Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier • Hacker News Board

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#191

Post by 6thaccount2 » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:20 PM UTC

geff82 wrote: post #173

mrleiter wrote: post #169

The milestone of reaching faster speeds with combustion engines seems to be a wrong goal in this day and age. Climate change is a fact, and the burning of material based on oil/coal is a major driver of this. The effects have been known for decades, but only now major impacts can be seen and felt. In German, there is this phrase, which describes the time period after a certain success/enjoyment/well-being. Literally…

I think the "fat years" are still in the future. Intelligent electric cars (however they may look like, think about the Renault Twizzy) and other means of transportation will make the combustion cars we have now look like dinosaurs and we will be proud of what we have then. I recently bought a new car in Germany (combustion engine as I needed a 7-seater). People ask me why I took the base engine (140HP) while adding…

I agree and say this all the time. As someone who grew up driving in an ancient 60's Volkswagen with well less than 100 HP, I can tell you that we can make small cars with much lower horsepower that also get far better fuel economy.

People then tell me that they think that is stupid and like having the acceleration when getting on the interstate. In all those years, I never found acceleration to be a problem. We've been pitched cars that have way more power than we need and that use way more fuel than we need. Magazines like Car and Driver will write negative editorials if a car isn't "zippy". What should matter is safety, cost, and fuel economy.

In the US' South region, nearly everyone feels the need for a giant truck. It has been engrained as a lifestyle choice. You get your truck to help you haul your four-wheeler for deer hunting and your boat for fishing. However, 90% of these trucks are used by single individuals as daily drivers to office jobs which is extremely wasteful. They even live in suburbs which have to get bigger garages to compensate. Each man's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather drove one too, so it is deeply tied to one's masculinity. The south also has some of the nation's poorest citizens and Mississippi/Alabama/Louisiana/Arkansas have some of the worst elementary and highschools in the nation. It isn't uncommon for folks to get extremely in debt on a $50k lifted 4x4 deisel pickup truck.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#192

Post by mrfusion » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:22 PM UTC

neohaven wrote: post #168

sokoloff wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next derivatives in the sequence of position, velocity, acceleration, and jerk are amusingly named “snap, crackle, and pop”, respectively.

Interestingly, they keep getting into "smaller" sounds. Snaps are kind of long-ish, potentially. Something can slowly snap (jerk primed) in two, it's not "as instantaneous a sound" as the two others. Compare to the pops (third) that are part of any crackle (second) you might hear. I always find it a little extra clever that they're ordered "like derivatives".

I always wondered if these were all movements through different higher physical dimensions.

I wonder if anyone has studied that.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#193

Post by Lendal » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:23 PM UTC

mrleiter wrote: post #169

The milestone of reaching faster speeds with combustion engines seems to be a wrong goal in this day and age. Climate change is a fact, and the burning of material based on oil/coal is a major driver of this. The effects have been known for decades, but only now major impacts can be seen and felt. In German, there is this phrase, which describes the time period after a certain success/enjoyment/well-being. Literally…

This reads like a challenge to produce an electric car powered by renewable energy to go past 300+ MPH. Watch FIA Formula E racing, and you'll gain confidence that 300+ MPH electric cars will happen. There will be no end to the fat times, my friend. We'll just switch it to a different power source.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#194

Post by lazylizard » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:25 PM UTC

C1sc0cat wrote: post #141

toyg wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s futile to have quad-core laptops bought by managers who barely run office apps. But the world of commerce runs on dreams.

Quad core is entry level now, when did you last buy a laptop :-) Having a laptop with say a 16/32 Ryzen 3 (which believe is due fairly soon) would be pointless

But its mostly people using bloated software that need those fast computers...i just need a shell n ssh client...

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#195

Post by mikeash » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:28 PM UTC

gavia1 wrote: post #175

mrleiter wrote: post #169

The milestone of reaching faster speeds with combustion engines seems to be a wrong goal in this day and age. Climate change is a fact, and the burning of material based on oil/coal is a major driver of this. The effects have been known for decades, but only now major impacts can be seen and felt. In German, there is this phrase, which describes the time period after a certain success/enjoyment/well-being. Literally…

I think you are missing the forest from the trees. If we want to truly reduce climate change we should start by reducing international shipping, consumerism, and non-essential air travel for both pleasure and business. A 300MPH speed run in an ultra low production Bugatti car is more or less insignificant in the fight against climate change.

Why international shipping specifically? It’s extremely efficient and currently accounts for only around 3% of global CO2 emissions. (Compare to roughly 50% for electricity production, 20% for manufacturing, and 20% for transportation as a whole.)

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#196

Post by tomp » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:29 PM UTC

mrleiter wrote: post #169

The milestone of reaching faster speeds with combustion engines seems to be a wrong goal in this day and age. Climate change is a fact, and the burning of material based on oil/coal is a major driver of this. The effects have been known for decades, but only now major impacts can be seen and felt. In German, there is this phrase, which describes the time period after a certain success/enjoyment/well-being. Literally…

Is this a "combustion engine" achievement or a "road legal wheel-powered" achievement (i.e. not "reactive engine powered car")? In other words, are there any electric cars that are faster? Wikipedia suggests "no" [1].

