THE FASTEST CAR IN THE WORLD
What do you call a man who can fly at the speed of sound? Superman. What do you call a car that can run as fast as Superman? A supercar, of course. But before you think of heading down to your nearest auto store and ordering one for yourself, let’s remind you that you won’t find them there. They’re not in mass production for obvious reasons. Only a few of them are produced here and there, sometimes to demand, sometimes just to see how far the envelope can be pushed.
At the top of the line there are cars that zip by at a rate of 400 kilometres per hour. You may catch a glimpse of some of these on the smoothest highways of the world when no one’s around, but if you really want to see them perform, a closed track is your best bet.
The current record for the fastest car, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is held by the Ultimate Aero TT from Shelby SuperCars. The record was set in 2007, which is quite long in this field, where records tend to tumble every few months or so, and it was set not on a testing track but on a closed-off section on Washington’s Highway 221.
They made the car drive on one direction first, then in the other direction, and took the average of the two speeds. This helps in minimising the effect of fluke road and weather conditions. On the first pass it was clocked at 414 kilometres per hour, and on the second pass at 414 kilometres per hour, ending at a cool average of 412 kilometres per hour.
Now that’s super!
