How It Works-Amazing Vehicles

The fi rst thing you notice about

the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

isn’t its Lamborghini good

looks, but its Tyrannosaurus

roar. The Bugatti’s

16-cylinder engine delivers

over 1,200 horsepower,

ripping from 0-

kilometres (60 miles) per

hour in a staggering 2.

seconds. The only thing

preventing the Bugatti

from pushing over 431

kilometres (268 miles) per

hour is the rubber t yres,

which would tear apart

from the force. A nd at

£26,000 ($42,000) for four

tyres, it’s better to be safe

than sorry! To deliver that

much power, the eight-litre

engine gulps down fuel; at full

pelt, the Bugatti would drain its

entire tank in about 12 minutes.

VEYRON

SUPER SPORT Top speed (restricted)415km/h (258mph)

Acceleration

0-97km/h (60mph) in 2.5 seconds

Price

£1.5mn ($2.5mn)

Transmission

7-speed

Weight

1,888kg (4,162lb)

Engine

16 cylinders, 895kW (1,200hp)

The bumps in the road

Drag is one of the greatest engineering

challenges to designing a supersonic land

vehicle capable of breaking speed records. Even

low-fl ying fi ghter jets have only reached 1,

kilometres (994 miles) per hour and that’s

without the friction of wheels on the ground. Air

is much denser at ground level than at high

altitude, meaning cars have to be ultra-

aerodynamic (hence the rocket shape) and

produce insane amounts of thrust. The Aussie

Invader 5R, one of the land-speed contenders,

solved this problem by sitting its driver atop what

is essentially a 16-metre (52-foot) rocket engine

capable of producing 276 kilonewtons (62,

pounds) of thrust. Wheels are another huge

challenge, as they need to rotate at unimaginable

speeds while sticking fi rmly to the ground. The

solution is tireless wheels machined from either

titanium or aluminium, which boast a ver y high

strength-to-weight ratio. The Aussie Invader’s

aluminium wheels are built for 10,000 rotations

per minute. When the Thrust SSC broke the

sound barrier, the shock wave ‘fl uidised’ the

sandy soil beneath the vehicle, making it diffi cult

to steer. Next-gen rocket cars are using computer

modelling to muffl e those vibrations.

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Speed vs

acceleration

In January 2013, a Hennessey Venom GT ripped

down an airport runway in Texas to break the world

acceleration record: 0-300km/h (186mph) in

13.63s. Acceleration is not the same as speed.

Acceleration is a product of the V8 engine’s

torque (force) divided by the Venom GT’s

mass (ie a = f/m). The Venom accelerates so

quickly because its lightweight 1,244kg

(2,743lb) frame is cranked by 160kg/m

(1,155lb/ft) of torque. The heavier Bugatti

Super Sport loses to the Venom GT in a sprint,

but can hold the road at higher maximum speeds.

Some have contested the Venom GT

is faster than the Veyron Super Sport

overall but this is yet to be confi rmed

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