Veyron - 246mph, great video

[Gman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytXI5Clz100

Amazing footage, such a small road in the mountains, perfect camera position for the 2nd pass, it sounded more like an aircraft than a car.

[GScholz]

Awesome! 


Did you see that Top Gear episode where James May got to max out a Veyron in Germany? If not it is worth a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC00qHonfj8

[Ripsnort]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytXI5Clz100

Amazing footage, such a small road in the mountains, perfect camera position for the 2nd pass, it sounded more like an aircraft than a car.

2nd fastest street car, that V is.

Henessey took the top spot this year. American made. Beat Germany...again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-_7tK5zBTA

The Hennessey Venom GT is an American sports car manufactured by Texas-based Hennessey Performance Engineering.[2] It was revealed on March 29, 2010.

On February 14, 2014, on the Kennedy Space Center’s 3.22-mile shuttle landing strip in Florida, the Hennessey team recorded a top speed of 270.49 mph (435.31 km/h) with Director of Miller Motorsport Park, Brian Smith, at the wheel.[6] As the run was in a single direction and only 11 cars have been produced to date (to qualify it must be 30), it does not qualify as the world's fastest production car in the Guinness Book of Records.[7][8]

[GScholz]

Nationalism is wonderful!

[Schen]

270 mph in the venom is amazing to just think about, when I used to race bikes a few years back ( GSXXR100) my fastest speed travelled was 190 mph, I couldn't imagine going almost 100mph more, the road must just be a blue

[jeep00]

2nd fastest street car, that V is.

Henessey took the top spot this year. American made. Beat Germany...again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-_7tK5zBTA

The story makes it sound a bit sketchy. One direction and .63 mph faster? The veyron had to use an average of two directions correct?
Fast is fast either way.
But they are aiming for a proper goal at least-fastest around the Top Gear track.

[caldera]

This is the best Bugatti video ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NJmB1F2mdE

[Lusche]

My first car had a top speed of about 88 mph 

[saggs]

The story makes it sound a bit sketchy. One direction and .63 mph faster? The veyron had to use an average of two directions correct?
Fast is fast either way.
But they are aiming for a proper goal at least-fastest around the Top Gear track.

I've been following the Venom GT for a few years now.  As far as acceleration and top speed it is in a league of it's own.

Think about this, the Veyron 16.4 SS set it's top speed run on a 5 mile straight, with a 150mph rolling start out of steep banking.  The Venom GT did it on a 2 mile runway from a standing start, and it was still pulling when he had to brake.  You are right, Guinness did not award the top speed record to Hennessey because they did not do a run in both directions, also more importantly they say you must build at least 30 cars to be considered 'production' and Hennessey only plans to build 29.

The Venom GT did get a Guinness record for 0-300kph (186mph) acceleration at 13.63 seconds.

It's all about power to weight.

Veyron 16.4 SS: 1200bhp and 4,400lbs curb weight. The P/W ratio is 1/3.6

Venom GT: 1244bhp and 2,743.  P/W ratio is 1/2.2

The Venom GT has a bit more power, but more importantly is over 1,600lbs lighter.  The Veyron very nearly weighs a TON more.

The Veyron to me has always seemed like a heavy, over-engineered oddity.  Like those Volkswagen engineers got some loopy juice and just went nuts.  I mean a W16 engine, 4 turbos, 13 YES, 13 radiators?!?!  All that complexity and added cost and weight for what? 1200bhp.  Really... American muscle car, and drag car builders have know how to get 1500+bhp out of a small block Chevy or Ford V8 for decades.  What I like about the Venom is it's back-to-basics simplicity.  Lightweight body, twin turbo V8, super wide tires = go very, very fast.

I'll just leave this here for some final food for thought.  From Goodwood a couple years back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pE_WFWjsgE

[GScholz]

The Veyron isn't just an all-out record breaking street racer. It is an absolutely no expenses spared luxury road car. There is no question what car I'd want on a drag strip... Clearly the Venom. My choice would be equally clear if I wanted to drive around Europe a couple of weeks... The Veyron.

[icepac]

John Hennessey used to voice his doubts on our 283mph standing mile run until we invited him to the shuttle landing facility.

Superior surface and facility.

We'll be back soon to crack 300mph.

[Masherbrum]

Not a fair comparison at all since Hennessey is in the aftermarket industry.   Veyron leaves the plant unmodified.   I can careless about semantics, the Veyron is an incredible accomplishment.

[AAJagerX]

 

[saggs]

The Veyron isn't just an all-out record breaking street racer. It is an absolutely no expenses spared luxury road car. There is no question what car I'd want on a drag strip... Clearly the Venom. My choice would be equally clear if I wanted to drive around Europe a couple of weeks... The Veyron.

I get that.  What I don't get about the Veyron is a W16 quad-turbo powerplant... to me that's just VW engineers gone all    As a powerplant it just doesn't make sense at all to me, sure it's unique, but it created a whole 'nuther level of engineering issues to be solved to make it work.  The whole thing seems almost Rube Goldberg-esque to me.  Could have easily made that kind of power with a twin-turbo setup on something like the Audi V10 or Lambo V12 engines which VW already own.  Would have been lighter, easier to cool (maybe only 6 radiators/heat exchangers instead of 13) and much, much, cheaper.  Like maybe it'd be only $1 million instead of 3 and VW could actually make a profit instead of a loss on each one.

I'm not a fan of the styling either.  For me to pick a car to tour Europe it would have to be a AM V12 Vanquish, it actually has practical a trunk/boot.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I've been following the Venom GT for a few years now.  As far as acceleration and top speed it is in a league of it's own.

Think about this, the Veyron 16.4 SS set it's top speed run on a 5 mile straight, with a 150mph rolling start out of steep banking.  The Venom GT did it on a 2 mile runway from a standing start, and it was still pulling when he had to brake.  You are right, Guinness did not award the top speed record to Hennessey because they did not do a run in both directions, also more importantly they say you must build at least 30 cars to be considered 'production' and Hennessey only plans to build 29.

The Venom GT did get a Guinness record for 0-300kph (186mph) acceleration at 13.63 seconds.

It's all about power to weight.

Veyron 16.4 SS: 1200bhp and 4,400lbs curb weight. The P/W ratio is 1/3.6

Venom GT: 1244bhp and 2,743.  P/W ratio is 1/2.2

The Venom GT has a bit more power, but more importantly is over 1,600lbs lighter.  The Veyron very nearly weighs a TON more.

The Veyron to me has always seemed like a heavy, over-engineered oddity.  Like those Volkswagen engineers got some loopy juice and just went nuts.  I mean a W16 engine, 4 turbos, 13 YES, 13 radiators?!?!  All that complexity and added cost and weight for what? 1200bhp.  Really... American muscle car, and drag car builders have know how to get 1500+bhp out of a small block Chevy or Ford V8 for decades.  What I like about the Venom is it's back-to-basics simplicity.  Lightweight body, twin turbo V8, super wide tires = go very, very fast.

I'll just leave this here for some final food for thought.  From Goodwood a couple years back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pE_WFWjsgE

The difference is that mass production cars need to stay in one piece for longer than 1 two mile strip at a time. It's easy to pull 2000hp from an engine. To have that engine last for a decade in random use then again...

That Goodwood clip indeed leaves you thinking that either the Venom has a really crappy gearbox or the driver didn't know how to drive stick lol.