It’s not hard to build a car that goes 200 mph - just put nitrous inside it. The problem is to build a car that goes 200 mph and lasts more than few thousand kilometers…
The problem I am perceiving is that if the car is meant to go on the streets, what’s the point? At 200 mph, you have 4 times the kinetic energy at 100 mph.
I mean, at 100 mph you can at least in principle react to an obstacle and dodge it. Your brakes will slow you down so if it’s a wide open road, you can usually hit 100 and live.
At 200 mph, that’s half the reaction time and 4 times the energy your brakes have to dissipate.
I think the answer to your question is “because the people who can afford a car this fast don’t want to die”.
What good does the theoretical capabilities of a car do you if there’s like a 10% chance of death every time you use them? (I don’t know what the chance is, but 200 mph on a public road must carry extreme risk. Even 200mph on a highway in Montana)
It’s not just the questionable usefulnes of being able to go that fast for most people most of the time - it’s the fact that cars which can do this are typically less good at the things that most people most of the time care about:
- fuel efficiency
- reliability
- cost to repair (including cost for routine maintenance such as replacement tires)
- comfort (both suspension and noise)
- space
- crashworthiness
When you’re building a car for a fixed price, you have to make a lot of trade offs. Even if you could build a car that kept all of these other factors acceptable AND went really fast, you’d do it at great expense.
No magic explanation for the 200mph here though - these tradeoffs just get progressively worse as the top speed gets higher. The optimum balance would depend on the driver, price point, and how much you care about each factor. I guess for most people, most of the time, the balance is well below 200mph top speed.
In terms of merely the technical aspects of an automobile, it’s less a power issue than it is a control one. Approaching 200mph even on a perfectly flat & straight surface requires very precise and active suspension and handling systems, else things go very wrong VERY fast! This is already assuming a highly skilled driver.
There isn’t really anything ‘sound-barrier’-esque in terms of cars reaching 200 mph. It’s just the first even, three-digit speed after 100mph (which most ordinary cars can at least reach, if not maintain).
This is the jist of the explanation for why the Bugatti Veyron was so expensive to build in a show I saw a couple of years ago. The horsepower requirements increase exponentially beyond a certain point and there are limits to that horsepower in the form of weight, cooling, etc. I think the Veyron has what, 9 or 10 radiators for cooling the 1001 HP?
Take a production car like a 355 HP Carrera S that will do 190. In comparison the Carrera GT has slightly better aerodynamics and 615 HP. With 43% more HP will the GT go 43% faster, 271? No, it tops out at 208. The Veyron requires 1001 HP to get to 250.
On a practical note;
Carrera S = 190 mph = $90,000.
Carrera GT = 208 mph = $450,000.
Veyron = 250 mph = $2,7000,000.
You bring up planes:
Many small planes cost as much as an expensive sports car.
Planes fly at altitude where the atmosphere is less dense.
You can buy a street legal vehicle that’s capable of (albeit limited not to) go 200 MPH for about the cost of an entry level Ford Fiesta.
Now, if you want one with four wheels, that’s another matter…
It’s mostly aero. NASCAR stock cars can hit 200+ with around 400hp. They can actually hit 230-240 or better with unrestricted engines. A lot of race cars overheat at low speeds because they’re designed to have fast air moving through the small openings in the front of the car. I’m pretty sure the Mustang GT-500 has active aero in the grille that closes it off as you approach higher speeds to make it more aero, but they open up at lower speeds to allow for better cooling. My Escape does something similar, but it’s for gas mileage.
Tyres must be a really big factor. Those wheels are rotating at something like 2500 rpm. Thats a hell of a lot of forces to deal with.
It’s really not hard, as long as you’re willing to throw money at it. Others have touched on some salient points, like the small market for such cars, the lack of real estate to actually reach 200mph, the problem with wind resistance, the fact that most cars aren’t geared for 200mph, etc.
There’s an event called the Texas Mile that’s not all that unique anymore in the world of motorsports. Now, keep in mind that this is a standing start over the course of 1 mile, so unlike the Bonneville salt flats where the challenge is to find traction over a 5 mile course, cars that compete in the Texas Mile need to get going fast in a hurry, and a lot of them have no problems cresting 200mph. They do this on regular drag racing tires, not airplane tires or anything fancy. And all you need is a normal sports car with somewhere north of 1000 horsepower.
Ten years ago, 1000+ horsepower was the domain of nitro-methane fueled drag cars, but nowadays any bloke with a big wallet can pick up a 1000hp car with air conditioning. I’m assuming that said GT-R would be able to hit 200mph, because the P800 with “only” 800hp managed to reach 191mphnearly 4 years ago.
Again, that’s over a standing mile. If you had more room you can get away with less horsepower, but anyone can find a mile of straight road, it’s a lot harder to find 3 or 4 miles. And then not to die while you’re doing it.
