Cars (Part 2)

Engineering is more than just solving problems. Engineering is solving problems with flair, with ability, with speed and with cunning. It is the practical application of science in design. 

 

Take the Bugatti Veyron. For a short while, it was the world’s fastest production car, with a top speed of 407km/h. The world went crazy. A month later, it was SSC Ultimate Aero with a top speed of 411km/h.

 

People immediately began forgetting about the Veyron, saying that it had been surpassed. What people were forgetting is the reason why the Veyron was so amazing. It wasn’t the fact that it could do 407 km/h. It was that it could do 407km/h while having air conditioning, traction control, all-wheel drive, weighing about 2 tonnes, having a CD player, comfortable seats, easy torque curve and being simply a fantastic road car. Which the Aero isn’t. Over 320km/h, it gets exponentially harder to get each successive km/h. Not only did Bugatti (effectively Volkswagen) manage to get their magnum opus to such a high speed, but do it with all of the above accruements, and do it comfortably and safely. That is why the Veyron is the engineering miracle that the Aero isn’t. That’s why it is up there with the Ford Model T and the Porsche 911 as cars that shouldn’t work, but do.

For a list of the best engineered cars of the 20th century, check out the Automotive Engineering International website, which I will conveniently link to you with a differently coloured word. 

 

Penis.

 

~ by John Clark on May 22, 2008.