It was interesting to see this months Road & Track with the one mile flat out test. At the top of the list was the Saleen S7 and a Hennessey Viper. The Viper was the fastest by a narrow margin, but it was not street legal. It had no catalytic coverters. That is not to say the Viper would have become slow, I just think it seemed kind of odd to run it that way and the S7 with converters on. I wish Road & Track would have had the Viper put on the converters to see how it would have done.

For those who have not seen the article, it has 14 cars on a flat 1 mile runway. Here is the list of cars in this test...

Lola Chassis Champ Car (race car)
MV Agusta Tabmurini (motorcycle)
Ruf R Turbo
Saleen S7 Twin Turbo
Ford GT
Hennessey Viper
Pontaic Riley D.P (race car)
HPA Audi TT
Jaguar XKR (race car)
Lamborghini Murcielago
Ruf CTR Yellow Bird
Dodge/Chrysler Viper SRT-10
Chevrolet Corvette C6
Vertech Mustang GT

When looking at just the top two cars, the S7 and the Hennessey Viper here are some of the test numbers..

0-60 mph S7= 3.4 H. Viper= 3.6
0-100 mph S7= 6.3 H. Viper= 6.8
0-150 mph S7= 12.1 H. Viper= 11.5
0-200 mph S7 = 23.4 H. Viper= 21.3

100-150 mph S7= 5.7 H. Viper= 4.7
100-200 mph S7= 17.1 H. Viper= 14.5

1/4 of a mile time S7= 10.8 H. Viper= 11
1/2 of a mile time S7= 16.5 H. Viper= 16.5
1 mile time S7= 25.9 H. Viper= 25.6

It would have been interesting to see them set up a course to test out the handling through the turns. It seemed odd that the Shelby Super Car was not in the test. Considering the kinds of numbers they have been posting, it would have seemed like a natural to see that car in the mix.

I know this test was more a run what you brung type of test, but I would like to see the same test done with street legal limited production cars. Maybe VW will allow a Veyron to tested this way next year.