Embrace The Rush

As any driving fan will tell you, sophistication should sometimes take a back seat to good old-fashioned fun.

THE FASTEST WAY to go around a corner is with poise and precision. But many would note that the most exhilarating way to go around the corner is via squealing rubber and smoke. Your lap times may suffer, but that just leaves longer to indulge in some mechanical excess. Here are some of the most exciting cars in recent memory, ones that are road-legal but wild at heart. They are not for the timid, and they might not get you there the quickest, but they will get the adrenaline flowing.

Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport

The Bugatti Chiron, like the Veyron before it, could get the heart racing with its numbers alone. Its 8.0-litre engine has 16 cylinders and four turbos gulping 60,000 litres of air per minute. It needs 10 radiators to keep it cool, circulating 800 litres of water per minute. It puts out 1,500bhp and 1,600Nm for 0-100km/hr in 2.4 seconds and an electronically limited 420km/hr top speed. And then there’s the €2.5 million base price tag, of course. It is also so packed with diamond membrane speakers, Wi-Fi, air conditioning and soft leather that, on the inside, the experience is not nearly as wild as the numbers would promise. Enter Chiron Pur Sport, which is 50kg lighter by doing away with such niceties as sound dampening. Throw in shorter gear ratios and a new drifthappy traction control setting, and it makes flinging this €3.5 million worth of bragging rights around a corner all that more exhilarating.