Breaking the 300-mph barrier is difficult because of several factors, including overall logistics and the sheer amount of power it requires.
If there’s one common thread between many motoring enthusiasts from all over the world, it’s a love of speed. Going fast is its own reward to some, fueling a passion for setting land speed records and pushing both driver and machine to the limit. Today, the world’s fastest «car» is the Thrust SSC. But the title of «fastest car in the world» gets more complicated when you start trying to define what a «car» is. Sure, in the loosest possible sense of the word, we can say it’s any self-powered land vehicle with four wheels. But if you were to look at the Thrust SSC, all you’d see is what looks like a giant lawn dart with two F4 Phantom II jet engines strapped to either side. Not much of a «car», then.
Production cars, on the other hand, are far less specialized. However, we know that, provided we give such a vehicle enough power, we could theoretically create something that breaks the 300-mph mark; Bugatti has done so, for instance, with a modified Chiron that hit 304 mph. The problem isn’t a lack of capability, though; it’s physics. Two factors prevent production cars from cracking this barrier: power and aerodynamic drag. That presents an obvious solution, of course; just build a more powerful, more slippery beast, emulating what Bugatti has done. But is it really as simple as it sounds? Actually, no — numerous factors come into play, such as cost, customer demand, and functionality.
