MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. – The recent rollover crash of a very expensive “hypercar” at the Kennedy Space Center occurred on July 1 on the old Space Shuttle Program runway. The runway measures 15,000 feet (2.89 miles) and has “a tolerance of less than ¼-inch height difference from end to end.”
That nice, long, and very flat strip of concrete (that is also 100 yards wide) is a perfect setting to test the aerodynamics and limits of cars. Very fast cars.
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The Launch and Landing Facility (run by Space Florida) is an aerodynamic facility used by contractors, space component manufacturers, and training companies. It is also used by car manufacturers and private owners for high speed and low speed vehicle testing. Vehicle testing activities are run by veteran race car driver Johnny Böhmer.
The crash brought worldwide attention in the automobile industry to an area of Central Florida more associated with space, and aside from the Daytona International Speedway, less with cars. In this case, flipping over a hypercar during testing was big news among a very small community.
But, what exactly is a hypercar?
Let’s start with the basics: a hypercar is a vehicle at the top of its game. A hypercar differs from a sports car or super car in a number of ways including top speed, performance, price, and probably most importantly, exclusivity. Prices start around $2 million, performance is in the range of 1,000 - 2,000 horsepower, top speeds can approach 300 mph, and most manufacturers limit production to a couple of hundred units or less.
In the case of the Hennessey Venom F5, each hand-built example has a twin-turbo V-8 pumping out 1,817 horsepower, costs about $3 million, and has an estimated top speed (by Henessey) of about 328 mph. The track-focused version of this car is called the Venom F5 Revolution; the “topless” version is the Venom F5 Roadster.
Hennessey Special Vehicles, the owner of the wrecked Venom F5, is a Texas-based company that was founded by John Hennessey in 1991. Aside from building hypercars, Hennessey has a big business modifying existing cars and also trains tuner technicians. But John Hennessey’s vision is to build the fastest, street legal, production car in the world. Hennessey only planned on making 24 units.
Although there are more than half a dozen companies that produce hypercars (including Delage with its D12 and the Zenvo with its Aurora), hypercar manufacturing is limited to a very small group. Here’s a partial list of some of the more well-known hypercar companies and their latest models:
Bugatti
Bugatti Automobile has the out of production Veyron and Chiron, the track only monster Bolide (1,847 horsepower, a top speed of 311 mph, and a production run of just 40 cars), and the new to everyone hybrid Bugatti Tourbillon (1,800 horsepower, an estimated to speed of 276 mph, and a $4.6 million price tag).
Though it looks similar in design to the outgoing Chiron, the Tourbillon is a completely from-the-ground-up new car with an 8.3 liter naturally aspirated V-16 engine (no turbos or superchargers). The Tourbillon won’t be available until 2026, and Bugatti only plans on making 250 of them.
Koenigsegg
The Koenigsegg Jesko (a follow-up to the company’s Agera model) has up to 1,600 horsepower (depending on the type of fuel you use) and a price tag of around $3 million. And just like all the other cars on this list, it’s exclusive: the Swedish manufacturer plans on only building 125 models (and they’re all sold out).
The Jesko comes in two variants: the Jesko Absolut and Jesko Attack. The Absolut has a higher top speed while the Attack is more track focused. It is estimated the Jesko Absolut has a top speed of over 310 mph.
Mercedes-AMG
Mercedes-AMG has one of the most exclusive (and uniquely styled) hypercars in their plug-in, dual hybrid powered Mercedes-AMG ONE. The ONE has a combined 1,049 horsepower, a production run of just 275 units (and yep, they’ve all been claimed), and a price tag of $2.72 million.
Aside from the styling, what makes the ONE so different is that Mercedes-AMG basically stuffed a V-6 engine from a 2016 Formula One race car and other technology into a street-legal vehicle. Despite that F1 pedigree, the ONE is the slowest car on this list: it’s limited to a top speed of just 219 mph.
Rimac
Rimac is a company you’ve probably never heard of, but in the world of hypercars, they’re a big, BIG player. How big? They’re the majority owner (along with Porsche AG) of the aforementioned Bugatti. The Croatian-based manufacturer builds just one car with a bit of a twist: the Rimac Nevera is an all-electric 1,914 horsepower hypercar with a price tag of $2.2 million and a production run of just 150 vehicles.
SSC North America
SSC North America (formerly Shelby SuperCars) was embroiled in controversy a few years back when the company claimed to have set a new speed record with a hypercar that achieved a 316.11 mph average (on a two-way run) in October 2020 in Pahrump, Nevada. The company, however, had to back off that claim when the data just didn’t add up.
Nevertheless, today, their $2 million, 1,750 horsepower SSC Tuatara has a certified top speed (one-way) of 295 mph (May 14, 2022 at the Launch and Landing Facility). SSC’s Tuatara Striker is a track-focused version while the Tuatara Aggressor has options that are “non-road legal”. Production of the Tuatara and Tuatara Striker is limited to 100 cars; only ten Tuatara Aggressors will be produced.
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