These guys are:
Veyron..$1.6 million; Callaway Sedgehammer 0.4million
Veyron...252mph; Sledgehammer...254.7mph
Veyron...7.9L engine; Sledgehammer 5.7L
Veyron....4 turbos; Sledghammer 2 turbos
Veyron..dynamic spoilers and no downforce/cornering ability in order to reach top speed;
Sledghammer...stock vette suspension with Koni shocks and lowered one inch, 254.7mph set on an oval track. Retains downforce.
The sledghammer was done in 1988 by a small private company, the Veyron took 5 years, 50 engineers, and current technology to just design the tranny.
The sledgehammer weighs about half as much and retains its downforce whereas the veryon has to remove it.
The car was now running at speeds above 200 mph around the TRC 7.5 mile oval track. Just as it seemed the car was headed on the right path, running in the 210 / 215 mph mark, the folks at TRC said, “The car seems to be fine, do you expect a few more miles per hour”? At that point, Chief Engineer Tim Good said, “No, you don’t understand – this car is supposed to go 250 mph”. The TRC Engineer turned and snickered and from that point on Tim said, the whole attitude changed from the TRC staff “it was like having a disease”.
More determined than ever, the Callaway crew headed back out to the track. An “almost full throttle pass” yielded a 248 mph run. It was then, a TRC engineer asked if it would go faster… Tim said “Yes it will” and so the track remained open.
"At 3:45pm on October 26, 1988, the Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette was piloted to its record speed of 254.76 mph around the banks of TRC.
The car was driven by John Lingenfelter after Reeves had returned from overseas with the flu. After setting the speed record, the crew celebrated their victory and prepared to head home. Before leaving, John Lingenfelter was quoted as saying “you know, your car goes 100 mph faster than mine” referring to his standard Corvette. J
The 254.76 mph record setting run is just as much of a legend as the day it was set back in 1988. Reeves Callaway and his entire crew have made their mark in automotive history with that machine J The car has been shown at Corvettes @ Carlisle, the National Corvette Museum and recently, at the Petersen Automotive Museum."
http://www.callawayownersgroup.com/C...ember/cotm.htm
"Marvel of engineering genius OR unnecessarily complex overpriced Volkswagen nonsense? Two volkswagen V8s = W16 with "a bunch of upgrades slapped on" from the factory. If Chevy thought there was an elite market for a twin turbo 1000+hp Vette capable of 250mph I'm sure they could build it at ~1/3 the cost of the Veyron. Im getting sick of people *edited for language" over this car. VAG is a huge company with nearly limitless resources - I'm more impressed by the small company that builds a custom one-off car capable of this kind of speed. Sure it won't be mass produced but neither will the Veyron. Development was supposed to be axed on the Veyron a bunch of times and it could very well have resulted a one-of-a-kind vehicle that nobody will care about in 6 months.
*flame suit on*"
"LPE has been building 1000+hp corvettes for years that are very reliable. Sure, they may not have the looks or the exoticness that this car has, but I think much of this car was designed more or less so say "hey we can do it to". I mean seriously, you don't need (2) V8s and 4 turbochargers to make 1000HP reliability."
"in top speed mode the veyron only has 120 pounds of downforce instead of the usual 770 so i guess its a moot point."
"The Saleen S7TT Produces its own weight in downforce at 160mph" At top speed which is only a few MPH shy of the Veryon (750HP model) its most likely producing 6000+ lbs of downforce and still can reach those speeds"
"Or the fact that at 250mph with only 170lbs of downforce (Veryon ) you can't so much as turn the wheel or brake without crashing the thing.
The factory test pilot himself crashed on a racetrack warmup.
The 250mph figure is marketing only, so people will ohhh and ahhh over the car without realize it is undriveable at that speed.
Of course the vette did 254 on an oval track without those ridiculous limitations 18 years ago, but it sucks performance wise right?"
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In my opinion anybody owning or dreams of owning a Corvette is a die hard :thumbsup:
artyon:
