When you see a Mini Cooper you think of it with the British flag on top of it. That is a little label pin compared to the Lotus Exige S that was wrapped in a Britsh flag. It took four techs ten hours to complete the task on the Discovery Channels show called How do they do it. This car won’t be seen anywhere in the US but if you happen to travel to the UK anytime soon you might see it as it tours the different Lotus dealerships.
On the 15,500-ft. north runway of the Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s San Joaquin Valley, with the assistance of the U.S. Navy, there was a test of speed kings was going to happen. A test of unbridled acceleration from a standing start to 200 mph. Six supercars, with one simple mission: to hit 200 mph as quickly as possible. Call it the World’s First Supercar Drag Race. Six tough and mean cars that have a claimed top speed in excess of 200 mph. Each is a car you could conceivably see on the street. And one of them, to our giddy delight, is the almighty Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Just to see that technology-packed 1001-bhp supercar slingshot down the strip was reason enough to make the 250-mile drive to Lemoore. That is not the only car that is being put in the spotlight. The test consisted of five other cars: a beautiful peralescent Lamborghini Murciélago, a Ruf Rt 12, painted Yellow Bird Yellow and — in the proper Ruf tradition, an SLR McLaren, and to show some American power the test included a 880-hp twin turbo Lingenfelter Corvette C6 and a 1100 peak horsepower at the rear wheels John Hennessey’s Venom 1000 Twin Turbo Vipers. This test was one that people would love to do or even watch. These six stunning cars pushing 200 MPH down a runway is a true sight. As the cars streak down the Lemoore runway, they’re reduced to tiny dots on the horizon by about a mile, then they soon disappear. Is it the curvature of the earth causing this? Or the shimmering heat waves? We’re not sure, but you’ll still be hearing the engines at full song as the cars streak to 200, their tires slapping out an ever-quickening tempo on the runway’s sectional concrete surface. The image is surreal, not unlike the otherworldly acceleration of these supercars.