That’s a mistaken assumption. The Bugatti Veyron will out accelerate just about any stock vehicle made and do a true (tested by Top Gear) 252 mph. Visit the Ferrarri and Lamboghini websites as well as the Bugatti website and you’ll be in for some surprises.
Some of the fastest vehicles in the world are “detroit iron” and some are made in other countries. Witness some of the Porsche and Lotus vehicles. The engineering and technology to make ultra high performance engines is well known worldwide. In closed circuit road courses in Europe all these makes compete bumper-to-bumper with the best of the Corvettes and Vipers.
“You wouldn’t have the traction you would need to utilize that kind of power.”
Not with standard tires. See my post above concerning the Saboury twin turbo Corvette. It reaches 60 MPH is one second on very wide, but street legal, tires.
The Saboury Corvette is a twin turbo LS-6 that puts out 2400 HP on pump gas. It’s the only one, and is the fastest street legal car in the solar system. But one does exist.
The Veyron is not a stock car. It is an exotic car that costs over $2,000,000. It is entirely appropriate to compare it to anything that anyone can build. Just because it comes from a VW doesn’t mean that it is stock any more than a home-built brute like the Saboury Corvette, which beats the daylights out of the Veyron.
Besides, I referenced the Veyron to illustrate that it is possible to have a 1000 HP engine that’s drivable on the street…assuming no monetary constraints. It’s exported to the U.S. as a street vehicle, so it has to meet all the D.O.T and EPA requirements.
Other than the heart-stopping costs of maintenance and insurance, it would be blast to own a Veyron.
On Top Gear they said that Bugatti loses millions on each car they sell when factoring in all of the R and D, etc. I don’t remember the amounts, but it seems like each one should sell for about 4 or 5 times the actual cost before a break-even point was reached.
The last issue of Car Craft featured a Cadillac 500 in a streamliner. Stock block and heads (both modified), twin turbos, and it hit something like 340 MPH at Bonneville.
They wouldn’t admit to the amount of horsepower (over a 1000) or the amount of boost being run but did state there’s “more available”. Should be interesting in the future.
Here’s something for those of you who like the go-fast stuff like I do.
We have a local guy here a few miles down the road who recently set a record of 255 MPH in a 2010 Mustang running Racing E-85.
This guy has one smoking, and I mean smoking, assortment of one-off and one of two type of vehicles and I believe he got the first 11 new Cobra Jet Mustangs off the production line.
I suppose that she can afford the tickets. But highway driving is not a sport. If she did behave that way often enough, I’d bet that Andretti or Hendrick would tell her to back off. They pay her a lot to race on the track, not off it. Other professional athletes have to curb their competitiveness off the field, I’m sure that she does, too.
Yeah, I remember. They sold it as the GT version. It was distinguished by a wide strip up the middle, a black grill, and a bit wider tires. My roomie in the Air Force had one. His was red.
11:1? Dual carbs? Cool.
How’d the drivetrain hold up?
I remember a whole plethora of add-ons being sold. It’s too bad the quality wasn’t there, because the car was basically a fun car with great styling. Sort of a baby Camaro.
800 hp/liter an engine with a 4in stroke seems outraqeous. What rpm is required to get such a number?
In the realm of outrageous, I saw a bug-eyed Sprite with a 260 Ford V8. It was drivable but mostly just used to smoke the tires at Shoney’s (curb service in those days).
But really who drives their toy all the time anyway?
I do, whenever weather permits. My toy is a 2003 Honda Nighthawk 750.
If you really crave power, my advice is to learn to ride a motorcycle and get a 1,000 CC sport bike. It is a great example of the concept of power-to-rate ratio being more important than raw horsepower alone.
Rod Saboury has built some incredible cars over the last 25 years or so. Always ISCA quality looks, with unreal performance to boot. I think they’ve all been street cars, too.