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?
Alas in the high stakes prestige game of crowning any automobile the fastest car in the world there are a number of considerations to take into account. And they do indeed need to be taken into account. For, ambiguity about the definition led to more than a little controversy in 2013 about just which car was 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.
These claims about being the fastest car in the world are actually claims about being the fastest "production" car in the world. What this means is that the only cars which qualify are those that customers can actually buy on the commercial market. There may be vehicles, you might call cars (though they might resemble spaceships), that can only drive on the Utah salt flats. Those don't count. Only a car that is legal, and available, to purchase (admittedly for a somewhat hefty price) and can be legally driven on the road counts as a production car.
We should understand than that only the cars which can be bought and driven in this manner qualify for the race, as it were. Cars that are modified from their commercial form to amplify their race track speed would naturally be disqualified. That makes sense, right? One would hardly quibble with that regulation if the point is to evaluate production cars. Surely that's a straightforward matter. Well, as it turns out, not so much.
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.
It turned out that this was true. Bugatti Venyon Super Sports that were bought commercially had a safety system in place to prevent them travelling in excess of 258 mph: pretty much a full 10 mph below the track recorded record speed. When the folks at the Guinness Book of Records got wind of this bit of information a whirl wind of controversy ensued. They concluded that this constituted the kind of modification for speed testing purposes which disqualified a candidate as a production car. Consequently, the Bugatti's crown was revoked. However, since the Hennessey's speed had not been officially certified the crown reverted back to the prior fastest car in the world, 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.
However you slice it, though, it is a bit funny to call these cars production cars. They are patched together from a host of system sources, hand crafted in elaborate processes and result in a tiny handful of such cars only ever actually being purchased. So "production car" may be in the eye of the beholder. And, heck, aren't rules made to be broken?
Alas in the high stakes prestige game of crowning any automobile the fastest car in the world there are a number of considerations to take into account. And they do indeed need to be taken into account. For, ambiguity about the definition led to more than a little controversy in 2013 about just which car was 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.
These claims about being the fastest car in the world are actually claims about being the fastest "production" car in the world. What this means is that the only cars which qualify are those that customers can actually buy on the commercial market. There may be vehicles, you might call cars (though they might resemble spaceships), that can only drive on the Utah salt flats. Those don't count. Only a car that is legal, and available, to purchase (admittedly for a somewhat hefty price) and can be legally driven on the road counts as a production car.
We should understand than that only the cars which can be bought and driven in this manner qualify for the race, as it were. Cars that are modified from their commercial form to amplify their race track speed would naturally be disqualified. That makes sense, right? One would hardly quibble with that regulation if the point is to evaluate production cars. Surely that's a straightforward matter. Well, as it turns out, not so much.
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.
It turned out that this was true. Bugatti Venyon Super Sports that were bought commercially had a safety system in place to prevent them travelling in excess of 258 mph: pretty much a full 10 mph below the track recorded record speed. When the folks at the Guinness Book of Records got wind of this bit of information a whirl wind of controversy ensued. They concluded that this constituted the kind of modification for speed testing purposes which disqualified a candidate as a production car. Consequently, the Bugatti's crown was revoked. However, since the Hennessey's speed had not been officially certified the crown reverted back to the prior fastest car in the world, 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.
However you slice it, though, it is a bit funny to call these cars production cars. They are patched together from a host of system sources, hand crafted in elaborate processes and result in a tiny handful of such cars only ever actually being purchased. So "production car" may be in the eye of the beholder. And, heck, aren't rules made to be broken?
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