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Comment by mrweasel | Hacker News Reader

True, but that just makes the whole exercise even more pointless.

There's really no point in building a car that can go above 150km/h, but perhaps some of the aerodynamics can translate into more fuel efficient car.

I'm also slightly annoyed by the usage of the word "barrier". There's physical or perceived 300mph barrier. People have built cars that will go a super sonic speeds, so there was never any doubt that it would be possible. Admittedly it is a little funny that the Bugatti is faster than a Formula 1 car.

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Going around 160km/h on highways in Europe is pretty common, also higher speeds for eg. in Germany

No it is not 130 is the general limit.

http://www.unecartedumonde.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/car...

The speed limit is typically 130km/h, but depending on the country it may be pretty much ignored.

> Going around 160km/h on highways in Europe is pretty common

is it? That is 20-50km/h above the limit in all european countries other than Germany. There are people going that speed, but in my experience across a few countries 99% of the traffic does not go that much above the limit.

Sources:

https://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/specialist/knowle.... https://autotraveler.ru/en/spravka/max-speed-limits-in-europ...

Have you ever been to Poland? The legal speed limit on the motorway is 140km/h, but 160km/h is more common, especially since there is effectively no fine for going that quickly, police are mostly interested in people going 200km/h+, because the fine for doing 160km/h would be like 100PLN(~$30/£20). I've driven my Mercedes-AMG some time ago through Germany and then through Poland, and yes, on the Autobahn I was able to hit 250-260km/h for maybe 4-5 minutes at the time(legally, which is amazing and I would 10/10 recommend to anyone who likes driving, scary as all hell though), but overal I can guarantee that my average speed was higher in Poland, the traffic is just moving a lot quicker and there's less roadworks compared to the autobahn.

Last statistics I saw showed ~50% of all traffic (which includes vehicles with speed limiters) travel in excess of the 70mph motorway limit in the UK.

Personally, I tend to cruise at an indicated 100mph because above that enforcement ratchets up. Which is about 160kph. I certainly think it's fair to describe that as not uncommon. I do similar speeds in France and Germany and am rarely the fastest vehicle around.

> Personally, I tend to cruise at an indicated 100mph

In the UK? OK, at least it's clear what you think of the law.

Personally, I hope you get nailed for it. That sort of contempt for both the law and other road users ought to be penalised.

(Maybe you only cruise on empty motorways at 3 AM, and so that makes it acceptable...?)

In the US, I often drive in roads with a posted limit of 80mph going ~100mph, and even then I get passed sometimes. It's not inconsiderate to other road users if I make sure to pass and yield appropriately, though it's certainly a violation of the law.

And yeah, I think the law is stupid. I believe that we should eliminate speeding tickets and have police only enforce "reckless driving". Going the speed limit could be much more dangerous than exceeding it given traffic and road conditions. Going 2x the speed limit with no other cars in sight should be penalized much less than failing to signal when changing lanes while in traffic; the former only puts the driver and passengers at risk, while the latter risks all cars within a half mile or so if they cause a pileup.

Police seem to enforce the former far more than the latter because it's easier, not because it has the biggest impact.

That's basically how it works on the Isle of Mann.

When half of all traffic exceeds a limit I think it's in the wrong place.

As far as getting nailed goes, it would be a fixed penalty ticket, if anything. I don't agree that it's contempt for other road users, any more than it is to do that speed (or significantly more) on an autobahn.

I remember in my parents car a few years back, I was doing around an indicated 220km/h on a motorway in the UK. There was still things going faster than me.

This was on a relatively quiet, well sighted motorway in good conditions. But there were other people clearly in a hurry!

From experience, in France there are stretches of motorway where you would simply fit in the fast lane traffic by going at 160km/h (and yes the speed limit is 130km/h and cars going that speed stay well on the right).

A lot of things humans do are pointless, but all the same we do them. Doesn't stop it being fun does it?

0-180 in the same time and hitting a speed limiter is going to be just as much fun for everyone. Unless you happen to have laid out a strip at Bonneville Salt flats. That seems poor justification.

I thought he meant that the design work was fun. The challenge. What is the point/justification of Olympic sports?

I'm talking about the challenge, building a car that can do 300mph and then also drive to the shops seems like a really difficult engineering task.

It sounds like you don't know about track days or drag strips. That's the way to enjoy a car that goes faster than 150km/h fully. A 300mph Bugatti is still way above any speed you'd reach, though.

Even in that case a much lighter (and cheaper!) car like an Atom or Caterham will be a lot more fun than one of these hulking great monstrosities. Often faster as well, depending on the track.

Bugattis aren't meant for motorsport enthusiasts anyway. They are too expensive and complicated to be track day cars and an enthusiast would buy something more driver oriented rather than stats oriented.

You could definitely enjoy one on a track if you had one. But you would probably spend more time just enjoying the thought that you own it, keeping it safe, then you would take your actual track car to the track.

That's a matter of taste though - for some people, a smaller, lighter, weaker can is more "fun" than a car that is stupidly fast but only in a straight line. But then there are people who only care about that and that 0-60mph run is what does it for them, not tossing an MX-5 around on a twisty road.

Launching an Atom or Caterham with big power is incredibly hard for most people, even for those who own them. Not really a drag strip car, more a club circuit vehicle.

Yeah, I wrote the same thing in another response. But a few track days per year is a good way to have real fun in a supercar.

> There's really no point in building a car that can go above 150km/h.

Even if you're "only" going to be driving at 160-180 km/h (as is common e.g. on the German autobahn) you want to be in a car that can do 220-240 km/h. You don't want to be 100% maxing the car out at your cruising speed.

I know you are probably just speaking in jest but "faster" is all relative. If you put this Bugatti in an F1 race, it probably wouldn't win. They are both engineered to do their very specific things.

Just to put some numbers to that... at the Nordschliefe in 1974 Lauda dipped under 7 minutes. The original Veyron managed 7:40 in 2005. BMW engineers estimated their 2006 car could lap it in 5:15.

Basically, put a few corners in and I don't think it would even be close. There's quite a few cars that can claim a faster top speed than an F1 car though.

It's a 300mph barrier for a road going car you could easily drive to your nearest supermarket if you so wanted.

Useless does not equal pointless.

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