Worlds Fastest Car (Video)

So after the last blog I was putting together some information on The Science of Breath when I realized that this was going to have to be a series. There are so many multi dimensional levels to approach that one would never do the subject justice in one blog. So in my search I came across a video that led me to the movie 300 when the music video was entitled “Breath.”  Of course I had to watch 300 again after seeing the video and then decided I wanted to blog about the movie. It to was turning into an uber blog when another series of events kept leading back to the worlds fastest car. Come to find out there were only 300 built. I thought, uhmmm,  then I read where this car at 230 mph 'consumes' 10,000 gallons of air per minute, as much as the average person inhales in 4 days. So I said ok, kinda weird  that those things should present themselves so I decided to blog it. I mean after viewing 300 for the second time my testosterone level was peaking and this car has as much testosterone driving impulses as the movie Top Gun and 300 combined. So I decided if I had blogged on the Worlds Highest Bridge, why not the Worlds fastest car which also happens to be the worlds most expensive car.

Below is a video that will really give you an idea of how crazy this car is. But before we go into some of the detail of this car, let me just put a couple things into perspective.

Just the other day in talking with Diana on her “Zero Poverty" campaign, I recalled how when in Malibu I saw in the space of 30 minutes 8 Aston Martin’s.  And all I could think was that right there in Santa Monica, I’m going to see homeless living in cardboard boxes for shelter tucked away in dark corners trying to survive as others drive by in cars more expensive then some houses. So with the worlds fastest car, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4  at a little over  $1,200,000, you could just about feed a third world country.  So if you can afford this amazing car, I hope that you can also help out those who can’t help themselves.

 So for those crazy enough to spend that kinda cash on a car, well this is the car as nothing like this has ever been built. It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, the former boss of Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. “This,” he said, “is what the next Bugatti vill look like.” And then, without consulting anyone, he went on. “And it vill have an engine that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph.”
 

 
With 300 models to be made with 1,001 horsepower it can reach a top speed of 253 mph and go 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. It does so with a 16 cylinder engine with four turbo’s, hence 16.4. To keep this monster engine cool it has 10 radiators!  So how do you get that much power to the wheels without breaking the transmission into pieces?

  For this, VW went to Ricardo, a British company that makes gearboxes for various Formula One teams.

 “God, it was hard,” said one of the engineers. “The gearbox in an F1 car only has to last a few hours. Volkswagen wanted the Veyron’s to last 10 or 20 years. And remember, the Bugatti is a damn sight more powerful than any F1 car.”

The result, a seven-speed double-clutch flappy paddle affair, took a team of 50 engineers five years to perfect.

Also unique is the power transmission via an innovative directshift gearbox. Without any interruption in the power flow, the sequential seven-speed gearbox transmits the engine’s power to the wheels via permanent four-wheel drive. Put simply, this means uninterrupted acceleration from a standing start to maximum speed: a feeling previously known only to jet pilots.  In fact it creates more g-force at maximum acceleration than you’d experience in an F-16 jet fighter!

 
I had a friend who own a Ferrari and he would put a $100 bill on the sun visor and tell you that if you could reach it when the light turned green, it was yours….I never got it. With this car…forget about it!
 
It’s so fast that at the Autocar’s annual 0-100-0mph contest it even managed to beat a Suzuki GSX-R1000 superbike! Now I have raced this bike a few times in the AM hours on my FJ1200 and that is smoking fast let me tell ya.  So when the contest which hosts 25 of the world’s fastest cars ended, the Bugatti left the competition in the dust.

 But never fear, if a cool million in change is a little steep or you just want to do your part for humanity and help feed a third world country, you can always purchase the upcoming Bugatti coupe or roadster. This will only set you back a mere $62,300 which should take you from 0 to 60 in four to five seconds.