The makers of the Bugatti Veyron were in for a shocking surprise when Guinness revoked their world record title of being the fastest production car on the planet. In April this year, the major authority for all official world records announced that they were stripping Bugatti of its title after discovering that the car used to set the record speed of 430.98km/h had been modified, which is a violation of the Guinness norms. Guinness felt that the only logical thing to do was to hand back the title to Shelby Supercar’s Ultimate Aero, which set a record speed of 411.72km/h in 2007.
SSC Founder Jerod Shelby said, “This wasn’t how we planned to reclaim the record. After we held the record for 3 years, I was happy to hand over the crown to Bugatti back in 2010. I think it’s good for the supercar industry to have competition. It keeps the enthusiast hungry. We’ve also always felt that it would be better to break someone else’s record next time, instead of just re-breaking our own record.”
Somehow, Guinness was informed that the record-breaking Bugatti had its top speed limiter deactivated, and all the production cars sold came with the limiter set at 415km/h. This was quite puzzling for Guinness, and they made a statement claiming that they would review all ‘production car’record categories with expert external consultants to ensure all records fairly reflect achievements in this field. Surprisingly, though, a week later they then made this statement. “Having evaluated all the necessary information, Guinness World Records is now satisfied that a change to the speed limiter does not alter the fundamental design of the car or its engine.” This means that the Bugatti Veyron once again officially became the world record holder of the fastest production car in the world – allowing the company to breathe a sigh of relief no doubt.
The competition is heating up though for Bugatti, as SSC is about to showcase their Tuatara, which Shelby claims will destroy the current record. Even John Hennessey of Hennessey Performance is ready with his 1,244bhp Venom GT,which is claimed to have touched a speed of 447km/h unofficially. But Bugatti also has a trick up its sleeve, as it’s getting ready to launch the Veyron Super, which will allegedly reach a speed of 463km/h.So, things surely are heating up in the race to grab the Guinness World Record of being the world’s fastest production car.
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