Thread: Veyron too slow?!?!?

Hennessey Viper beats Veyron in 0-200 dash

Posted Aug 1st 2007 2:40PM by Frank Filipponio
Filed under: Aftermarket, Bugatti, Dodge, Driving


Road & Track thought it might be fun to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend by taking a half dozen supercars out to Lemoore. That would be the nearly three-mile-long runway at the Naval Air Station Lemoore in California's San Joaquin Valley. Not that the air base isn't a nice place to visit, but the reason they were there was to test the cars' acceleration from 0-200 mph. R&T refers to it as the "World's First Supercar Drag Race." They had used this same strip for a standing mile acceleration run back in September '05, but this test was strictly for streetable cars that had claimed top speeds of more than 200 mph.

They nabbed Kiwi racer Steve Millen as their test driver once again, and basically told him to just get the best launch he could and get to 200 as quickly as possible. They further asked him, given the fact that two of the assembled cars had more than 1,000 hp on tap, not to let up until past the one-mile mark if 200 mph came before that, but not to go past the two-mile mark so as to allow enough shutdown room. Besides the 0-200 time they also wanted to record standing mile acceleration like the last time they visited the naval air base. So what were the results? Follow the jump to see, and don't forget to click the Read link for the full rundown.

[Source: Road & Track]

The full rundown of the cars tested and their results are below. Note that Ferrari and Lamborghini didn't provide cars for the test, but the crew found a sympathetic Lamborghini owner who volunteered his own 2002 Murci. Perhaps due to its age, it could only manage 190.1 mph. Similarly, although provided by Mercedes in this case, the SLR only hit 199.5 mph, despite a claimed top speed of 207. Non-stock wheels were given as explanations for both, which is really a shame. Additionally, the Veyron and the RUF were praised for their civility while attaining these incredible velocities. The big surprise in the test was the fact that although the Veyron was quicker through the mile, the extra horsepower of the Venom let it reach 200 faster, making it the king of the hill for this group. Without further ado, here are the results:

Car | HP | 0-200 | secs | Distance covered in feet

1. Hennessey Venom 1000TT Viper: 1,100 20.3 3488
2. Bugatti Veyron 16.4: 1,001 24.2 4770
3. Lingenfelter C6 Corvette: 880 26.5 4894
4. RUF Rt 12: 650 35.5 7385
5. Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren: 617 47.2 (199.5 mph) 10560
6. Lamborghini Murciélago: 580 50.1 (190.1 mph) 10560

Yeah if I had to drive one all day (and I wish that was the case!) then it would be the Veyron.

Mr Clarkson did a great review of it when he drove across Europe in one on Top Gear.