The Fastest Sports Car Ever Invented
The Ford Model T had a top speed of 45 miles per hour. Since the invention of the automobile, people have been constantly striving to make the machine sleeker and more efficient. Above all, people have been trying to make the automobile faster. The trick with producing a sports car is making it street legal. The car must meet various height, weight, and engine restrictions to legally drive on most roads. A manufacturer cannot simply sell racing cars to the general public. Yet most sports cars feel like race cars and perform at high speeds. Which is the fastest car ever invented thus far? A fine line exists between two candidates; you will have to judge for yourself.
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Speed: Acceleration or Top Speed?
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Speed is a simply equation of distance over time. But what kind of speed are we trying to determine here? Some cars are quicker at getting off the starting line than others, but some of these cars have a slower top speed. Is it a matter of acceleration, being able to get to a certain speed fastest? If that is the case, then the fastest car ever invented would be the 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans. Or are we talking about the car that has the highest top speed? If that is the case, then the fastest car ever invented is the 2009 SSC Ultimate Aero. Whichever you determine as being the deciding factor, each of these two models rightfully deserves the title of fastest car ever invented thus far.
1994 Dauer 962 LeMans: Basic Facts
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Driving at you, you see a car with a bubble cockpit, large headlights, and an incredibly sleek, almost alien-like body shape. The car drives low to the ground and one word describes it: fast. It's a 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans. The 994 Dauer 962 LeMans is a former Porsche racing car. The engineers at Dauer take an old Porsche, strip the body and add a leather interior and generally make the car street-legal. The car is equipped with a hydraulic suspension system which enables the engineers to raise the car to the proper height needed to drive the car on the streets.
The engine in the 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans is a Porsche water-cooled flat-six. This powerful engine, combined with the Dauer's unique body shape, makes this automobile extremely fast and worthy of the title fastest car ever invented thus far.
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1994 Dauer 962 Lemans: Acceleration
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What makes this car a candidate in this competition is its acceleration capability. The 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans can travel from 0 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour in 2.6 seconds. This means that in the time it takes you to read this entire sentence, the 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans has gone from a standing stop to traveling at highway speeds. Keep in mind: this all happens while the car is in first gear. As of 2009, no other vehicle has been able to achieve a faster acceleration speed, although some come extremely close.
In the end, though, you cannot definitively give this car the title "fastest car ever invented." Its top speed is simply too slow (although the word slow is fairly relative when comparing these kinds of cars). The 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans' top speed is 251.4 miles per hour. This seems incredibly fast, but the 2009 SSC Ultimate Aero is faster.
2009 SSC Ultimate Aero: Basic Facts
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The 2009 SSC Ultimate Aero has the body shape you would expect to find in a sports car: extremely sleek. The front tapers up to the windshield which then tapers to the back of the car. In essence, the car is built like a cross-section of an airplane wing, it is like a tear-drop lying on its side.
The car itself is a re-handling of the SSC Ultimate Aero TT. The 2009 version is updated with newer technology, enabling it to travel faster than its predecessor (which, by the way, travelled faster than the Dauer LeMans). The horsepower in the 2009 Ultimate Aero was increased by 15% and the engine, a twin-turbo V-8, is a single-piece aluminum block, which improved the oiling capability and the power.
Ultimately, what Shelby SuperCars has created in the 2009 Ultimate Aero is an incredibly fast sports car. It can achieve higher top speed than the Dauer, but has a slower acceleration.
2009 SSC Ultimate Aero: Top Speed
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The 2009 SSC Ultimate Aero can accelerate from 0 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour in 2.7 seconds. This is only a fraction of a second slower than the 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans, but it is, nevertheless, slower. However, the 2009 SSC Ultimate Aero can achieve a top speed of 270 miles per hour, over twenty miles per hour faster than the Dauer 962 LeMans and currently a world record for speed.
So what does all this mean? In a sprinting contest between these two cars, the 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans beats out the 2009 SSC Ultimate Aero, even if by only a fraction of a second. But in terms of top speed, the Ultimate Aero is incredibly fast (270 miles per hour versus 250 miles per hour).
You be the judge. What form of speed do you value the most: acceleration or top speed? Until one car is the king of both, there never can be just one car worthy of the title "fastest car ever invented" (thus far).
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