"Simply stated… the greatest car ever made and the greatest car we will ever see in our lifetime."

Those were Top Gear impresario Jeremy Clarkson’s words upon arriving at Tower 42 in London, having just bested his opponent in a race from Italy which saw him piloting a Bugatti Veyron. His challenger’s machine of choice? An airplane.

Clarkson’s experience was the culmination of 10 years’ work by automotive engineers unhindered by pragmatics constraints such as fiscal conservatism and the laws of physics. In 1998, Volkswagen Group acquired the rights to the fabled Bugatti marque in a strategic acquisition born to realize Ferdinand Piëch’s vision for an of unsurpassed power, performance, and heritage. His mandates for the car that eventually became the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 would be some of the most ambitious ever issued by an automaker: It needed to produce 1,001 PS (987 horsepower) and achieve a top speed in excess of 400 km/h (nearly 250 mph), yet also be entirely tractable and livable for daily driving, with great comfort for both driver and passenger. The final product was intended not just to resurrect one of the most famous names in automobiles, in utterly spectacular fashion, but to absolutely demonstrate the engineering prowess of the Volkswagen Group to the world.

Piëch’s team responded to this challenge by not only meeting but, in many cases, exceeding his ideals. The production Veyron that emerged in 2005 could accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in just 2.46 seconds, en route to a top speed just over 408 km/h (nearly 254 mph). Built around a magnificent mid-mounted, quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W-16 engine (a departure from the W-18 powerplant that had been initially envisioned) with four valves per cylinder and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, it astonished the world with its surefootedness even at the most extreme speeds, enabled by a full-time Haldex all-wheel-drive system. The stopping power was stunning, as the Veyron was anchored by massive carbon-ceramic disc brakes with 15.7-inch discs and eight-piston, four-pad calipers up front, while 15-inch discs with six-piston, two-pad calipers were mounted at the rear. The alloy wheels, respectively 20 and 21 inches at the front and rear, were shod with special Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 PAX run-flat tires engineered specifically for the Veyron.

All of this was encased within an intricately hand-crafted structure instantly recognizable only as what it is: The modern Bugatti, a car that looked and performed like absolutely nothing else on the road. Even today, nearly 20 years after its introduction, its specifications are remarkable, and its performance still stands shoulder to shoulder with the world’s greatest supercars.

Sporting a stratospheric price tag well north of one million dollars, these masterpieces were reserved only for the moneyed few. The Veyron 16.4 on offer here is no exception, having been first owned by renowned British media kingpin, Simon Cowell. Purchased straight off the Beverly Hills showroom floor in early 2008, Cowell’s Veyron was instantly known to Los Angeles’ glitterati as exploding flash bulbs and gawking crowds seemed to follow at every haughty stop.

During a 2011 appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Cowell detailed his infatuation with the car, saying the Veyron “beckoned him” upon first seeing it and facetiously stating that since he was so regularly chauffeured, he had only driven the car twice. Cowell clearly enjoyed his Bugatti more than he was letting on, as he added just over 1,000 miles during his tenure before selling to the Dare to Dream Collection in 2014. The car has received expert care under the Collection’s decade-long curation and is accompanied by maintenance invoices and copies of documents relating to Cowell’s ownership. At the time of cataloguing, it has been driven just 3,780 miles.

Sporting both a coveted livery and celebrity provenance, this all-black Veyron will make an exhilarating addition to any serious stable. Just as with the marque’s offerings a century ago, Bugatti’s Veyron holds near-mythical status in the automotive world. It very well may be, to simply state it, the greatest car ever made.