The road ahead is wide and straight and runs to a vanishing point melting in heat haze. I’m in the SV in ‘Corsa’ mode to quicken the brutal gearshift when the Bugatti pulls level with one great gulp of hot air. My prediction for the next few moments is this: on the signal of ‘three’ we’ll give it the lot, by the count of ‘four’ the Grand Sport will be about five car lengths ahead and a moment later it will be nothing more than a disappearing silvery blob. So… one, two, three! The Veyron leaps ahead with sand and grit and hot spent gases raining down behind it, but it’s no more than three car lengths to the good. Into third and it’s still pulling away but, as the SV’s V12 hits its sweet spot it, unbelievably, starts to peg the Bugatti. The gap has stabilised and the mighty Bug can only pull further ahead inch-by-hard-fought-inch until we’re on the other side of 240km/h. Perhaps the high temperatures hurt the turbocharged W16 a little more than the naturally aspirated SV. Even so the SV has proven its credentials on the Bugatti’s home turf – a long, empty straight. Impressive.
But we’re still not satisfied, so we do it again. Over and over we simply drive as fast as we dare, often side-by-side. It’s childish but you know you’d do the same. We don’t see another car as we warp up and down this strip of tarmac that tears through a bleak Martian landscape, stripped of its sand by the wind whipping off the Persian Gulf. Up here it’s just rubble and rock and the odd ugly shrub. By now we’re hot and hungry and we’ve slurped through fuel at a world record rate. The cars are thirsty, too. We follow the sand south, back through Doha, and to the dunes.
Mesaieed is a whole new landscape. Vast dunes melt together and run on for miles further than the road allows us to travel. We’re surrounded by Land Cruisers and the hiss of air being let out of their plump tyres. Out of sight are hundreds of permanent campsites that are full to bursting at weekends. Each dune is dotted with quads and Land Cruisers, all at full throttle, all apparently on a collision course. There appear to be no rules and no police. Maybe Qatar isn’t so bad after all.
The road to Mesaieed could have been laid for these two cars. Well-sighted,
ell-surfaced and scary, scary fast. It sweeps left and right but in a normal car you’d barely register these direction changes. In a Grand Sport or an SV they’re corners. You approach them at aircraft speeds, gently apply lock to coax the nose into the apex, feel the grip and then feed the throttle in all the way to its stop. It’s a shamefully satisfying window into their ultimate capabilities. The Lambo gives you more feedback at these speeds and feels hungrier for direction changes, but also finds bumps and ruts that the Bugatti doesn’t notice and weaves under heavy braking. The Veyron is – as ever – more relaxing, more consistent. It is incredibly stable at even higher speeds and when braking from them. The air brake in particular is phenomenal. As a road car there’s not much to criticise. You get a sense of the weight you’re forcing to turn and accelerate and stop, but the way you can cover ground is nothing short of sensational. I can’t imagine ever tiring of its mix of engineering integrity, luxury and tongue-swallowing acceleration. I’d sell a kidney to own one. 
We leave Mesaieed humbled by both of these cars, exhausted from a day of life-affirming highs, relentless heat, frustrating traffic hell in Doha and, just for me, some sort of weird suncream allergy that has made my eyes run like I’ve eaten some macho chilli. The sun is long gone, I can barely see through my tears and the road to the Qatar Racing Club feels endless. We get lost. Again. We end up on a rutted, narrow road that suddenly turns into a rocky unsealed track. Again. We have to pull a U-turn in the dark on a narrow track with suicidal truck drivers bearing down on us. Eventually we find it. And they give us drinks, turn on the lights that warm the cold night air and slowly reveal a pristine quarter-mile strip. Not a bad way to end the day. Bugatti and Lamborghini line up, launch-control modes selected. We get the signal, 1671PS thumps to 2.5m of expensive rubber… and I nearly spin the SV. The Bugatti lights up all four tyres, flicks sideways and lays four fat black lines that don’t fade for 300ft. It’s lethal. Sand blowing over a glassy surface makes for fear and wheelspin and the last straw. Time to go home. Thanks for the memories, Qatar. I’ll always try to forget you. The cars though, I’ll never forget the cars.
Swimming through the rapids of Doha’s teeming streets in a Grand Sport seems intimidating. The car itself isn’t
Qatar has
one meaningful corner that
e can find, and the Veyron
an take
t in fourth.
t 240km/h
Into third and the Veyron’s pulling away but, as the SV hits its sweet spot it, unbelievably, starts to peg the Bugatti
The Grand Sport lights up all four tyres, flicks sideways and lays four fat black lines that don’t fade for 300ft
bugatti veyron grand sport
Price I Rs 10 crore on sale I Now
f0Engine I 7993cc 64v quad-turbo W16, 1001PS @ 6000rpm, 1250Nm @ 2200-5500rpm transmission I Seven-speed dual-clutch auto, four-wheel drive suspension I Double wishbones front and rear Weight/made from I 1968kg/carbonfibre/aluminium Length/width/height I 4462/1998/1204mm performance I 2.7sec 0-100km/h, 407km/h, 4.25kmpl
f0rating I 11111
lambo murcielago lp670-4
Price I Rs 1.5 crore on sale I Now
f0Engine I 6496cc 48v V12, 670PS @ 8000rpm, 660Nm @ 6500rpm transmission I Six-speed semi-auto, four-wheel drive suspension I Double wishbones front and rear Weight/made from I 1565kg/carbon, steel Length/width/height I 4705/2240/1135mm performance I 3.2sec 0-100km/h, 341km/h, 7.30kmpl
rating I 11111
