[Wichita-SCCA] Bugatti Veyron at speed

[Greg Laws]

Wow.  The speed achieved in a "street car" simply staggers the imagination 
... and also demonstrates the folly involved in ownership of any street 
vehicle that can dramatically exceed reasonable limits.  For the purpose of 
this discussion I will define reasonable limits as being 140 mph, or twice 
the top legal speed on US highways.

Among the 40-50 personal cars that I've owned over the years there were four 
that stood out in terms of top speed.  Those four were a hot-rodded 1966 
Nova SS 2dr hardtop, a stock 1968 440 Magnum Charger, an upgraded 1989 
Porsche 944 Turbo S, and a brand-new 1978 Pontiac 6.6 HO TransAm.  All four 
would exceed 140mph, with the Porsche being the fastest at about 170mph.  I 
never had any incident of significance at speed on public roads but whether 
that was due to skill or dumb luck I remain uncertain.   I pushed the 
envelope in each of these cars to the point that I remain surprised that I 
didn't die or at least end up in jail.  I only wrecked one, the brand-new 
1978 Pontiac (flipped onto its roof with only 445 miles on the odometer), 
but I'm not sure that the incident counts since it happened during 
competition at the Detweiller Park hillclimb at Peoria, Il.

Yes, fans of obscure urban legends, there was indeed a fellow who wrecked a 
brand-new TransAm at the Peoria hillclimb and that fellow was me.

The most recent of these four (the 944 Turbo-S) was sold last year shortly 
after I smoked a C5 from Arkansas City in an impromptu top-end duel 
eastbound on US 160 going into Winfield late at night.  At the end of the 
run I found myself feeling stupid and depressed rather than exhilarated. 
Realizing that I had no ability to resist temptation I was faced with the 
choice of either keeping the car and eventually having to face a seriously 
negative situation or else the car had to be sold to avoid temptation 
altogether.  I chose the latter, perhaps the first mature automotive 
decision of my life.

The point is that any modern high-performance car is, at the end of the day, 
not really about performance.  Not one of the modern day seriously 
high-performance cars can be driven at anywhere near their design limits as 
a daily driver on public roads in safety let alone legality, but there's 
more to it than that.

During the first 80 years or so of the last century, each generation's car 
guys were pushing the technological envelope, excited with the creativity of 
making it faster, quicker, or just making it work more efficiently.  The 
cars were so primitive that anything they did, even if it was wrong, made 
the car better!  It was great fun, that feeling of accomplishment, and I was 
fortunate enough to experience and to be part of the tail end of that 
period.  Now technology has moved beyond anything that a shade tree mechanic 
can improve upon with personal invention or modification.  Professional 
engineers have created ultimate expressions of automotive excellence in 
every aspect with the inevitable consequence being that automotive 
technology will be forever beyond the ability of any individual enthusiast 
to exceed.  We can only purchase what we can afford with the knowledge that 
someone else with a larger budget will be able to do better.  Witness the 
Bugatti Veyron at speed.

So where does that leave us?  One option lies with racing (to include Solo) 
as the only legitimate and safe venue available to unleash these awesome 
machines for the few owners who wish to actually experience the incredibly 
high limits that these machines are capable of.  Racing allows these owners 
to test themselves against the machine itself and their peers.  Another 
option is for the high performance car owner to drive at the same limits as 
everyone else does but with the knowledge that his car would be faster than 
everyone else's if he chose to let it loose.  The car then achieves value in 
the image it projects about the owner and how it makes the owner feel when 
he drives it.  Ownership of the car becomes an ego trip for the owner.  It 
says something about the truly high-end cars that most are seldom actually 
driven and certainly not in the rain.

The final option is the small "fun" car.  Perhaps the first of this line was 
the MG-TC but in modern times we would think of the Miata or any number of 
small sedans & hatchbacks.  Now we get back to the fun that cars can 
provide.  Little cars are the future of automotive sporting enjoyment for 
the masses.  I include my wife's current car, a 2006 Pontiac Vibe Sport in 
that mix.  Quick and nimble but not overwhelmingly fast, these cars are 
affordable and fun to drive while not becoming anti-social or dangerous.  I 
suggest that the SCCA would do well to promote rules that would tend to 
emphasize competition for such cars wherein the cars are completely-stock 
right down to their OEM tires.  No modifications allowed, period.  In fact, 
class the OEM tire rather than the car.  Think about it.  Put the cars into 
classes based upon the brand, size, and exact model(s) of OEM tire that came 
with the car.  The solo rule book would shrink dramatically!  <grin>

Enjoy,
Greg Laws


--- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert" <dsp83gti at gmail.com>
To: "Wichita Region SCCA" <wichita-scca at wichitascca.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 1:06 PM
Subject: [Wichita-SCCA] Bugatti Veyron at speed


> http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x157l2_bugatti-veyron-at-top-speed
>
> -- 
> Robert Foster / '89 BMW 325i
> http://motorpride.com/dsp83gti/
> Wichita Region SCCA - http://wichitascca.org/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wichita-SCCA mailing list
> Wichita-SCCA at wichitascca.org
> http://wichitascca.org/mailman/listinfo/wichita-scca_wichitascca.org
>