Don’t have $200k to drop on a Switzer P1000 GT-R? You can always build your own 1000hp Camaro for a lot less, you just have to make some sacrifices while doing it.
The Bugatti Veyron has a total of ten radiators:
- 3 heat exchangers for the air-to-liquid intercoolers
- 3 engine radiators
- 1 for the air conditioning system
- 1 transmission oil radiator
- 1 differential oil radiator
- 1 engine oil radiator
It was named Car of the Decade (2000–2009) by the BBC programme Top Gear.
I know my plain BMW 323i (year 2000) was limited to 210km/h (130mph). I ran across websites that offered a “tune-up” upgrade to the controller chip. One thing they mentioned was that the tires from most manufacturers were limited to 210km/h so to go faster you needed to buy more expensive tires.
At 200kmh the feeling is that the car is difficult to control, at that speed you do not want to make sudden changes or hit any bumps. that might also be a limiting factor - occasionally you’ll see a spectacular racing car crash where the vehicle becomes airborne and flips over backwards. IIRC a lot of racing cars rely on air pressure to push the vehicle down onto the road. Change that angle so the air goes under, even a bit, and now the air pressure is acting to lift the vehicle.
Very few small planes go 200mph. Most small Cessnas, for example, top out near 130mph to 170mph depending on engine size. Again, this is due to the power vs. air resistance issue, and the limitations of engine weight and fuel capacity in a small aircraft. Helicopters are even worse.
The F40, the world’s first production car to go over 200 MPH and has under 500 HP. That was in 1987. It’s a pretty basic car with optional A/C, active suspension, and ABS.
The Veyron weighs 1,800 pounds more but has a lot more creature comforts in order to make it a luxury car. The 1000 HP is not just for top speed but also for it to have the 0-60 acceleration, and what appears to be, an “OK” quarter mile of 10.2 seconds. However, the car is totally streetable for day-to-day driving. The F40, if you ever happen to be in the presence of its awesomeness, is pretty sparse by comparison. Think like a go-cart sparse.
That added weight is the reason why they had to engineer the tires, brakes, etc. It’s not that their aren’t tires and brake that can handle a 200 MPH car its tires and brakes that can handle a 200 MPH car that weighs that much, and be used more than once.
Quick back-hand calulcations give us the kinetic energy of a F40 versus Veyron at their stated top speeds and weight (201/2400 vs 268/4162) of 4455000 Joules versus 13593600 Joules. That’s three times the KE! Dude. That’s why they had to make it all from scratch to prevent it from melting.
No you can’t. The fastest production bikes (Hayabusa, F4, et al.) top out at 190 mph and aren’t restricted.
Irresponsible? sure.
Dangerous? Yes, because it’s illegal and nobody expects you to be going that bloody fast, and many roads aren’t designed for such speeds. But most cars, even some pretty poorly designed ones, can handle it just fine. On the Autobahn, people drive that fast, on roads where it’s expected and are designed for it, in cars that can handle it, all the time. Just don’t sit in the passing lane.
Around 98 mph my old 1971 Pontiac Grand Safari Wagon* started to float in front, so I never pushed it past that. Fortunately, I wised up and didn’t drive any other cars nearly that fast.
- Go ahead, laugh, but it sported a 455 4-barrel, and you could fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the back! I bet it got nearly 10 miles to the gallon, too. 4800 lbs. sheesh.
Forget the catires rated to 200 MPH are extremely expensive. You do NOT want tohave a blowout at 200 MPH!
When I was in high school, I used to ride around with a friend of mine, in his family’s 1973 Chevy Suburban, which had a 454 big-block V8. That thing could move – I recall him flooring it as we went down a long hill, and we were doing 115 by the time we reached the bottom of the hill. Now, it was a massive steel barn on wheels, and it was clearly not a good idea to be going that fast in it, but my friend was kind of nuts. 
Yes they are. Since around 2000, there’s been the so-called Gentlemen’s Agreement to limit the top speed of superbikes, which all of the big manufacturers have thus far complied with. The last 'busa before the agreement did 194, but with current generation bikes it seems to only take some light modifications (and a light rider) to hit 200.
I’ve read the current Hayabusa is good for 248mph. It’s always cited as the 2nd fastest bike, after the V10 Tomahawk (350mph).
Bugatti designed the tires around that. You can have a blowout at that speed and be “OK”. At it’s top speed, probably not. I think the F40 and Lambo’s of the time also had this feature, just not at that speed though. More like “only” around 100 MPH or so.
As someone had mentioned earlier, there was a TV show that went over all the aspects of the Veyron. Think of it as a 45 minute advert for the car. But, they showed it being built step-by-step, etc. Fascinating tid-bit: the front and rear halves are held together by eight bolts. Yup, just eight titanium bolts. $800 each.