A Legend Killed By Another One

In this blog, I'd like to talk about the fastest car thats ever built today. But before that, lets turn the clock back to 15 years ago to 1995, this was it, the McLaren F1.

The McLaren group one day decided to have a go at building a supercar for the road. They truly set a benchmark, The Mclaren F1 was the first Carbon Fibre bodied car. The Engine Bay was alligned with gold, because it was the best heat reflector. The driving position is one of a kind as you sit right in the middle of the car for the sensation you get in a race car, which makes it a 3 seater supercar, the only car you can show off to your young model wife and attempt to rip your mother in-law apart at the same time using massive G-Forces on a straight line and on a bend.

However, it would be possible to do so. Using a BMW V12 engine, it produces 627HP. as a result, the RWD, 6 speed manual McLaren F1 goes from 0-60MPH in 3.2 seconds and with a incredible top speed of 240MPH. However, in order to achieve such performance, the McLaren F1 had to extremely light to do so. Weighing in at just 1140KG, alot of sacrifice had to be made. It had almost nothing, no Traction Control, no ABS, no stereo, not even sound proof walls. As a result, the car was insanely loud. So loud in fact, that there are headsets in the car in order for the people inside the car to communicate with each other.

Although the McLaren F1 was insanely quick, it wasnt as good around the bends. As there were no Traction Control, the car is wobbles around corners. But despite it being rubbish around corners, you wouldn't want to get one anyways, because the McLaren F1 in today's world costs around US$3,225,000 (and no, its not a typo).

For about 10 years, McLaren holds the record for the world's fastest road car ever made, Until this came into play. . . .

This is the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Its already an icon to the world today as the fastest road car ever made.

Bugatti's Story

Before the Veyron was born, no one has ever heard of the Bugatti car company. In the early 19th century, they were famous for building some of the most exclusive luxurios automobiles at that time. Sadly however, in the 1950s, it had gone bust.

In 1998, Volkswagen stepped in and took over Bugatti. A year after that, the CEO of Volkswagen woke up one day and had a vision. He quickly organized a meeting and said three words, "fastest car ever". Not long after, "Project Veyron" was underway.

Achieving the Impossible

Now theres no other way to go through this aside from getting abit technical, so for those who may find this boring, heres a video of adorable and fluffy animals for your pleasure.

It wasn't easy for Bugatti to achieve what it did. Firstly, they had to develop a completely new and insanely powerful engine for the car in order to be the fastest car in the world. Every components of the cars are specially made to do mind bending speeds nopt for just once or twice, but to do it for a few decades.

Enough to Restart a Dead Planet

As for the engine, its not a Supercharged V10 or V12. Its a W16 engine. It is truly the first in the world, what Bugatti did was took 2 Audi V8s and merged it together to form the W16 engine. But that wasn't enough, so they added 4 massive turbos to the car, each turbo produces the same power as you get from a Subaru WRX STi. As a result, when you start it, 3,700 parts comes to life and 1001HP at the disposal of your right foot. Despite it weighs in a shocking 1888KG, it is still nothing in short of amazing. This AWD, 7 speed dual-clutch Hypercar goes from 0-60MPH in 2.8 seconds, and a record breaking top speed of 252MPH (407KPH). For those who still doesnt thinks its fast, doing 252MPH, it covers a football pitch every second.

However, the tyres on the car would start to melt in about 15 minutes if you keep hitting full speed, but that won't happen because the fuel would run out in 12 minutes. The amount of air the car sucks-in in 1 minutes is equal to the amount of air you breathe in 4 days.

Not only the car produces 1001HP, it also produces alot of heat. Therefore, your car has 1 radiator, this car has 10. But having 10 radiators and 2 large air intake to cool off the engine wasn't enough. Therefore, there veyron's engine bay has no cover, in order to let the heat escape.

As Slippery as a Fish

Despite the 1001HP you get from the veyron, the engine alone was not enough to get to 252MPH. Thats when Bugatti started playing with it's aerodynamics, which I personally think that they used the body of a Audi TT. The car was designed be as slippery as possible through the air and at the same time, to create as much downforce as possible. Even the side mirrors were designed to give downforce. As a result, the Veyron as my girlfriend describes it, "looks like a Panda".

However, in order to get full power of the car, you need to insert a special key. When inserted, the car drops down to just a few inches off the ground and the rear wing hides away to be as slippery as possible. Without the key inserted, the car is limited to just 235MPH.

The Braking Power

For a car like this one, you would need to have very good brakes. To stop a 252MPH, 2 tonnes hypercar, the Veyron is fitted with 16 inches Carbon Ceramic brake discs, that is as big as a Ford Focus' wheel. Theres also it's rear wing that turns into an air brake when you slam on the brakes. It may look like it does little or no effect at all, but the air brake alone has the equal stopping power as you get from a small hatchback. As a result, The Veyron is able to come to a complete stop from its maximum speed in just 10 seconds, which is 10 football pitches come to think of it.

What Bugatti's Legendary for

The exterior and its technical parts are mostly German, but it's the Interior where the French were able to show what they were once famous for. And unlike the McLaren F1, the interior of the Veyron is just filled with endless amount luxuries and technologies. For instance, the 2 stock indicators are made from Magnesium for luxury and lightness, at which costs US$6,400 each.

Should One Get One?

The Price for all that power and having the rights to tell anyone of your mates that your car is faster than theirs, it's yours for US$1,600,000. But despite the price, Bugatti admits they won't make any profit from the Veyron. They say that it's simply a way to relaunch their brand.

Even if you get one, there is no way that theres a straight road long and smooth enough for you to hit that kind of speed. Happily however, theres a man that thought otherwise. A very brave man from Texas, USA thats listens to his heart, not other's opinions. His bravevary was filmed as he tries to prove the experts wrong.

Although the man insisted that he was trying to avoid a bird, we all know that it's complete bullshit. Also, as it is a massive and heavy car, it is not that agile in the corners. But that being said, in the end, it is still a car thats worth buying. One of the reasons is because it's built by Germans, which means that its very well built and well engineered. As I mentioned before, most supercars would disintegrate doing 200MPH, The Veyron doesn't. It feels so solid and that it could do 200MPH easily, and keeps on going.

It is truly a car in a whole different level.

Sadly however, not long from now the Bugatti Veyron will lose it's title like how McLaren lost it's. To this. . . .

It's called the SSC Ultimate Aero TT by Shelby Supercar. On 13th September 2007, The 6 speed manual, AWD SSC proved to the world that it's officially the world's fastest by a test run it did on a 2.5 Miles straight road in the Washington States, USA. From only a 6.3L Twin-Turbocharged Chevrolet V8 that produces a mind boggling 1183HP, thats 182HP more than the Veyron. it's able to go from 0-60MPH in 2.9 Seconds, and a top speed of 257MPH (413KPH). Only 50 of these will be made at around US$585,000. But you wouldn't want one anyways because of one main reason, its American.

Until the SSC is officially in production, the Bugatti Veyron still currently holds that record. But if I would want to get the fastest car in world or when the time comes, one of the fastest, I'd get the Veyron without thinking twice.