Laferrari weighs less then the f12 but has the same engine?

I'm sure if Ferrari wanted, they could engineer the car go 250+, but I don't think that is the focus for any of their halo cars.

 

The whole proble with the top speed is based on the rubbers, the price of them, the negative implication on other aspects of the cars performance.

A rubber that is good for 400km/h is not better at 1-360km/h range than one developed for a 360km/h max speed.


Also, weight has nothing to do with max speed.Same car with 100hp can do the same top speed even if has aditional weight.

Speed is only a matter of power and drag.

 

What does weight have to do with top speed?

Top speed is a product of power, gearing and aerodynamics. Weight is a factor in acceleration and time to distance, but not top speed.

As arhimede mentioned you also need tires that can safely do whatever speed you have engineered the vehicle to be capable of. Tires that are capable of sustained speeds above 200 mph or approaching 250 mph will have compromises that make them less desirable for speeds that are more reasonable and attainable in everyday situations, like on a road course. Generally those tires will be much heavier and a heavier tire is slower to accelerate, decelerate or change direction and forces compromises to the design of other components.

Top speed is about the most irrelevant statistic when it comes to performance cars. It may look great on a magazine cover for bragging rights but is unrealistic to think that anyone will find a place they can safely attempt to push those limits.

>8^)
ER

 

I will always prefer massive acceleration to top speed

Massive acceleration us useful on every track... Top speed is only useful at Bonneville or Nardo

 

+ + + lots

 

400+ ostensibly smart Veyron owners disagree.

 

No accounting for taste...The veyron has pretty good acceleration along with the top speed.

 

How many of those Veyron owners have ever driven beyond the 231 mph limit requiring the Top Speed mode to be enabled? My guess is that it is a very low percentage and most who have will have done so in the controlled environment of VW's Ehra Lessien test track.

In Top Speed mode, once you exceed 35 mph the system is disabled with a touch of the brakes or if you turn the steering wheel beyond 90 degrees. How practical is that?

>8^)
ER

 

My guess is that Veyron owners utilize the blistering acceleration for more often than they do the top speed.

 

Through end of March 2013 customer deliveries total 354.

Not to say maximum top speed wasn't a factor for some purchasers but looking at the past 30 years of supercar sales being numerically "the best" hardly looks like a major driver of sales success. Ferrari's F-cars are by far the most successful in sales volume but they were rarely the absolute leader in any numerical category. Ferrari's were the leader in being evocative. That passion is sorely lacking in the Veyron. It's a masterpiece of raw numeric engineering but not a passionate masterpiece of the type the brand represented.

 

Top speed is the most ridiculous stat extant. How many of you have achieved Vmax of your performance car? I have not in many,many years. There is not room and I am stupid, but not that stupid.

 

I haven't even dared reach Vmax in my 96 4Runner.

 

Things get scary at 95 mph.

 

I have been 200.5MPH (GPS verified) in a heavily modified F40 (3.4L LM turbos etc) and I have been 100+MPH in a 1993 Ford Escort, ask me which one felt faster/scarier.

 

Haha. +1 to that.

 

Only 12 year olds care about the top speed.

Anything over 180mph is pretty useless in a car primarily for the road, as only on few tracks can you get close to this top speed (Monza, Spa, shanghai...).

The only reason some supercars do speeds exceeding 200mph is mainly for a taller final gear so you don't sit at 6000rpm when trying to cruise along.

 

Actually it is much easier to do 200 mph on an Autostrada, Autoroute or Autobahn, rather than on a circuit.

 

Easier said than done.

To touch a genuine 200mph with a standard Ferrari/Lamborghini is still not very easy. The amount of times you have to brake for some idiot in a Kia moving over...

To be able to touch those speeds with ease you need a genuine 800HP as you need quick acceleration.

A run of the mill 458 won't be able to do this with ease.

The F70 should be able to do so though. But still, it's a pretty pointless exercise (or obsession) this top speed malarkey.

 

Yep. I live in the Munich area and on a normal day with little traffic or a sunday morning its pretty easy to reach 180 mph as a travelling speed, although I would not try to pass other cars in the middle lane at that speed.

I guess for the extra 20 mph you should drive early in the morning but if you wanted you could do that on a lot of (dry) days.

And not to start a political discussion, but: I prefer having gun controls and fast cars than the other way round

 

Pride, an fchatter from Turkey, showed us a picture of his 458 data logger from a trip he took last weekend. The top speed recorded was a cool 322 km/h, which translates to 201 mph. He also said that he backed off and that the car was still pulling. Given an empty motorway these speeds are attainable by a 458 or a Gallardo class supercar. After all the 458 has been clocked at 330 genuine km/h by magazines. You can also see the Novitec Rosso video of the F12 that did 340 km/h on a German Autobahn. It's not something unattainable.

 

I'm not saying it's unattainable. I'm just saying it's harder than you think it is.

FYI, an indicated 200mph is 99% of the time not a genuine 200mph. If you count the speedo to be off by 7% (which is pretty low, most are between 7 and 12%), you need to see an indicated 214 (or 346kph) on a speedo.

How does Ferrari's speedo work these days? Is it GPS or 'mechanical'? GPS is much more accurate than mechanical. I'd say it's still mechanical considering it also has to count the odometer...

 

Too bad it looks like Roseanne w a gas problem

 

I think you're being generous...