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.
Bugatti's competition is, on the one hand, the Hennessey Venom GT. This car hits a speed of 265.7 mph under the drive of its 7.0 liter V8 twin turbo engine producing 1,244 bhp. Its acceleration speed of 0 to 186 mph in 13.63 seconds has been certified. On the other hand, we have the SSC Ultimate Aero. This car has been crowned the world's fastest on two separate occasions. In 2007 it recorded a certified speed of 256.18 mph, earning its first title, which it kept for almost three years. However, its second crowning proved to be rather controversial. Before turning to the controversy, though, in addition to identifying the players, we should know the rules of the race.
When a claim is made that a car is the fastest car in the world, in this context, the usually unstated premise is that it is the fastest "production" car in the world. The meaning of this is that the cars which qualify must be cars consumers can purchase on the open market. One may use the word "car" to designate vehicles which are only legally driven on the Utah salt flats. Such vehicles, though, don't count as cars in this context. A car has to be legal and available to buy (even if at a hefty price) and drive on public streets. That alone is what qualifies 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.
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.
A peculiar situation all around, this one was. Presumably the point of a rule against modified cars had been prevention of non-commercial cars - such as those taken off a production line, and modified specifically for speed racing -- competing on an uneven footing with production cars. Again, that seems reasonable enough. However, this was a situation in which the car wasn't modified for advantage on the track, but rather for safely on the street. The modification in question did have the effect of making the car faster on the track than on the street, yet the production car wasn't modified to be faster; it was modified to be slower. It would seem that no one had considered this possibility when they came up with the production car rule.
Auto aficionados remain somewhat divided about the correct interpretation of the rule: whether the limiter-less car being allowed to compete constituted a rule violation. The Guinness officials though decided that such a ruling would contravene the spirit of the rule. Just a few days later they took a sharp U-turn and reinstated Bugatti as reigning king of the world's fastest cars.
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.
Bugatti's competition is, on the one hand, the Hennessey Venom GT. This car hits a speed of 265.7 mph under the drive of its 7.0 liter V8 twin turbo engine producing 1,244 bhp. Its acceleration speed of 0 to 186 mph in 13.63 seconds has been certified. On the other hand, we have the SSC Ultimate Aero. This car has been crowned the world's fastest on two separate occasions. In 2007 it recorded a certified speed of 256.18 mph, earning its first title, which it kept for almost three years. However, its second crowning proved to be rather controversial. Before turning to the controversy, though, in addition to identifying the players, we should know the rules of the race.
When a claim is made that a car is the fastest car in the world, in this context, the usually unstated premise is that it is the fastest "production" car in the world. The meaning of this is that the cars which qualify must be cars consumers can purchase on the open market. One may use the word "car" to designate vehicles which are only legally driven on the Utah salt flats. Such vehicles, though, don't count as cars in this context. A car has to be legal and available to buy (even if at a hefty price) and drive on public streets. That alone is what qualifies 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.
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.
A peculiar situation all around, this one was. Presumably the point of a rule against modified cars had been prevention of non-commercial cars - such as those taken off a production line, and modified specifically for speed racing -- competing on an uneven footing with production cars. Again, that seems reasonable enough. However, this was a situation in which the car wasn't modified for advantage on the track, but rather for safely on the street. The modification in question did have the effect of making the car faster on the track than on the street, yet the production car wasn't modified to be faster; it was modified to be slower. It would seem that no one had considered this possibility when they came up with the production car rule.
Auto aficionados remain somewhat divided about the correct interpretation of the rule: whether the limiter-less car being allowed to compete constituted a rule violation. The Guinness officials though decided that such a ruling would contravene the spirit of the rule. Just a few days later they took a sharp U-turn and reinstated Bugatti as reigning king of the world's fastest cars.
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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