bugatti says shouldn't be used at speeds beyond 100 mph.

Price: $2,128,230.

With the hard top in place, top speed remains 253 mph. With the roof off, the Grand Sport can only do 224 mph.

A fully fueled Grand Sport contains about 400 pounds of liquids.

The quad-turbo W16, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and AWD system weigh about 1800 pounds.

Bugatti says it made 300 Veyron coupes and 150 roadsters.

Removing the top makes it sound even more like the quad turbos are trying to vacuum you into the engine bay.

Specially developed Michelin tires are good for more than 250 mph, and cost somewhat more than a set of Pilot Sports.

The Veyron accelerator is hard to judge, since its responses amount to "waiting for the turbos" or "a thousand horsepower".

Fair to say the Veyron shape doesn't exude the angular menace we expect from hypercars.

The Veyron's underpinnings are reinforced to compensate for the rigidity sacrificed to the open roof.

A finer interior you will not find.

The Grand Sport's quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W-16 engine goes commando.

Cornering isn't really the Veyron's speciality. But the coupe pulled 1.0 g on the skidpad.

The coupe we tested ran the quarter mile in 10.1 seconds at 142 mph.

The 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport was the foundation for an even faster roadster, the 1200-horsepower Vitesse.

If you're not bald when you climb behind the wheel, you might be by the time you hit 224 mph.