Anyone who is familiar with modern
history will know that mankind had succeeded in falling into the destructive
abyss of war. TWICEEEE!!!... Yes I’m talking about the two wars which made the
whole world realize (but not learn from) the true destruction, suffering &
after effects of war.
World War 1: Global military conflict which involved the world’s great
powers such as Britain, Germany etc. Over 70 million military personnel were
mobilized in the largest war in history. Over 15 million people were killed,
making it one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. The proximate
catalyst for the war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand of Austria. Austria-Hungary's
resulting demands against the Kingdom of Serbia led to the activation of a
series of alliances which within weeks saw all of the major European powers at
war. The end of it was seen to be in 1918.
However it wasn’t over yet. They
fell into that dark pit for the 2nd time in 1939.
World War 2: The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million
military personnel and over seventy million people, the majority of them
civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in history.
The start of the war is generally
held to be in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent
declarations of war on Nazi Germany by the British Commonwealth and France.
Amongst these main events are the
Marco Polo ridge incident (fought between Nationalist Chain and Japan), the
start of Operation Barbarossa (the Nazi invasion of Russia), and the attacks on
Pearl Harbor.
The end came along in august of 1945
as the world saw the destruction of nuclear power when the Americans dropped 2
bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Over 78 Million casualties resulted
from this war making it far worse than anything seen in the First World
War. The actual number of casualties may
have been far greater since a larger number of people died of post war disease,
radiation poisoning etc.
And still, it wasn’t done. This time
they resorted to means which didn’t involve too much destruction to the masses on a visible scale,
but devastating consequences which no one was able to see.
Cold War: The Soviet Union and
the United states emerged from the war as the world's Superpowers. This set the
stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations
was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict.
Again why was I talking of some
world wars which happened like 60 years ago. The answer is simply because it is
still happening. Quite openly the allies and the axis powers are at war, but
this time along the subject that is much more interesting to us.
To make matters more simple we’ll be
taking into consideration only one aspect of this war.
The war to build the fastest car in
the world.
This fight exists simply between 2
companies. Representing the allies we have the Shelby Super Car Company (SSC)
and representing the axis powers we have none other than Bugatti. Some may have
heard of Bugatti but I don’t think most have head of the SSC, so let me give a
little introduction into both these companies.
VS.
Shelby SuperCars Inc. (SSC) is
an American automobile manufacturer founded in 1998 by owner Jerod
Shelby. The company is based in West
Richland, near the Tri-Cities, Washington and specializes in the production of supercars.
Founder Ettore Bugatti was
born in Milan,
Italy, and the automobile company that bears his name was founded in 1909 in
the town of Mosheim located in the Alsace. The company was known both for the
level of detail of its engineering in its automobiles, and for the artistic way
in which the designs were executed. Today the name is owned by Volkswagen Group, who has revived it as a builder of limited production
exclusive sports cars.
Back in 2005 the then VW head
decided to build a car not for the purpose of selling it but for the purpose of
challenging the engineering boundaries. The result built from scratch was none
other than the Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4. Designed and developed by Volkswagen Group and produced by Bugatti Automobiles SAS at their headquarters in France. Although the origins
such as production locations are different the ultimate design & concept is
sound, therefore making it a German bred machine. Powered by an 8.0 Liter, quad turbo charged W 16 engine producing a staggering 1020 horse power. With perfect aerodynamic designing coupled with hydraulics which shifts the car up and down in order to give the optimum position for it to do what it was designed to do. The result was a blinding 408 kmph.
[ Ok when it comes to setting speed
records there is one more thing you should. ]
[How it’s done is as follows.
Consider the points A & B. On the first run the car is made to travel from
point A to point B at which the speed is recorded. Then the directions are
changed and made to run from B to A, result recorded. The average of the 2
speeds is taken as the final speed.]
And that was the beginning of it
all.
See Video above for footage from Record Run:
Quite soon after that the SSC put out the SSC Ultimate Aero, wich was built using a Lamborghini Diablo replica Chassis with twin turbocharged engine sourced from the Corvette C - 5R mated to a G-64 6 - speed manual transmission (alos seen on Dodge Viper). Built with bits and pieces from all over the place this car set a speed record of 412 kmph on September 13 2007, beating the Bugatti Veyron by 4 kmph. The effort put into setting this record was big. There had to be the right conditions for the car to run and also the driver had trouble in driving the car as well. He reported wheels spins at over 384 kmph which proves to show how unstable the car actually is.
3 Years later Bugatti came out with
the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. The speed record was set on the VW test track 5
mile straight in Germany. The speed set this time was 431kmph, beating the Aero
very comfortably. The Bugatti is so well built that it can get up to speed in almost
any condition and even whilst travelling at those speeds the car remains
EXTREMELY Stable. It’s described by some to be very “UNDRAMATIC” hence giving
you the opportunity to enjoy the speeds.
See Video for Bugatti Super Sport High speed Run:
So how did VW set a bigger speed record than the Aero? Very simply put all they did was 2 things.
1. Increase the engine capacity from 8.0 Liters to 8.3 Litre. The 0.3 Liter increase gave them a boost of 200 horse powers totalling upto 1200 horse power.
2. A special paint that would actually
decrease the drag force created by the air touching it. Only a single layer was applied, which caused the criss-cross pattern of the carbon fiber
body to come up through the paint. But I think
that’s a good touch to it.
SIMPLY INGENIUS.
In July 2011 SSC announced that they will be building a all new car named the SSC Tuatara capable of doing 444 kmph which will beat the Bugatti, but we’ll have to actually see it to believe that, but until such time the king of speed will still be the Bugatti.
Hmmmmm so who won the war……….. Need I even answer that…… Still don’t believe me??.
Take a look at the picture below.
 |
| Road Accident - An Audi (German built car) onto a tipper truck. Which has Suffered more damage ??? |
My Parting Query to you?? Who would
you now trust??
Food For Thought!!!
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