The Bugatti Veyron has wiped the floor with the opposition in British Autocar magazine’s annual 0-100-0mph contest, even managing to beat a Suzuki GSX-R1000 superbike.

Featuring 25 of the world’s fastest cars, from the 14th placed $110,000 Aston Martin V8 Vantage to the second-placed $48,000 Ariel Atom, the shoot-out pitches the cars against each other in a straight fight to see which is the fastest to 100 mph. There’s more to it than just outright speed though – slowing from 100 mph to a dead halt is just as important.

The Veyron, with its 1001 bhp 16-cylinder engine, wasn’t necessarily the favorite to win. "A low weight tends to be the key to a good 0-100-0 mph car," said Autocar’s road test editor Adam Towler. "Cars like the Ariel Atom and Caterham Superlight historically dominate this contest."

But the 4162 lb $1,700,000 Bugatti ripped through the gears to hit 60 mph in 2.8 sec and 100 mph in an astonishing 5.5 sec. It then stopped in just 3.4 sec, giving a 0-100-0 mph time of 9.9 sec.

Not only is the Bugatti faster than the Suzuki, it creates more g-force at maximum acceleration than you’d experience in an F-16 jet fighter at take off or when skydiving.

But the lightweights still turned in an impressive performance, from the relatively unknown $44,000 Brooke Double R in fourth place to the $48,000 Ariel Atom 300 in second.

"Although the Veyron is undoubtedly the quickest road car ever, you can still have nearly as much fun for much less money," said Adam Towler. "It’s good to see British sports cars doing so well against such an impressive machine as the Bugatti."

Autocar also brought along an A1 GP car, driven by Brit Robbie Kerr, to see how a purpose-built race car would compare with road-going machinery. The 550 bhp single seater weighs just 1532 lb, and proved to be the fastest vehicle on the day with a 0-100-0 mph time of 8.4 sec.