Bugatti Veyron gets power boost

The Bugatti Veyron is about to get a massive hike in horsepower as the French maker creates what it claims as "the most powerful roadster of all time".

Its Grand Sport Vitesse will be previewed at the Geneva motor show next month with an outrageous 895 kiloWatts - 1200 horsepower - and 1500 Newton-metres of torque.

The styling of the latest Veyron model is aligned to the Veyron Super Sport, which currently holds the world speed record for a road car at 431km/h.

In the engine room, the car's 8-litre W16 engine has four larger turbochargers and intercoolers, while the chassis has been tweaked to handle the extra output.

"Once again, our engineers worked hard to demonstrate that Bugatti is able to constantly re-define the boundaries of what is technically feasible," says Wolfgang Durheimer, president of Bugatti.

Full details of the car, including a pricetag around $1.8 million, will be revealed in Geneva.

But there is no chance of the Grand Sport Vitesse making it to Australia, as the Veyron is only made in right-hand drive and the car has only been seen once for a series of promotional drivers surround the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide and the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.