Flash.(Briefs)

H-powered RX-8

At the Tokyo motor show, Mazda debuted its latest take on a hydrogen future with the Hydrogen Renesis rotary in an RX-8 that can run on either gasoline or hydrogen, making it an ideal transitional vehicle for a future where hydrogen and gasoline both serve our vehicles.

Rotary engines work well with hydrogen fuel because the fuel-injection area of the engine is cooler than in a piston engine. Mazda first showed a hydrogen-powered rotary in 1991, the H-RX.

Only one Veyron

Contrary to reports in the European press and elsewhere, Bugatti officials insist there will be only one version of the EB Veyron 16.4-the one with the 987-hp, 8.0-liter W16 engine. Word was that tires for such a supercar, tires that could withstand a run of 252 mph until the tank ran dry, meant Bugatti would have to dial back the power. Not true, say company officials.

"We are recommending that if you want to make a sustained run at top speed that you do it with a set of new tires,'' said Bugatti president Karl-Heinz Neumann.

That 252-mph top speed is still theoretical, however. The fastest anyone has driven a Veyron is 236 mph, during tests. One car crashed, because of "driver failure'' at 217 mph. While that top-speed figure is as yet unproved, the horsepower figure is conservative-Neumann said the Veyron's engine has hit 1200 hp on the dyno.