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Comment by SCdF | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have any insights to if this brings any interesting science to the table that is applicable outside of this context? I personally have zero interest in a fast car going fast, but it's always interesting to see how these sorts of difficult feats help humanity in more general ways.

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One important side effect of going fast is that you need to slow down fast. So better braking power. (Though the problem with supercars is that simply using something that needs replacement every few hundred miles is "acceptable".)

Similarly anything that rotates has to withstand torque and centrifugal force. Eg wheels. (See also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_ImAm1WhcY for what it takes for going 3x faster.)

These advances result in capital investment for R&D, percolate through the supply chain, and this can lead to better techniques here and there. (But I think after a certain point the disparity between the technology - the trade offs - needed for 100 mph and 300 mph become so large, that the resulting new/better capabilities doesn't mean anything for the normal automobile ecosystem.)

For the Veyron they had to work a lot on aerodynamics. The aerodynamic lift at 400km/h would usually make any car go airborne, so they had to find ways to prevent this without increasing drag too much.

There is a bunch of R&D, typically not revolutionary but still best in class. It’s what engineers love to work on anyway; supercars would likely exist even if nobody wanted to buy them. I think we have plenty of similar “products” in the hardware and software markets - stuff that doesn’t necessarily move the needle, but somehow exists at the very top of the market anyway, simply because it satisfies a lust.

For the Veyron I know they developed special tires with Michelin to be able to handle the extreme high speeds.

Such development might help "normal" tires improve in durability.

I can imagine this is something that happens in a lot of area's. Pushing every part to the extremes might help make them more reliable under normal usage.

Ultra high speeds also require efficient aerodynamics, which in turn helps reduce drag/fuel usage.

It wasn’t just tires, but rims as well. If I recall correctly for the original at top speed the useful life of rims was about 30min, tires about 15. You on my had 12 min of fuel at that rate though. Rim + tire replacement was something like 100k USD. Not that anyone was going to be able to put many top speed minutes together in practice.

I recognise James May's delivery of those numbers! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO0PgyPWE3o

I didn't remember that but it must have been what stuck it in my head!

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