All posts in “world record”

Koenigsegg closes highway near Vegas for top-speed record attempt

An 11-mile stretch of highway plays host to a top-speed record attempt by Koenigsegg this weekend. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Nevada Department of Transportation granted a special permit to the Swedish automaker to close a long, straight stretch of State Route 160 between Vegas and Pahrump. The event is hosted by Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country Club, and it’s apparently been in the planning stages for over a year.

A reporter from the Journal reports on Twitter that an Agera RS has already hits speeds of 291 miles per hour, albeit unofficially. If that’s true, it’ll handily destroy the current 268-mile-per-hour top-speed record set by Bugatti in 2010. Of course, Koenigsegg has a habit of one-upping Bugatti, having broken the Chiron’s 0-248-0 record of 41.96 seconds by a comparatively massive 5.2 seconds.

The Koenigsegg Agera RS being used reportedly has the factory’s one-megawatt upgrade, which means it’s sending 1,360-horsepower and 1,011 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels. We’ll have to wait for an official Guinness-approved record announcement, but we’re guessing that’s only a matter of time.

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November 4, 2017 / Comments Off on Koenigsegg closes highway near Vegas for top-speed record attempt
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Bloodhound gang notches 2 successful 200-mph test runs

Last week we brought you video of British pilot Andy Green describing what it was like breaking the sound barrier by going 763.035 miles per hour in the Thurst SSC on the 20th anniversary of that record-setting run in 1997. Today, at an airport in southwestern England, he drove the successor vehicle, the Bloodhound SSC, at speeds reaching 200 mph in a key test toward the ultimate goal of hitting 1,000 mph.

Green made two successful runs, hitting speeds of more than 200 mph in 8 seconds in at least one run. “The car did exactly what we were looking for, two runs of just over 200 miles per hour,” Green was quoted as saying. “This is a proper fast car. We came here to show the world Bloodhound is go, and I cannot think of a better way of having done that.”

Here’s another view.

The Bloodhound SSC uses an EJ200 jet engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon and a rocket cluster under development by Norwegian company Nammo, plus a Jaguar supercharged V8 engine, which acts as an auxiliary power unit to drive the rocket oxidizer pump. The system delivers 135,000 thrust horsepower, more than eight times the power of the cars on the Formula One race car grid combined. Thursday’s test run relied only on the jet engine for propulsion.

Next up is another test run in 2018, location TBD. During the Facebook Live stream, Bloodhound engineers said they’ll need to test the vehicle’s aerodynamics and how it handles the massive shock waves it will generate. One of the biggest challenges, one engineer said, is to prevent the vertical forces from driving it into the ground, effectively turning it into “the world’s fastest plow.” The final attempt will be made on a dried-up lake bed in South Africa, as early as 2019.

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October 26, 2017 / Comments Off on Bloodhound gang notches 2 successful 200-mph test runs
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Bugatti Chiron and Juan Pablo Montoya set 0-249-0 speed record

Bugatti has a penchant for recalibrating our notion of speed. Quickest, fastest, most powerful, world record — just words. Mere descriptors. To really get a sense of how quick a car like the Chiron is, you need to witness its ferocity in person. Since that’s not possible for most of us, seeing it on video is the next best thing. So here’s a quick video of a Bugatti Chiron, driven by Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, accelerating from 0 to 249 miles per hour (400 kilometers per hour) in just 32.6 seconds.

But Bugatti wasn’t done. Equally as impressive, Montoya stomped the brakes at 249 mph hard enough to bring the Chiron back down to a halt in just 9.3 additional seconds, aided by the rear spoiler’s airbrake functionality. Yep, that’s 0-249-0 in 41.96 seconds. From start to finish, Montoya covered 1.93 miles in the Chiron, and it apparently didn’t take much effort from the driver.

“You didn’t need the complex preparations we have to make in racing for the 0-400-0 drive,” said Montoya. “With the Chiron, it was all quite easy. Just get in and drive off. Incredible.”

Incredible is a good word for it. But Bugatti isn’t finished setting records with the Chiron. The company has stated its goal of proving the Chiron is the fastest production vehicle ever by beating the Veyron’s top-speed record of 267.855 mph. That’s planned for 2018, so there’s plenty more time for records to fall and would-be challengers to arise. Stay tuned.

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September 11, 2017 / Comments Off on Bugatti Chiron and Juan Pablo Montoya set 0-249-0 speed record
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Watch Tesla Model X P100D drag race Lamborghini Aventador SV

It’s always fun to see the performance capabilities of electric vehicles, and we haven’t yet tired of watching Teslas go up against supercars, street racers, even airplanes, win or lose. DragTimes fed the world another Tesla drag race video this week, pitting a Tesla Model X P100D with Ludicrous+ against a Lamborghini Aventador SV powered by a 6.5-liter V12 (and worth $530,000) in a quarter-mile challenge at Palm Beach International Raceway.

The Model X gets a better start off the line, and ends up finishing just 0.05 seconds ahead of the Lamborghini (which was quickly catching up at the end). While the Lamborghini was technically faster (with an elapsed time of 11.281 seconds and a speed of 129.38 miles per hour), the Model X finished the quarter mile in 11.418 seconds at 117.95 miles per hour, which DragTimes notes is a world record for an SUV.

The difference in the sound between the two vehicles is striking, as we find from the separate camera views. The Lamborghini absolutely screams, while the Tesla just whistles in the wind a bit.

After the Model X, the Lamborghini takes on a Model S P100D. It almost looks like the Aventador jumps the gun a bit (but it doesn’t get a red light, and shows a reaction time of just .008 seconds with some well-timed wheel spin), and ends up finishing 0.15 seconds ahead of the Model S. The Tesla’s elapsed time was 10.947 seconds at 119.71 mph, while the Lamborghini’s ET was 11.164 seconds at 129.08 mph.

These races showcase the mighty acceleration of the P100D Teslas. While the traditionally powered supercar is faster at the high end, the low-end shove of the EVs prove them to be great drag cars, even weighing over 5,000 pounds.

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August 22, 2017 / Comments Off on Watch Tesla Model X P100D drag race Lamborghini Aventador SV
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