Ride the Lightning

[bluegargantua]

Hey,

So, the Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4. The world's fastest street legal car with a top speed in excess of 250mph. At speed, the car's configuration changes to increase downward air pressure to hold the car on the road. There's an air brake that kicks in when you slow down from high speed. It goes from 0 to 60mph in under 3 seconds. It also starts at just under $2 million and quickly goes past 2.5 once you throw in the cup holders.

This is a car that, even if I could afford it, I'd be completely unqualified to drive at regular speeds let alone the thrilling velocities that you bought it for in the first place. But in a video game? Ah...video games.

I just took the Veyron out for a 43 mile race. I did it in under 15 minutes. Sure, it's a video game (Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit -- it's fun!) so there has to be some allowance for "game" physics, but still. Thing is a god damned rocket.

And it comes in a lovely shade of blue...
Tom

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

The only problem with the Veyron... well, it's not really a problem with the Veyron per se, it's a problem with the laws of physics. Anyway, the problem is: it can go at 254mph... for somewhere between five and twelve minutes. There's only so much energy in an octane molecule, internal combustion engines are only so efficient, and the inertial overhead of fighting against air resistance at jet-airplane speeds is massive.

It's a jawdropping piece of engineering, but even for the people who can actually afford one, its top speed is purely a party trick. Now, the Nissan Skyline... :)

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

In some car magazine, in some supercar test, I read that the driver was concerned about the tires, since they'd wear through in about half an hour of top-speed driving. The engineer said not to worry about it, since he'd be out of gas long before then.

[bluegargantua]

In fact, I'm pretty sure that the car would've run out of gas before I reached the finish line. I found that kind of amusing.

later
Tom