Friday, July 16, 2010

World Speed Record Insanity

If you've recently kept up with either the automotive world, the Guiness World Records, or both, you might know that the title of "fastest production car" was famously held by the Bugatti Veyron.  You may or may not know that an American company, SSC (Shelby SuperCars), beat the Veyron's record by a little bit, although the SSC team believes the Ultimate Aero has the capacity to go faster.
The record run for the Aero was done on a 2 ½-mile road; having a longer road would probably make a difference.  Regardless, the latest iteration of the Bugatti Veyron, the Veyron SuperSport, recently surpassed both the previous Veyron's record and that of the Ultimate Aero, so it now holds the world record for highest top speed for a street-legal car.  Some people like to say the Barabus TKR is the world's fastest road car, but as none of its claims have been verified, that's just speculation.
However, the title quite likely might soon return to America, as an insanely powerful supercar called the Dagger GT.  Its 9.4 liter engine produces 2000 (yes, that's two thousand) horsepower and 2000 ft-lbs. of torque on racing fuel, giving it an estimated power-to-weight ration of about 1.5:1.  By the way, I do like the way it looks better than the Ultimate Aero.
Here are some of the calculated performance numbers for the car:(using wind tunnel, etc.) 
0-60: Under 1.5 seconds (calculated)
Top speed: 314 mph (calculated)
¼-mile: 6.6 seconds (calculated)


Here's the car's website:
http://www.gtr-xs.com/index.html 


Impressed?



-Max out

5 comments:

Hannah Leigh said...

Ceeeewl. Like it.
The cars I like aren't really *fast*, per se:
Chevy Avalanche, Honda Avalanche, H3 Hummer, Dodge Ram, KIA Cadenza K7 and KIA Terrano.
A weird mix, I'll admit. Oh well. :) And, I like all of them in BLACK...black rules. XD

Maximillian said...

Well, of course the handling, braking, etc. wouldn't be the most impressive, but you could at least improve acceleration in any of those with turbos, a supercharger, or any other "go-fast" parts. I'll put some pictures of the new Cadillac CTS-V sedan and coupe (another very good American car) and a few other cars in a new post; actually, I could show you a whole lot of cars to see if you like them better than your current favorites, but I'll just show a few for now. Kias? Interesting; that seems in keeping with your liking of Asian things.

Hannah Leigh said...

Uh......HOW'D YOU KNOW THAT!? How'd KIAs and Asian stuff get into the same category?

Maximillian said...

Hm, how'd I know that? It was *really* difficult to figure out ;-), considering the Chinese acrobatic show you really enjoyed, choice of "Sakura" for a name for the baby horse if it was a girl, Asian music on your playlist, the Ninja Mouse story set in Japan, your horse's nickname of "Banzai" (just noticed that, and it could be just incidental, anyway), etc.
So you really didn't know that it was quite obvious that you like a lot of Asian things?

Kia and Hyundai are Korean, hence the "Asian."
Somewhat similarly, one of my cousins is Chinese, but he really likes Japanese and Korean stuff, including their people, music, Manga and anime, etc. I'm not sure if he likes Asian cars, although he was given a Nissan Altima by my aunt.

Bummer, now I've got one less follower of the few I had.
Oh, well; you can still read my blog. :)

Hannah Leigh said...

Ooooh well...true, very true. I actually didn't know that the KIA was Korean, believe it or not!
Hey...Nissan Altima??? COOL! We're getting one of those from my grandma soon! (It'll sorta be my car, as I'm learning to drive next year.:)

Yeah, sorry about the followers thing...it is a bummer. Sorry. :I

ttfn!
-Hannah