It seems like a fairly straight forward question, doesn't it? What is the fastest car in the world? How complicated can it be? As far as we can tell, there's only one world. And however fast, however many cars, can drive, there's got to be one that's faster than the others. Or at least a couple tied for fastest? Right?
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.
We should, though, start at the beginning. And that will be identifying the players in this kerfuffle. We have three cars particularly to introduce and that will play a part in the tale we tell. The first of these is the Bugatti Veynon Super Sport. If it helps, think of it as the European Union style car, a product of a Franco-German enterprise. Volkswagen owns the Bugatti, while it is assembled in Molsheim, France. The Bugatti Venyon Super Sport accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, thanks to an 8.0 liter W16 engine which allows it to generate 1,200 bhp. The good folks at the Guinness Book of Records have certified it as recording a track speed of 267.8 mph. This is the reigning champ.
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.
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.
It all began in 2010 when Bugatti took the crown of world's fastest car away from the SSC Ultimate Aero. And so the German-French fusion reigns, until April of 2013. Early in that month, John Hennessey, mastermind of the Venom GT, claimed that his car had set the production car speed record by hitting 265.7 mph earlier in the year. This though was not a certified run, so the speed, even if accurately recorded posed no threat to the Bugatti record, which anyways was still higher than the Venon GT, at 267.8 mph. However, Hennessey also mentioned that in fact his speed made his the fastest production car in the world, because, he pointed out, Bugatti attached a speed limiter to their commercially sold cars.
And this was true. Commercially purchased Bugatti Venyon Super Sports did have a safety system implemented to prevent the cars moving at speeds in excess of 258 mph. This was almost a full 10 mph below the track recorded record. The folks at the Guinness Book of Records heard about this and a several days long fiasco ensued. The Guinness officials decided that the speed limiter posed a modification for speed testing purposes. Consequently, it disqualified the Bugatti as a production car. The crown was revoked. Since there was no official certification of the Hennessey's speed, the crown reverted back to the former record holder, the SSC Ultimate Aero.
A strange situation this one surely was: the point of a rule against modified cars was, one would understand, to disqualify cars not sold commercially. For instance, cars taken off a commercial production line, and modified specifically for racing purposes where intended to be excluded. The present situation, though, was a little more difficult to align with the rules. The Bugatti, after all, wasn't modified for advantage on the track, but for safety on the street. This was certainly a modification that made the car faster on the track than on the street, yet the production car hadn't been modified to be faster, but rather to be slower. Clearly this was an unusual situation; how exactly was the rule to be applied?
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.
When you consider it, though, it is a bit strange to call any of those production cars. They are pieced together from a diversity of system sources, hand crafted in meticulous manual processes and result in a tiny number of such cars only ever being purchased. So, maybe, the lesson here is that "production car" is a judgment in the eye of the beholder. Be that as it may, I'm quite sure that rules made to be broken. Right?
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.
We should, though, start at the beginning. And that will be identifying the players in this kerfuffle. We have three cars particularly to introduce and that will play a part in the tale we tell. The first of these is the Bugatti Veynon Super Sport. If it helps, think of it as the European Union style car, a product of a Franco-German enterprise. Volkswagen owns the Bugatti, while it is assembled in Molsheim, France. The Bugatti Venyon Super Sport accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, thanks to an 8.0 liter W16 engine which allows it to generate 1,200 bhp. The good folks at the Guinness Book of Records have certified it as recording a track speed of 267.8 mph. This is the reigning champ.
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.
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.
It all began in 2010 when Bugatti took the crown of world's fastest car away from the SSC Ultimate Aero. And so the German-French fusion reigns, until April of 2013. Early in that month, John Hennessey, mastermind of the Venom GT, claimed that his car had set the production car speed record by hitting 265.7 mph earlier in the year. This though was not a certified run, so the speed, even if accurately recorded posed no threat to the Bugatti record, which anyways was still higher than the Venon GT, at 267.8 mph. However, Hennessey also mentioned that in fact his speed made his the fastest production car in the world, because, he pointed out, Bugatti attached a speed limiter to their commercially sold cars.
And this was true. Commercially purchased Bugatti Venyon Super Sports did have a safety system implemented to prevent the cars moving at speeds in excess of 258 mph. This was almost a full 10 mph below the track recorded record. The folks at the Guinness Book of Records heard about this and a several days long fiasco ensued. The Guinness officials decided that the speed limiter posed a modification for speed testing purposes. Consequently, it disqualified the Bugatti as a production car. The crown was revoked. Since there was no official certification of the Hennessey's speed, the crown reverted back to the former record holder, the SSC Ultimate Aero.
A strange situation this one surely was: the point of a rule against modified cars was, one would understand, to disqualify cars not sold commercially. For instance, cars taken off a commercial production line, and modified specifically for racing purposes where intended to be excluded. The present situation, though, was a little more difficult to align with the rules. The Bugatti, after all, wasn't modified for advantage on the track, but for safety on the street. This was certainly a modification that made the car faster on the track than on the street, yet the production car hadn't been modified to be faster, but rather to be slower. Clearly this was an unusual situation; how exactly was the rule to be applied?
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.
When you consider it, though, it is a bit strange to call any of those production cars. They are pieced together from a diversity of system sources, hand crafted in meticulous manual processes and result in a tiny number of such cars only ever being purchased. So, maybe, the lesson here is that "production car" is a judgment in the eye of the beholder. Be that as it may, I'm quite sure that rules made to be broken. Right?
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