very cool... much nicer car than I thought.... 👍

#-o ....youtube link.... :-"

"NASCAR issued a technical bulletin to teams outlining the changes, right-side skirts now must have a minimum clearance of 4.5 inches, with a maximum clearance of 5 inches. Left-side skirts must have a minimum clearance of 5 inches with a maximum clearance of 5.5 inches."

http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2012/06/30/kentucky-rule-changes-side-skirt-sway-bar.html 

(this may vary depending on track?) :-k

Bugatti info from Wikipedia (not sure what year)

The car's everyday top speed is listed at 350 km/h (220 mph). When the car reaches 220 km/h (140 mph), hydraulics lower the car until it has a ground clearance of about 9 cm (3.5 in).

Bugatti wins in least amount of clearance.

Edit: I just read the next paragraph on Wiki...

For top speed mode the driver must, while stationary, toggle a special top speed key to the left of the driver's seat. A checklist then establishes whether the car and its driver are ready to attempt to reach 407 km/h (253 mph). If so, the rear spoiler retracts, the front air diffusers shut, and normal 12.5 cm (4.9 in) ground clearance drops to 6.5 cm (2.6 in).

(mighta been an insurance job)

Nor is it legal (in most places) to go that fast. Also, It's going to be very hard to find a place that will allow you to travel that fast for that long... At top speed, you are going to cover over 63 miles in 15 minutes, not counting the distance it will take you to get moving that fast.

Then there is your fuel tank. This is from a slightly different version of the car, but I imaging it is very similar for the super sport.

"at full throttle the Vitesse's W-16 will gulp through an entire tank of gas -- 26.4 gallons -- in just eight minutes"

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/exotic/1206_2013_bugatti_veyron_grand_sport_vitesse_first_drive/ 

African or European?

the nascars are constanly scraping their air dams on the pavement.... track conditions maybe but you'd think they'd be fairly level.... 😟

I did get up to 140 on the brand new, and barely opened I-20 back in 1980. It was 2 am on a Sunday and I was driving my Uncle's 1970 240Z

Probably not a smart thing, as I'm guessing his tires weren't rated for that kind of speed. It was a short, but fun run . . .

Several years back a friend of mine took me for a ride in a hopped up Mustang. He got up to 160 going down I-75 above Macon, but I wasn't driving . . .

In a sweeping corner at 150a and the tire got REAL light......scary as ****.

This man has it right. One of the prior record holders the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 I always felt was still a faster car than the Veyron but their test driver "stopped trying at 247 mph because the tires were starting to blister and melt". Cars like this are incredibly stressful on their tires because of the forces at play, and a tire failure at those speeds could easily be deadly.

As for cars flying this is a problem with flat bottomed cars, this dramatically happened to the Mercedes CLK-GTR during the 1999 running of LeMans (video below). Modern supercars like the Veyron are much more resistant because of the venturi tunnels built into the under body that create ground effect. They actually evacuate air from under the car faster than it can be replaced creating a low pressure zone under the whole car and generating downforce with no drag. This is all totally reliant on ride height though the lower you are the stronger it is -to over simplify it- and even a slight bump will temporarily disrupt the effect.

For comparison our FSAE Electric car design this year calls for 1.25 in. of ground clearance. We have 2.5 in. of total suspension travel and our heaviest springs generate 225 lbs. of force per in. of compression each (900 lbs./in. of spring for a car that should weigh in between 350-400 lbs.).

wish I still had that car... 🤦

Bugatti claims open top world speed record at 254 mph

Published April 11, 2013

Bugatti, whose Veyron Super Sport stripped of its Guinness-certified World’s Fastest Production Car speed record last week due to an apparent rules violation that was recently brought to light, has now claimed the title of World’s Fastest Open Top Car.

Bugatti says the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse World Record Car was driven to a top speed of 254.04 mph with its top removed on the company’s test track in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, on April 6th, by Chinese racing driver Anthony Liu.

The world record car is slated to make its public debut at the Shanghai Auto Show next week, and eight replica vehicles will be sold for $2.6 million each.

The multimillion-dollar, 1,184 hp Grand Sport Vitesse went on sale last year, but with an electronic restrictor that limits its top speed to 233 mph when the roof is removed, which was deactivated for the record setting event.

A similar speed restrictor is what slipped up the Super Sport’s Guinness record. The car hit 267.8 mph in 2010, but only because the production car’s 258 mph limiter had been deactivated for the run.

Bugatti maintains that Guinness knew that car would be delivered to customers with such a limiter for safety purposes, but the organization now says the modification was against its rules and has invalidated the record and put the category under review.

This time around, it appears Guinness has no say in the matter, as the Vitesse’s speed was verified by a German timing organization without the British organization’s involvement and Bugatti is simply calling it a “world record,” not a “Guinness World Record.”

But how long will it stand?

John Hennessey started this whole top speed record kerfuffle when he claimed the production car top speed title for his Venom GT at 265.7 mph after a run on an airport runway earlier this year, arguing that since his car didn’t have a restrictor, it was the fastest production car you could actually buy. Guinness wasn’t involved, but Hennessy’s statement is what led it to pull the Veyron’s record.

But as it turns out, the Venom GT used for the run also has a removable roof panel, and Hennessey tells FoxNews.com that he’s already tested the car up to 230 mph with it off and it was “rock solid” at that speed

Film at 11.... 🍺

o:)