Reventon only for the rich

You've gotta love a supercar, even if you can hope to own only the scale model, not least because they're such an affront to the pedestrian types who run self-appointed safety councils.

Two new uber-conveyances have come to light in recent days at the Frankfurt Motor Show. One of them is the Lamborghini's Reventon which, at $A1.7million or so, is the the marque's most expensive car ever, will soon be en route to the Australian International Motor Show.

But holster your Amex there, slick. Lambo claims to have sold 20, which it plans to build. Unshockingly, most of the buyers were men from the US.

The Reventon, based on Lambo's Murcielago LP640 and using the same 6.5-litre, 12-cylinder motor, shoots from zero to 100km/h in 3.4 seconds and can do more than 340km/h.

Its futuristic design, controls and dash are intended to evoke a jet fighter, as opposed to a car that, despite its extraordinary capability it is entirely street-legal.

“The Reventon is the most extreme of them all, a true automotive superlative,” Lambo CEO Stephan Winkelmann commented mildly.

“Our designers took the technical base of the Murcielago LP640 and compressed and intensified its DNA, its genetic code.”

Even more exclusive and expensive is Bugatti's Veyron Pur Sang (“pure blood”).

The idea was to take the already fairly stunning W16-cylinder Veyron and give it an entirely carbon-fibre and aluminium body.

Carbon trim is no longer exactly novel, but the Pur Sang is the production car that makes the most extensive use of carbon fibre so far.

Its black woven tub, housing the engine, passenger cell and crash structures, contrasts dramatically with the highly polished aluminium pontoon fenders and intake covers.

Bugatti has sold 100 copies of the sub-three-second-to-100km/h Veyron, but only five Pur Sangs will be built. The first one sold for a reputed $A2.4 million, a healthy $600,000 or so over your common-or-garden model.

We'd love to tell you what it's like to drive even one of these, but Bugatti seems strangely reticent to hand over a test car.

For that, you'll need to watch the next season of Top Gear, which will feature a segment shot last week of Richard “Hamster” Hammond racing a Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter. As one does ...

Hammond took on the Typhoon, which can travel twice the speed of sound, in a 400km/h Veyron. The London Times reports that Hammond drove the Bugatti for 1.6km down the runway, then turned around and headed for the finish line.

The Typhoon had to fly 1.6km down the runway, then fly vertically for 1.6km before turning around and heading for the finish line.

The Bugatti, according to the Times, "got totally spanked."