If that's correct, your comment makes no sense. Many of the developments needed for combustion-powered records would apply to electricity-powered records as well, such as suspension, wheels/tires, gears, ...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_car_speed_record

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#197

Post by edejong » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:34 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #123

edejong wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This got me thinking. Once I thought it was fun , but the more I look at it, the more I feel it is utterly pointless. A racing car has a function: to get around a track faster than other cars (over a period of laps). To do this, it needs to be versatile: turning, braking, acceleration, fuel consumption, range of vision and suspension (among others) play a role. That's the true engineering challenge. It's why it has w…

Fun is important because directing and motivating teams of humans is a difficult skill -- especially when you want to do things where the path forward is at all nebulous, like materials and design research.

Yes. Fun emerges due to sharing of similar goals. People have fun because they play the same game, enjoy the same movie or simply have the same freedoms. I agree that it helps direct and motivate us. (Thanks for that insight!)

I guess I just cannot share in the purpose of the team making this car go +300 mph. We already have the Thrust SSC (1228 km/h / 763 mph). So what does this prove? That if you want to take corners and need to see what happens behind you, you won't get to go that fast? Why not productionize the Thrust SSC then?

Max speed (to me) is just a senseless metric. It's a bit like clock speed of a CPU. Interesting metric, but only in relationship to other factors.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#198

Post by hvidgaard » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:35 PM UTC

edejong wrote: post #189

hvidgaard wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic a top fuel dragster is pointless? For some racing is something that happens in a straight line, for others it involve turns - neither serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things and can be considered "pointless".

No, because a dragster has a specific function. It is a perfect counter-example to the senseless: 'look how fast our super-car can go.' There are many more values involved in dragster racing: knowledge, innovation, joy, creativity, competition, determinism, meaning, enthusiasm and playfulness. And it is all related to a singular goal: getting over the finish line faster than the competition. But with such a super car…

But all of them have various constraints, a formula so to speak, that they must adhere to. A specific function within that world of constraints.

The Bugatti is a street legal car designed to shatter speed records in a straight line. If that isn't specific function with a formula I don't know what qualifies. The street legal part of a super car is not inherently different than the 1.6L FI hybrid engine regulations of Formula 1, it's just a different set of constraints.

You do not create a winning street legal super car without knowledge, innovation, creativity, determinism, enthusiasm - and by proxy of those joy, competition, and playfulness.

I simply do not understand the gate keeping here. If it's not your thing, fair enough. But please do not invalidate the joy of others because it is real to them.

It's comparable to an mechanical watch. You can make a digital watch significantly better at time keeping and all the other functions, that is substantially cheaper both to produce and maintain. But if mechanical precision devices make your world go around, then I can appreciate that - I'm just not going to pay $10k yearly to maintain an elaborate mechanical wristwatch.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#199

Post by gambiting » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:41 PM UTC

geff82 wrote: post #180

gavia1 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big issue with the small displacement turbo-charged engines is that, at normal autobahn speed, the engine is almost always on boost and therefore burning a lot of fuel to: 1. Reduce intake temperatures/prevent pre-ignition 2. Produce enough power to sustain a constant speed of 120KPH or whatever This means that they are far less efficient than they should be, and in some cases get more or less the same efficiency…

When they are really small: yes. But most cars come with gear boxes and horse powers dimensioned so that you are almost always driving at low rpms at normal autobahn speeds (like 120/130). At least my new car with the 140HP engine rolls along at about 2500rpm at Autobahn speed.

I don't know where you live, but 140bhp is a lot for a small-ish car here in UK - it would almost certainly be prohibitively expensive to insure for a young driver for instance. My sister's first car is a VW Polo with a 1.0L 65bhp engine, and that "monster" runs at nearly 4000rpm when doing the legal 70mph(~120km/h) on the motorway. At least it's not a turbo engine so I suppose it's not that bad. It was still a small fortune to insure purely because she's under 25 and had her licence for a year.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#200

Post by cs02rm0 » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:42 PM UTC

jfk13 wrote: post #138

cs02rm0 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last statistics I saw showed ~50% of all traffic (which includes vehicles with speed limiters) travel in excess of the 70mph motorway limit in the UK. Personally, I tend to cruise at an indicated 100mph because above that enforcement ratchets up. Which is about 160kph. I certainly think it's fair to describe that as not uncommon. I do similar speeds in France and Germany and am rarely the fastest vehicle around.

> Personally, I tend to cruise at an indicated 100mph In the UK? OK, at least it's clear what you think of the law. Personally, I hope you get nailed for it. That sort of contempt for both the law and other road users ought to be penalised. (Maybe you only cruise on empty motorways at 3 AM, and so that makes it acceptable...?)

When half of all traffic exceeds a limit I think it's in the wrong place.

As far as getting nailed goes, it would be a fixed penalty ticket, if anything. I don't agree that it's contempt for other road users, any more than it is to do that speed (or significantly more) on an autobahn.