electric cars, bikes, trucks will beat them all.

the internal combustion motor is primitive, even with advanced engine management systems and twin turbochargers, anything, everything.

you will NEVER get efficiency from a device where the piston goes up and stops, then comes down and stops, then goes back up agains and stops .... even at 18000 rpm, or whatever you want.

but to provide a force - a very large force, say - onto something that is already spinning around, this is efficient.

with IC engines, you get about 20% of the calorific value of the liquid fuel as energy on the back wheels. with electric, you get about 80% of the calorific value in the batteries on the back wheels.

if you then add the whole filth of mining oil out the ground or ocean, transporting it thousands of miles to pay arabs for the pleasure of receiving it, then spewing out much poison into the atmosphere, you may start thinking, gee, those IC driven cars and things were nice for a while back then but maybe there are better ways of doing this.

The artical is not about effiency of the internal cumbustion engine.

It is about the Worlds fastest road car.

Why don't you kep your political commentary out of this artical and bow down before the allmight BLUE OVAL whose creation of the GT has crushed the competition.

better yet get on your electric scooter , and ride off into the sunset where you can get into enviomental harmony with the rest of your hippie friends

and on other thing

IN YOUR FACE CHEVY.

The problem is not the superior operation of an electric motor for vehicle usage

-it is still the energy storage problem (i.e. batteries).

When sufficient electrical energy is able to be stored in a manner similar to

hydrocarbon fuel density then certainly electric power will prevail.

Most all of us look forward to that time.

In the meantime,

how about 300 mph, just to see if it can be done! :-)

When they manage to replace all the coal fired power stations, having a few IC motors around won't seem as bad as is now claimed.

It is a pity that the Wankle rotary engine has lost favour, development on the seals (the equivalent of oil rings in ordinary IC motors) was gradually refining the efficiency and green credentials of this non-stop motor.

With the development effort that has gone into other petrol engines (and for that matter diesels) the Wankle rotary could still be the way to go until alternative energy catches up in efficiency and price, let alone the cost of upgrading the delivery systems for electric power to cope with the quick-recharge demand.

At present, if even 10-20 per cent of car owners switched to electric cars, hybrid or not (there's irony for you, electric cars using IC to recharge) the grid would probably collapse undeer overload.

267MPH is fine if your on a straight road, I'm sure like most american muscle cars it handles like a cow...the world fastest road car should be one capeable of doing an actual race circuit in the shortest time.

I completely agree with the skud the IC rotary engine is far better than the conventional one, its a shame it hasnt been developed further.

I still cant understand why they dont use capacitors to power cars, opposed to batteries...there is already a capacitor replacement for a regular 12V car battery...

This is a modern GT 40.

This is the fastest in the asphalt mile but not at Bonneville,though.

Several street legal cars have cleared 300mph there.

It is much harder because of poor traction and you have to do it averaged out over a whole measured mile during a 5-8 mile course.

I know:

I race both.

Also,many of these cars are running race fuel and the motors are temporarily turned way up(turbo waste gate pressure,etc.)so they are by no means driven daily at this level of performance.

For the record,though,the original Ford GT 40 finished 1st at LeMans 1966,1967,1968 AND 1969.

In 1966,Ferrari's 6 year reign ended with an astounding 1st,2nd AND 3rd place finish by the Ford GT 40.

The specific Ford GT 40 that won in 1968 and 1969 is the ONLY car

that has ever won LeMans twice.

Yes,Americans can build cars that can outhandle the best Europe has to offer.

"Yes, Americans can build cars that can outhandle the best Europe has to offer."

The GT 40 and Ford GT are both fantastic cars, no doubt, but before you beat your chest too patriotically, bear in mind that the former was developed by Lola, an English company.

The latter chassis was actually built by Saleen.

OK lets leave the flame wars to the kids on youtube.

The electric car comments are off topic but probably correct - I'm 35 and if the energy density issue is sorted out with batteries I reckon I will see out IC transport. I am a pilot, not a hippie although I am man enough to admit the hippies are right. Annoying, but right. I bet that every roof will be covered in solar cells before too long - nice cheap ones. But nothing beats hydrocarbons weight for weight so some synthetic replacement needs to come along in the interim - or even good old hydrogen when the storage issues are fixed, which seems to be happening.

re - Le Mans - yep, ford set out to beat ferrari and they did. Both the old and new gt40 (the new one is really a gt44 I believe) are awesome. But they only led for a while. Since then though, few would argue that the best road cars have come out of the US and the styles of racing favoured in the US reflect this. BBCs top gear races road cars around a track and there are few US vehicles near the top of that list. They rate the Covette though.

Its amazing they were able to keep the 6 speed transmission with 1900 horses! I'm sure its MTBF is measured in minutes or hours but that is one tough box. And maybe more amazing that there is anyone is the US who knows how to use one :-)

They should do a top speed run at that european track where the Veyron set its record.

1900 HP should be good for 470-480 kmh...