Bugatti Veyron - what is the sound of one... thousand and one horsepower clapping?

Volkswagen's been putting the final touches on this baby since forever.

The company purchased the Bugatti brand in 1999, and shortly thereafter showed a Veyron prototype at the 2000 Paris Motor Show.

They had a production-ready version in Geneva at the 2002 show there.

But they still weren't ready to sell them, probably because perfecting a 1001-horsepower, 16-cylinder engine capable of 250 m.p.h. that's gonna be in a car retailing for $1,088,000 is not a trivial task.

It's an 8.0 liter beast with 4 turbochargers, with a 0-188 m.p.h. (hey, 0-60 is so over) time of 14 seconds.

The engine is W-shaped, created by merging two W-8 Passat engines.

950-foot-pounds of torque.

Seven-speed, double-clutch, Formula-1-style gearbox with paddles replacing the traditional clutch-and-stick.

The latest word is that the car will finally go on sale next year, with production limited to 300 vehicles.

Vrooom.