Say what? "Faster than any race car"

Berking idiot "news reporters" are at it again:

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-fastest-trains/1

Joe Yogerst said: the Shanghai Maglev Train, whose top speed of 268 mph makes it faster than any race car.

Apparently ding-a-ling hasn't ever heard of Top Fuel or Funny Car, let alone Bonneville/Muroc.

Is it faster than lightning McQueen?

Unpossible.

Or Bugatti or Hennessy. There are street cars faster, but we all know this

smirk Somebody must have schooled the author; it now says

"The SMT’s top operating speed of 268 mph makes it faster than any NASCAR, Indy, or Formula One race car. "

change the gearing for those cars and it still would be a false statement

wbjones wrote: change the gearing for those cars and it still would be a false statement

And remove the downforce that wouldn't be required to travel in the straight line that the train does...

But what if the race cars had to move 100 people?

In reply to nocones:

They forgot to mention they were restricted to 88mph during normal busy periods due to 10000 people being stuffed into a train designed for 100.....

nocones wrote: But what if the race cars had to move 100 people?

You can get two people in a stock car- fields are usually 43... throw an extra 7 part timers in there, and you got one helluva taxi service.

wbjones wrote: change the gearing for those cars and it still would be a false statement

i don't know about today, but about 20 years ago it was said that a then current NASCAR racer would have been aero limited to about 235 if they took off the spoiler, taped everything up, and geared accordingly... Rusty Wallace did a few unrestricted laps around Talledega at 225 or so about a decade ago..

i wonder if the new cars have the same potential?

edit: 228 top speed, 216 average...

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/rusty-runs-unrestricted-car-news

i also remember someone about 15 years ago saying that the NHRA fuel cars could hit 400+ in the 1/4 mile if they let them gear it different and run whatever blower pulleys they wanted. i seem to recall that the Funny Cars had a theoretical aero advantage over the dragsters at those speeds, but i'm too lazy to search teh internets for the proof to back that up.

Was this a freelance piece from the turbo explanation guy at CNN?

yamaha wrote: In reply to nocones: They forgot to mention they were restricted to 88mph during normal busy periods due to 10000 people being stuffed into a train designed for 100.....

At that speed, they don't need to worry about going fast. They can get there any time

The Speedking, aka Russ Wicks is the only living person to hold world speed records over 200 MPH on land and water. In 2007, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Wicks went 244.9 mph in a NASCAR-spec Dodge Charger for the new World Stock Car Speed Record.

http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?id=1154

wbjones wrote: change the gearing for anything and it still would be a false statement

FTFY