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Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

topgear.com

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Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#51

Post by awesomepeter »

mrweasel wrote: post #37
ollie87 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mmmmhmmm, don't really see it as an issue here given that not many folks are going to be buying a £2.5m hypercar to drive at three times the speedlimit to work on a Monday morning.

True, but that just makes the whole exercise even more pointless. There's really no point in building a car that can go above 150km/h, but perhaps some of the aerodynamics can translate into more fuel efficient car. I'm also slightly annoyed by the usage of the word "barrier". There's physical or perceived 300mph barrier. People have built cars that will go a super sonic speeds, so there was never any doubt that it w…

Going around 160km/h on highways in Europe is pretty common, also higher speeds for eg. in Germany

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#52

Post by StavrosK »

mellosouls wrote: post #29
kijin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the "300mph barrier" even a thing when we're talking about a French-turned-Italian-turned-German automaker doing test runs in Germany? They only barrier they need to care about is the metric one at 500km/h.

British publication. So relatively muscular imperial miles are correctly used. Readers' eyes might pass over in disinterest should weird & weedy "kilometres" be used instead. On a more serious note, I'm sure the various manufacturer marketing departments take every opportunity, imperial, metric, Klingon, whatever, to mark a passing of a numeric "barrier" - i.e. a number ending in zeros.

I'm still waiting for someone to break the mythical 2500 furlong per hour barrier.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#53

Post by TylerE »

beambot wrote: post #31
tialaramex wrote: post #13

It's futile to actually have road-legal cars that go this fast because you can't do very much useful with the speed. This is much too fast for the human operator (driver) to safely react to things outside the cockpit, which is why for example Britain owns trains capable of 140mph in service but deliberately limits them to 125mph. Tests suggested drivers couldn't be relied on to reliably observe and react to a linesid…

> The "obvious" upgrade ... What's stopping the trains from operating autonomously?

Unions, mostly. The tech is there, especially on a 100% grade separated line like the TGV - no road crossings, and the full length is either fenced, in tunnels, or on bridges.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#54

Post by arethuza »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #38
tialaramex wrote: post #13

It's futile to actually have road-legal cars that go this fast because you can't do very much useful with the speed. This is much too fast for the human operator (driver) to safely react to things outside the cockpit, which is why for example Britain owns trains capable of 140mph in service but deliberately limits them to 125mph. Tests suggested drivers couldn't be relied on to reliably observe and react to a linesid…

Pretty much all modern cars will go faster than is useful and/or safe. Only a small set of public roads allow cars to go their top speed. I have a 1991 Corvette that will go 153 mph, and I've only done it twice. It scares the crap out of me. Top speed is a cool thing to boast about, but most people won't ever see it, and a few stupid people will hurt themselves with it. That's okay on the balance, because millionaire…

Also Bugatti is part of the VW Group - so it's possible that some day the engineering may trickle down to all of the other brands in the group (such as the humble Skodas I've been driving for the last few years).

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#55

Post by TylerE »

adrianN wrote: post #30
tialaramex wrote: post #13

It's futile to actually have road-legal cars that go this fast because you can't do very much useful with the speed. This is much too fast for the human operator (driver) to safely react to things outside the cockpit, which is why for example Britain owns trains capable of 140mph in service but deliberately limits them to 125mph. Tests suggested drivers couldn't be relied on to reliably observe and react to a linesid…

A train going faster than 25mph or so is already too fast for the operator to react (braking distances are huge!), so I doubt that the top speed is limited for that reason.

Just because the train can’t be stopped doesn’t mean there is no point. Much better to hit something at 50 rather than 70.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#57

Post by CptMauli »

jacquesm wrote: post #44
Svip wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the TGV has no signals. Instead it uses a radio communication system. If no radio signal is received within a time frame, the train will warn the driver, and eventually stop. If a train has to perform an emergency stop, all other trains behind it are informed via the same system. If the driver does not react, the train will stop itself. There is a reason why the TGV has seen no accidents since its launch…

The most important reason why the TGV has not had any accidents is actually a really simple one: it only runs on very high quality rails with large turn radii and excellent maintenance of the railbed.

And even that is not entirely true. The TGV can only run this fast because it runs on tracks where only the TGV is allowed.

The rail bed is even not that great, that's why only some ICEs are allowed on TGV routes, because they need a special deflector which is more robust to tolerate the stones which are thrown up in the air when the train drives over it.

I think they took this in consideration when they designed the latest iteration of the ICE.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#59

Post by Svip »

jsiepkes wrote: post #45
Svip wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the TGV has no signals. Instead it uses a radio communication system. If no radio signal is received within a time frame, the train will warn the driver, and eventually stop. If a train has to perform an emergency stop, all other trains behind it are informed via the same system. If the driver does not react, the train will stop itself. There is a reason why the TGV has seen no accidents since its launch…

While it may be safe, no accidents since launch might be a bit of an overstatement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TGV_accidents

OK, you're right. I should have clarified my statement; there have been no serious incidents on LGV tracks while in service. Level crossing accidents and collisions take place outside the LGV tracks, when the TGV run on standard railway tracks. Only one high speed derailment caused fatalities, and that was during a test run.

Re: Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

#60

Post by jhrmnn »

mrweasel wrote: post #37
ollie87 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mmmmhmmm, don't really see it as an issue here given that not many folks are going to be buying a £2.5m hypercar to drive at three times the speedlimit to work on a Monday morning.

True, but that just makes the whole exercise even more pointless. There's really no point in building a car that can go above 150km/h, but perhaps some of the aerodynamics can translate into more fuel efficient car. I'm also slightly annoyed by the usage of the word "barrier". There's physical or perceived 300mph barrier. People have built cars that will go a super sonic speeds, so there was never any doubt that it w…

Useless does not equal pointless.
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