Our most recent Berlin trip began with a rare photo opportunity of the fastest car on the planet, the Bugatti Veyron. It’s parked behind glass at a huge Volkswagen group dealership in the center of Berlin, tucked away in many floors of an office building. Even parked, the Veyron does what it’s supposed to do at its top speed, it simply takes your breath away at every turn! Once when you see its beauty, again when you see it $1,7 million price tag, then when you see that it has an EPA rating of 3 miles per gallon at its top speed. The car does what its supposed to, and that is it turns heads even when parked idly at a show room.

The dealership however is not just Bugatti, in fact it houses all of Volkswagen’s cars; Bugatti, Bentley, Volkswagen, Seat, and Skoda. The new Bettle is there, and it’s a huge improvement over the previous model in my opinion. It’s parked next to what I would love to be my next car, the newest iteration of the Passat Wagon. One day you shall be mine!

But the most interesting part of the dealership was their eco-friendly room where they showed all the different eco technology Volkswagen is investing in. Personally I don’t know if this approach of trying a go at everything is a good business strategy. Surely their R&D department is loving the opportunity to innovate to their hearts content, but I believe the Toyota Prius approach is better; do one thing and do it well.

It was at the eco-room of the dealership that I quickly forgot about the Veyron and my future Passat, because I found what was the coolest toy ever; bicycle powered slot cars!

The rules are simple, the faster you paddle the faster your VW Polo slot car will go. If my gym had this sort of exercise equipment I swear I’d be 20 pounds lighter typing this now! Holy crap did it get us tired in no time, and we didn’t even notice how out of breath we got because all we wanted is to race our cars. It was a lot of fun.