Chasing speed

On February 14, 2013, the Hennessey Performance Engineering built Venom GT (pictured above) set a top speed of 270.49 MPH on the 3.22 mile shuttle landing strip of the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Based on a Lotus Exige, and registered as a modified Exige, the Venom GT does not hold the Guinness record of fastest production vehicle because with only 11 of them made and technically not a new car from the ground up, it doesn't qualify as a production car.

Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing: 140 mph in 1955 is a lot.

Since the conception of four wheels and powered transport, there has been a relentless race to build the fastest, the most powerful, and the most desirable car in the world.  What Karl Benz started in 1896 with the first petrol engine car, has been carried on decade after decade, with the best engineers, designers and marketers from all over the world working day and night to gain that one extra mile per hour, all for a title and an entry into the history books.

Dodge Charger Daytona: Stock car racing aerodynamics meant the Charger could reach dizzying speeds for its time.

Ettore Bugatti, other than being a businessman selling his products to the elites of society, was regarded as one of the brightest engineers/designers in the early 20th century. Proof of his expertise at building magnificent, ultra desirable cars is the Bugatti Type 35 and the 57SC Atlantic, both of which were the fastest cars of their time.

Bugatti Type 35: Veyron's great great-great-grandad.

Bugatti took a several decades long hiatus after the death of Jean Bugatti, Ettore's son, who died testing a prototype car in 1939. Bugatti challenged the top speed record again in the early 90's with the phenomenal EB110 GT, the company then under an independent Italian investor. The 209 mph record it set in 1991 was enough for VW to sit up, take notice, and acquire the company in 1998. They gave the green signal to a car that would change the face of ultra-rare hypercars forever: the Veyron 16.4. In Veyron SuperSports form, the numbers read: 16 cylinders, 4 turbos, 1,200 horsepower, 1,100 lb ft torque, and a 267.856 mph top speed. It's still the fastest, since the Venom GT isn't a production car.

Bugatti Veyron SuperSport: Still king of the hill.

McLaren F1: Gordon Murray's wonder child.

The race for the title of fastest production car has heated up in recent times, but back in the 90s, the competition was even more intense. The ones that made the breakthroughs, did so in spectacular fashion.
The Jaguar XJ220 was a class apart as a hypercar, combining grace and power in a way that is yet to be replicated (except, perhaps, in the Pagani Huyara). At the time, the XJ220 was the fastest car in the world, topping out at 213.1 mph. Another British great is the eternally cool, gracefully monstrous McLaren F1. 3 seats, a gold plated BMW V12 engine, liberal use of carbon fiber, and the magic touch of genius engineer Gordon Murray, propelled the F1 into the history books in 1995 with an eye-watering 241 mph, a record that would stand till the Veyron broke it in 2005. The F1 is still the fastest naturally aspirated production car in the world.
In the late 80's, Ferrari and Porsche battled for the title with the F40 (1987, 202.687 mph) and the 959 (1986, 195 mph), respectively. In America, Callaway Cars Inc., a company much like Hennessey, came up with the fire breathing Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette, the most powerful version called the “Sledgehammer”, which at the time held the record of the fastest street legal car in the world, at 254.76 mph. Take into account the record was set in 1988 and was held until 1999, and it's an astounding achievement.
As far as the classics go, besides the Bugattis, the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing must be mentioned. Back in 1955, the voluptuous, curvy shape of the 300SL had a huge aerodynamic advantage over the rest of the field, reaching a top speed of 140 mph. The gullwing doors were an engineering necessity because of the low-slung body and the frame, but that was a first, too. Nowadays a well-kept Gullwing will put you back over USD $500,000.

Callaway Corvette Sledgehammer: 250 mph + in 1988.

All of this chasing after a top speed, and the rate at which a higher record is attained slowing down year after year, begs one question to be asked. Where does it stop? 270 mph has been reached, but is it possible to go beyond 280-290 mph in the next three-four years? Without massive leaps in tire and transmission technology and aerodynamics know-how, probably not. As for an engineering cap on the top speed at any given time, its not feasible to think that *this* is it, and thus its not possible for us to put an upper limit to our hunger for more speed. After all, who would want to give up and not push for that extra 1 mph?