casinterest wrote:cpd wrote:casinterest wrote:It is amazing, but the spoiler and design helps keep it down. Before restrictor plates, NASCAR used to have cars get up to the 220+ range. Below is a reference to Wallace hitting 228(466kph) on the straightaway at Talladega. Think about what they could hit om that 10k straightaway in Germany.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a1513 ... -car-news/
228mph is not 466km/h, it’s about 365km/h or so. So that’s even slower than the old Mclaren F1:
100/140/190/240/290/370 (speeds in gears 1-6 in km/h at 7500rpm)
Chiron Supersport 300 tops out at 490km/h. The Chiron driver here did obviously take precautions and he had a spotter car ahead to warn of traffic. The lack of traffic helps.
Then back in the old days the Mercedes Typ 80 project of Ferdinand Porsche and Hans Stuck (senior) with the 3000hp engine was to achieve 750km/h. Incredibly it had only a single gear, relying on the torque of the engine and the special torque converter to get it moving on the purpose built stretch of autobahn. This torque converter would lock up at about 100km/h. The machine had 4WD (at the back) to give traction and wings and a tunnel design at the back provided downforce to keep the machine steady.
Then WW2 stopped the project. Most fortunate that the “blackbird” survived. It was incredibly interesting in its engineering.
Typo. I meant 366, but my point is that at Talladega, they have to turn. Unrestricted, they could in theory approach the speed, although the NASCAR's have an aerodynamic issue the higher they go, which is why they have restrictor plates now for races.
The Chiron is gorgeous, but the technology as you point out has been there for years.
I'm unsure the Nascars will go that much faster on a flat road - reaching 360km/h is one thing, but going over 400km/h takes very good aerodynamics (stability too) and a
lot of power, the Chiron has 1500hp (or 1600hp) and torque to match it. It's a giant engine. The faster you want to go then the more power you need.
However I remember when Andy Wallace did the 490km/h record in the Chiron Supersport he mentioned that it was moving about a bit. The old Veyron used to do that as well at 430+km/h, they are obviously approaching the limits of the platform.
Only potential faster car on the way is the Koenigsegg Jesko in its high speed version - rumours are suggesting 330mph. I suspect that might be the fastest of the lot, and that thing is about the ultimate configuration, lightweight, clever aerodynamics, a fairly light 5 litre V8 pushing 1600hp and a really clever transmission that nobody else has done before (or even thought of). That one is less of the "sledgehammer" approach of Bugatti and more about using efficiency to get the speed. I can't see anything else going faster at the moment, all the other cars on the way are slower and/or don't care about top speed.
Actually with those speeds there are very few places you can even test them and it's very dangerous - Koenigsegg with the Agera RS was fairly ideal on a closed public highway but even that has risks with animals or the tyres as well. They had a vulture on the road that took off, then moments later the Agera RS roars past at some ridiculous speed. They got lucky with the tyres, the Agera RS is very easy on its tyres and after the top speed efforts the tyres were looking like new. It spent another year on those tyres IIRC.
You can't have a helicopters for spotting the road ahead, the car is much faster than a helicopter - so you need a small jet. That's what they did in France with the TGV records, they had jets following the trains because they were going
that fast.