Knowing What Is The Fastest Car In The World Isn't Easy
It's a question probably someone asks every day, probably. On the face of it, it would seem as simple as asking which way is up. I mean, what is the fastest car in the world? There must be an answer. Just line them up and race them, or something, right? What's there to complicate the matter?
Not so fast, though. It turns out that in the high stakes prestige affair of crowning a car as the fastest, there may in fact be somewhat more considerations than you'd think. And "considered" such matters would appear to need to be. Indeed, dispute about the very the definition of what is a "car" led to some considerable controversy in 2013 regarding which car did or did not qualify to wear the crown.
First though let's introduce the players. There are three cars particularly that we'll want to be familiar with as our story unfolds. First there is the Bugatti Veynon Super Sport. A bit like the European Union, this car is the product of a Franco-German collaboration. It is owned by Volkswagen, but assembled in Molsheim, France. This car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, toting an 8.0 liter W16 engine that generates 1,200 bhp. It has been certified by the Guinness Book of Records as obtaining average track speed of 267.8 mph. It is generally acknowledge as the current occupant of the throne.
The competition for Bugatti is, first, the Hennessey Venom GT, with a speed of 265.7 mph. With its 7.0 liter V8 twin turbo engine producing 1,244 bhp, it has been certified as accelerating from 0 to 186 mph in 13.63 seconds. And second is the SSC Ultimate Aero, which has twice been crowned the world's fastest car, in the past. It has recorded a certified speed of 256.18 mph, giving it the title the first time around, which it kept for almost three years. It was the second time wearing the crown, though, which involved all the controversy. Before getting to that, in addition to identifying the players, we have to also know the rules.
To be clear, here, any claims about a car being the fastest in the world are really about whether it is the fastest "production" car. Production car, you ask? The only cars that qualify under this rule are ones that can be bought commercially. Vehicles, that could perhaps be called cars (even if they more resemble rockets), but are only legal to drive places like the Utah salt flats, don't count. Only a car that can be legally purchased and driven on city streets counts as a production car.
At least part of what is intended by such a rule is that only cars qualify for the race, as it were, if they are not modified from their commercial form to amplify their race track speed. That would seem to make sense. If the point is to evaluate production cars, surely cars customized for racing would be disqualified. Isn't that a straightforward matter? Well, actually, it turned out to be a little more complicated than expected.
In 2010 Bugatti took the crown of world's fastest car away from the SSC Ultimate Aero. The German-French collaborative car reigned uninterrupted, until April of 2013. At the very beginning of that month, John Hennessey, car guru of the Hennessey Venom GT, alleged having set the production car record by hitting 265.7 mph. As this was not a certified test it posed no threat to the Bugatti record. And, anyway, Bugatti's record was faster than that, at 267.8 mph. Rather, what led to the controversy was that Hennessey also noted in passing that, in fact his car's speed really did make it the actual fastest production car in the world. And the reason he cited was that Bugatti attached a speed limiter to their retail cars.
So it turned out to be. In fact, Bugatti Venyon Super Sports bought commercially had a safety system installed that prevented the car from exceeding 258 mph: a speed 10 mph below the track record of the car. When this situation came to the attention of the Guinness Book of Records a great storm of controversy soon followed. The Guinness adjudicators concluded that this was the kind of modification for speed testing purposes that the rules disqualified. The Bugatti, in their new estimation wasn't in fact a production car. Its crown was duly revoked. The Hennessey's speed though had not been officially certified, so the crown for fastest car in the world reverted back to the prior record holder, the SSC Ultimate Aero.
This obviously was a peculiar situation, since, presumably the point of a rule against modified cars was to prevent cars not sold commercially - perhaps taken off a commercial production line, but modified in ways unavailable and or illegal for legal street driving -- of entering the contest. In this situation, though, the car wasn't being modified for advantage on the track, but was modified for safely on the street. It wasn't made faster for the track, but slower for the street. This was obviously a modification that had the effect of making the car faster on the track than on the street, yet the production car wasn't modified to be faster, but rather it was modified to be slower. Clearly this was an unusual situation for which the rules had not been calibrated.
To this day there are rather strong feelings among auto aficionados about what is the correct interpretation of the rule and whether the limiter-less Bugatti should be allowed to compete. For its part, though, Guinness finally came to the conclusion that such a ruling was contrary to the spirit of the rule and just days later did a full about-face, reinstating the Bugatti as reigning champ as fastest car in the world.
Whichever way you cut it, though, it seems a bit odd calling such cars production cars. They are assembled from a variety of system sources, hand assembled in craftsman-like processes and result in a very small handful of the cars only ever being on the market. All this just goes to show that the definition of "production car" may very well just be in the eye of the beholder. But who can deny that rules are made to be broken?
