This is not the first time someone has said that the supercar top-speed record has been set for all time. Jeremy Clarkson called the 253mph (407kph) Bugatti Veyron ‘Concorde’ and remarked that it would be the best car seen in his lifetime. He was, I imagine, much to his relief and amusement, very wrong.
But this time, it’s really over. There will be no more new fastest cars in the world.
And it’s not because of safety, technology, or the environment. It’s something much simpler. Much more human. There are no more big, round numbers we can realistically hit.
The Yangwang U9 Xtreme recorded a one-way Vmax of 312.65mph or 503.17kph. The Chinese EV wasn’t the first road car to pass the magic 300mph—that honor belongs to the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300—but the Yangwang will forever be enshrined in the record books as the first street-legal car to smash the 500kph barrier.
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That makes it vanishingly unlikely that anyone else will give the top-speed game a go in the future. We already know this stuff, while cool, is deeply irrelevant. In fact, it’s counterproductive to making a car that’s actually fun to drive at sane speeds.
But it’s even less worth the effort when the big, famous speed you hit isn’t a big round number. Somehow, it won’t be an event if someone now manages 512kph.
When the Ferrari F40 claimed 201mph (323.5kph), that was a moment. The Bugatti Veyron was the first car past 250mph (402kph), so 300mph (482.8kph) and 500kph were the final frontiers. Can you really see a manufacturer taking the risk—and paying the investment—to crack 350mph (563kph)? And given the science—pesky drag increasing with the square of the speed—how much power would that even take? And space? And bravery?
Round numbers mean more. There’s a reason people turning 30 years old have an existential crisis on their birthday, and a 50th wedding anniversary is more memorable than a 51st.
The symptoms of the top-speed guns falling silent have been creeping in for a while. Bugatti’s boss Mate Rimac is more excited about making the Tourbillon driftable—or even manual—than going beyond its limited top speed of 276mph (444kph).
Hennessey’s latest creation has a mere 1,000hp and a manual gearbox. The Blackbird is proudly part of the analog trend, which has replaced power and speed as the highest currency in hypercars. Does Gordon Murray care that the T50 or the S1 haven’t done bigger Vmax runs than the iconic McLaren F1? Does he heck.
There’s actually a precedent for this ‘end of history’ moment, too. We’re currently in the longest drought for land speed records on, er, record since the first official one was set back in December 1898—a heady 39.2mph (63kph) in a French electric car called the Jeantaud Duc. Mon dieu!
Between 1898 and 1997, humankind never went more than 17 years between new land speed records. The biggest gap was 1947 to 1964, when 403mph (648.6kph) was breached. Notice how the big incentive was hitting a new round number—the big four hundred. But since Wing Commander Andry Green strapped himself into Thrust SSC in Nevada in October 1997 and became the first man on Earth to drive headlong through the sound barrier, no one has gotten close. Next year, that’ll be three decades ago.
The faster you go, the harder it gets to go faster, and the smaller your chances of hitting the next big milestone number. Now that a not-particularly-good-looking electric car from a Chinese brand with no motorsport heritage has topped 500kph, I honestly don’t think you’ll see anyone else bother.
Congratulations, Yangwang, the Vmax kings. Now bring on the manual, analog, purist cars that don’t give a hoot about the numbers.
More photos of the Yangwang U9 Xtreme:
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
