[Wichita-SCCA] Bugatti Veyron at speed

Thu Apr 12 15:45:33 EDT 2007

Reminds me of something Abner Perney wrote once (and I think he was
quoting someone else): "It's more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a
fast car slow".  Of course it's even more fun to drive a fast car fast
but as you said it increases the risk level in many ways.

About rules:
There are many sides to the tire rules in Stock classes.  One of the
biggest problems is that many manufacturers offer more than one brand or
type of tire on their models, even in the same year.  OEM tires can be
difficult to find sometimes, especially on older cars and finally
there's nothing to stop GM from offering a "Sport" option on their
Skystace or whatever that includes R tires.

About the Veyron:
As impressive as the Veyron is - and I consider it a great engineering
accomplishment - it makes Top Fuel dragsters that much more amazing to
me.  Any of the nitro burners - even the slow ones - will hit 300 mph
and in 1/4 mile.  Of course they don't have air bags and interiors and a
"boot" and the engines only run for about five seconds at full throttle
before it melts all of the pistons, but it'll hit THREE HUNDRED miles
per hour when that happens!!!  Not to mention 0-60 happens in less than
a half second and in about 10 feet.  Honestly, the only way to
accelerate a person faster is with a rocket sled.  Oh well, sorry to
change the subject.

-Brian Meyer

-----Original Message-----
From: wichita-scca-bounces at wichitascca.org
[mailto:wichita-scca-bounces at wichitascca.org] On Behalf Of Greg Laws
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 2:05 PM
To: Wichita Region SCCA.
Subject: Re: [Wichita-SCCA] Bugatti Veyron at speed

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
> 

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