Not so fast, though. It turns out that in the high stakes prestige affair of crowning a car as the fastest, there may in fact be somewhat more considerations than you'd think. And "considered" such matters would appear to need to be. Indeed, dispute about the very the definition of what is a "car" led to some considerable controversy in 2013 regarding which car did or did not qualify to wear the crown.
First though let's introduce the players. There are three cars particularly that we'll want to be familiar with as our story unfolds. First there is the Bugatti Veynon Super Sport. A bit like the European Union, this car is the product of a Franco-German collaboration. It is owned by Volkswagen, but assembled in Molsheim, France. This car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, toting an 8.0 liter W16 engine that generates 1,200 bhp. It has been certified by the Guinness Book of Records as obtaining average track speed of 267.8 mph. It is generally acknowledge as the current occupant of the throne.
The competition for Bugatti is, first, the Hennessey Venom GT, with a speed of 265.7 mph. With its 7.0 liter V8 twin turbo engine producing 1,244 bhp, it has been certified as accelerating from 0 to 186 mph in 13.63 seconds. And second is the SSC Ultimate Aero, which has twice been crowned the world's fastest car, in the past. It has recorded a certified speed of 256.18 mph, giving it the title the first time around, which it kept for almost three years. It was the second time wearing the crown, though, which involved all the controversy. Before getting to that, in addition to identifying the players, we have to also know the rules.
To be clear, here, any claims about a car being the fastest in the world are really about whether it is the fastest "production" car. Production car, you ask? The only cars that qualify under this rule are ones that can be bought commercially. Vehicles, that could perhaps be called cars (even if they more resemble rockets), but are only legal to drive places like the Utah salt flats, don't count. Only a car that can be legally purchased and driven on city streets counts as a production car.
At least part of what is intended by such a rule is that only cars qualify for the race, as it were, if they are not modified from their commercial form to amplify their race track speed. That would seem to make sense. If the point is to evaluate production cars, surely cars customized for racing would be disqualified. Isn't that a straightforward matter? Well, actually, it turned out to be a little more complicated than expected.
In 2010 Bugatti took the crown of world's fastest car away from the SSC Ultimate Aero. The German-French collaborative car reigned uninterrupted, until April of 2013. At the very beginning of that month, John Hennessey, car guru of the Hennessey Venom GT, alleged having set the production car record by hitting 265.7 mph. As this was not a certified test it posed no threat to the Bugatti record. And, anyway, Bugatti's record was faster than that, at 267.8 mph. Rather, what led to the controversy was that Hennessey also noted in passing that, in fact his car's speed really did make it the actual fastest production car in the world. And the reason he cited was that Bugatti attached a speed limiter to their retail cars.
So it turned out to be. In fact, Bugatti Venyon Super Sports bought commercially had a safety system installed that prevented the car from exceeding 258 mph: a speed 10 mph below the track record of the car. When this situation came to the attention of the Guinness Book of Records a great storm of controversy soon followed. The Guinness adjudicators concluded that this was the kind of modification for speed testing purposes that the rules disqualified. The Bugatti, in their new estimation wasn't in fact a production car. Its crown was duly revoked. The Hennessey's speed though had not been officially certified, so the crown for fastest car in the world reverted back to the prior record holder, the SSC Ultimate Aero.
This obviously was a peculiar situation, since, presumably the point of a rule against modified cars was to prevent cars not sold commercially - perhaps taken off a commercial production line, but modified in ways unavailable and or illegal for legal street driving -- of entering the contest. In this situation, though, the car wasn't being modified for advantage on the track, but was modified for safely on the street. It wasn't made faster for the track, but slower for the street. This was obviously a modification that had the effect of making the car faster on the track than on the street, yet the production car wasn't modified to be faster, but rather it was modified to be slower. Clearly this was an unusual situation for which the rules had not been calibrated.
To this day there are rather strong feelings among auto aficionados about what is the correct interpretation of the rule and whether the limiter-less Bugatti should be allowed to compete. For its part, though, Guinness finally came to the conclusion that such a ruling was contrary to the spirit of the rule and just days later did a full about-face, reinstating the Bugatti as reigning champ as fastest car in the world.
Whichever way you cut it, though, it seems a bit odd calling such cars production cars. They are assembled from a variety of system sources, hand assembled in craftsman-like processes and result in a very small handful of the cars only ever being on the market. All this just goes to show that the definition of "production car" may very well just be in the eye of the beholder. But who can deny that rules are made to be broken?
publié par Unknown @ 13:27
0 commentaires
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire
Abonnement Publier les commentaires [Atom]
<< Accueil