Bugatti Veyron once again claims the title with the 267.9 mph Supersport

http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/data/technical-analysis-anatomy-of-a-supercar
Gordon Murray said:
As the drag increases as a square of the speed, the power requirement increases as a cube of the speed because the power itself is speed-dependent. The Veyron because of its high CDA figure and huge cooling drag needs 1001 hp to go 12 mph faster than a McLaren F1 producing 627 hp. To help understand the problem of starting a car program from a weak point aerodynamically, we do some calculations: A turbocharged F1 producing 1001 hp would achieve 281 mph assuming the same drivetrain efficiency. Another way of looking at this equation is that an F1 would need "only" 740 hp to reach the Bugatti's top speed. All this demonstrates just what an uphill struggle the Bugatti team faced to achieve their targets.
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Gordon Murray said:
Designing a rear mid-engine supercar is never a simple task and a car with 1001 hp [metric horsepower] multiplies the normal design and development problems by a large factor. The Veyron's design team must be applauded because the starting point was so wrong. Arbitrary targets of 1000 hp and 250 mph and 0-60-mph in under 3 seconds were set at the very beginning of the program. But worse still, a styling model was shown and accepted! This is a bad starting point for any car, but for a high-performance car, it's a disaster.
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Thank God it beat out the pug-ugly parts-bin shed-built redneck special SCC Ultimate Aero; now petrolheads around the world won't feel awkward being all technical about what the world's fastest car really is.

"Bugatti Veyron!"
"Actually, that's not the world's fastest car..."
"Yes it is."
"No, there's actually something faster."
"No there's not. It's the Veyron."
"Have you ever heard of this? It's the SCC Ultimate Aero, and it recently beat the Veyron on a timed mile run at 1.2mph faster with record officials presiding..."
"I'm outta here. Goodnight."
"Great, so much for a second date."
 
Except that there's already word that they're just going to turn up the boost on the SSC and go take the record away from Bugatti again.

And this new Bugatti variant is just as ugly.
 
Isn't that there because it's the Gran Sport?
 
Gotcha...I read "Supersport" as Gran Sport. My bad.
 
Spectre said:
Except that there's already word that they're just going to turn up the boost on the SSC and go take the record away from Bugatti again.

And this new Bugatti variant is just as ugly.
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"Just" going to turn up the boost? Oh yeah, sure, because we can all "just" turn up the boost on our turbocharged cars and go faster :rolleyes:
 
I can't say I really car what SSC does to go faster. The Aero and Veyron are really in no way comparable. One is a purpose built straight line speed demon, the other is a luxury sport cruiser as comfortable as any bmw/mercedes/etc out there and still is claiming fastest car in the world.
 
actually i just watched a thing the other day on tv about the SSC Ultimate Aero built by Carol Shelby and well, it looked...ok i guess. he was driving it on a road and he actually turned a corner in it and he didnt crash!
 
I thought the "Shelby" in SSC didn't have anything to do with that Shelby
 
Spectre said:
Except that there's already word that they're just going to turn up the boost on the SSC and go take the record away from Bugatti again.
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Do they really need to do even that? I heard the record run for the SSC was on some fairly short stretch of closed highway somewhere. It would be interesting to see what it could do on a state-of-art high speed test track like the Bugatti.

BTW, I was told that Bugatti never really cared about holding any records and couldn't care less about the Guinness book of records recognizing it. :?
 
So...what was this video you saw, then?
 
i want to say it was on HD theater, maybe "worlds most expensive rides", you know, the show that bases how good a car has to be because it has a high price tag, but im not sure, i was flipping through the channels and ran into it.
 
TomCat said:
Do they really need to do even that? I heard the record run for the SSC was on some fairly short stretch of closed highway somewhere. It would be interesting to see what it could do on a state-of-art high speed test track like the Bugatti.

BTW, I was told that Bugatti never really cared about holding any records and couldn't care less about the Guinness book of records recognizing it. :?
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Ya. Aero only had like a mile or two of closed public highway somewhere in the US desert whereas the Veyron had full access to the Ehra-Lessien. I think there were rumors that SSC requested access to the Ehra-Lessien test track for top speed attempts but were denied outright by VW.
 
This is all a really uninteresting pissing contest.

How about manufacturers spend all their time and hard effort creating good cars that people want/can afford.
Not some ghastly behemoth of a vehicle that only a few can afford.

And how fast it can go in a straight line, great, if I never need to fly anywhere.
Oh wait, it's a car, I can't.
 
hurrhurr said:
This is all a really uninteresting pissing contest.

How about manufacturers spend all their time and hard effort creating good cars that people want/can afford.
Not some ghastly behemoth of a vehicle that only a few can afford.

And how fast it can go in a straight line, great, if I never need to fly anywhere.
Oh wait, it's a car, I can't.
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Because people like saying, "I own a car that's faster than yours."
 
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