A view of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super sport shown on the Bugatti stand, at the Geneva Motor Show, in Geneva in Switzerland on March 1, 2011.
When is a vehicle’s top speed not really its top speed? When a records-keeping outfit decides it didn’t happen… even if it did.
Case in point, Guinness World Records recently declared a record top speed set by the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport — 267.8 m.p.h. — invalid after it learned the car’s speed limiter had been deactivated. A speed limited does just what it sounds like: it’s a device that prevents a vehicle from exceeding a given velocity. Many commercial vehicles employ them for safety reasons, to prevent drivers from exceeding speed thresholds (though driving 155 m.p.h. — the limit imposed in vehicles from manufacturers like Audi, BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen — hardly seems prudent).
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In Bugatti’s case, the Veyron Super Sport clinched its world record back in 2010, but the company sells the production version of its vehicle with a speed limiter installed that puts a ceiling at 258 m.p.h. Thus on April 2, 2013, Texas-based Hennessey Performance was able to claim that its Venom GT was the new production record-holder with a top speed of 265.7 — just a few points slower than the uninhibited Veyron Super Sport, but notably faster than the speed-governed version. As Yahoo! Auto notes, that announcement caused a minor kerfuffle, prompting Guinness World Records to write:
It has come to the attention of Guinness World Records that there was an oversight in its adjudication of the ‘Fastest production car’ which was set in 2010 by the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. As the car’s speed limiter was deactivated, this modification was against the official guidelines. Consequently, the vehicle’s record set at 431.072 km/h [267.8 m.p.h.] is no longer valid. As we are now reviewing this category with expert external consultants there is no current record holder.
But after further review — no doubt to the delight of Bugatti — Guinness has backtracked on its nullification, writing:
Following a thorough review conducted with a number of external experts, Guinness World Records is pleased to announce the confirmation of Bugatti’s record of Fastest production car achieved by the Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. The focus of the review was with respect to what may constitute a modification to a car’s standard specification. 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.
In short, Guinness seems to be saying speed limiters don’t matter when establishing performance records. But since you can’t actually drive that fast in the Bugatti — though who’s actually going to, and for heaven’s sake, where? — it sounds like the Hennessey remains the fastest vehicle in the world from the standpoint of practical speed maniacs.
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