Clett

Funny cars and dragsters can hit 300mph in just a quarter mile - so a piston engine road car should be able to do it, if looking a bit ridiculous. Actually come to think of it, who said it had to be a piston engine? A jet engine would give 2-3 thousand horsepower in a much smaller package - that'd be a much better bet, no?

ThrustSSC

The best form of gas turbine to use for road use would be the turboshaft - i.e. the helicopter or turboprop type engine - driving the wheels. Pure thrust propulsion from a turbojet or turbofan might not get past the NCAP tests...

You think an STi has turbo-lag, though - wait until you try this one! You might be better sticking to piston-engines

Dazza's-STi

Nope... ... regardless of the cd... the rule still applies... that means the fast you go the force to do it exponentialy encreases... and so does the power required to push it along... Extrapolating the figures as you say doesn't work as estimating a value or extending a curve on a grapth is not whats taking place in practice. got my hands slapped in physics for getting those two mixed up

The cars now designed to do such speeds such in a wind tunnel such as the Mac f1 @ .30 cd would still need huge amounts more power to get even 15 mph higher speed...

A bit of history then...
In 1933 Thomson & Taylor made more major changes to the Napier Railton accommodate a supercharged Rolls Royce 'R' type 36½ litre V12 engine giving 2,500 brake horse power.

Campbell's ultimate Land Speed Record car was the 1935 Blue Bird using the same engine with a little more power but a new chassis designed and built by Thomson & Taylor . In this car Campbell took his eighth and final Land Speed Record on the 3rd September, 1935 on Bonneville Salt Flats and achieved his longed for target, averaging 301.13mph.

To go much over this the thunderbolt needed 73,164cc 2 Rolls-Royce Type 'R' Schneider Trophy aircraft engnes with centrifugal superchargers 24 cylinders (2 V12's) 3 speed gearbox. and 4,600-5,000 bhp

Now given that kind of power youd have thought you could get your garden shed doing 300 mph after all a 450 bhp porche will do 186 and its quite small and slippery...

Fact is to get from 250 to 300 needs lots more power... lots!

Admittedly a funny car will do over 300 mph in 5 seconds... but they do have 7000Hp


Road car 300mph err No!

Dazza

minan

the veyron is a heavy car, 1950 kg, so if they're able to put less weight in the car, maybe they have to make everything from titanium and magnesium, than the car would go 300 miles. did you know the car doesn't have 1001 hp but 1050, because the hp was measured with a temp of 40 degrees ( C) it would mean the turbo's wouldn't get their max, because of the hot air, if the temp is 20 degrees above zero, you could get 1050 hp. i think they're able to make a car with more power and less weight than the veyron.

Stainy

Holy resurrected threads bat-man

and in any case, wtf has weight got to do with top speeds of this magnitude

MADRod

Weight dont come into it. True the car may get to its Top speed quicker but its down to aero-dynamics.
My own car held a Topspeed record @ 183 with 500bhp it took 770bhp to raise it to 206 & with 850bhp we hope to raise it to 212+ this week. A 70% increase in Power to get a 15% increase in Speed. Yep in theory all things are possible but dont think too many are going to try. Have you ever driven a car over 200 on an airfield let alone on the road. I would be concerned about how to stop this road car, Parachutes aint friendly to other road users on the M3.

69WRX

2 Pot Subaru calipers should do the trick

Vegescoob

Never mind road cars, when are they going to let F1 and other competition cars and bikes achieve 300mph.
Stupid FIA etc. always blathering about reducing speeds.

Gav

bloody hell this threads a blast from the past

bigsinky

the bugatti review in EVO mag this month makes interesting reading. i couldnt believe that at full tilt a full tank of SUL would last 15 minutes. down to nearly 2 mile/gallon

Robbie T

iTrader: (8)

I thought i read somewhere that the power was actually slightly less than the 1001bhp they were hoping for, circa 987 bhp(ish) IIRC. Negligable for a road going car i know

stijohnny

There was a car at this years festival of speed that has done 300mph. I think it was a pontiac and it had somwhere in the region of 1760bhp from what I remember. It wasn't a funny car or dragster either, just a mad spead freaks car from the states. I spoke to the owner and they did over 300 on two runs on salt flats(maybe bonneville, not sure).
The irony is that it was just in a corner of one of the stands and no one was looking at it, thats why I went over. There was so many other goodies on display to get everyones attention... I have tried to find the car again on google to no avail and didnt get any photos of it either, but will go to the festival again next year as its just around the corner from where I live.
cheers
STIJohnny