The US state of Florida has one of the longest runways for airplanes. It is 4572 meters long and served as the landing pad for the space shuttle until 2011 for the US space agency Nasa. The site has since been rented. Among the renters are well-known names from the US auto scene, especially when it comes to speed records.
Car freak in the most positive sense of the word, Johnny Bohmer secured the rights and not only leased the “Trial Grounds” to record hunters, he’s one of them. On December 9, 2022, the race driver demonstrated what the old space shuttle track could do in a Ford GT from 2006.
Fast over 500km/h
The racing driver has set a new world speed record with his successor, a somewhat outdated sports car that is already six years old! At 310.8 miles per hour, he not only smashed the magic mark of 300 miles per hour, but also became the first person to exceed 500 km/h: Bohmer was equivalent to 500.2 km/h!
But this is just an unofficial speed record. A well-known committee or organization such as Guinness World Records has yet to confirm Bohmer’s record. A basic requirement, for example, is to traverse the route in both directions one after the other. The average of the two fastest speeds would then become the official world record. This should offset the advantages and disadvantages of tailwinds and headwinds.
Dubbed the BADD GT, as can be seen from the video posted on Youtube, Ford drove the space shuttle runway in only one direction. And Johnny Bohmer’s bolide is no longer a production version of the V8 mid-engined sports car—he doesn’t comment on modifications or performance. However, for an official record, this has to be a production car.
fake record
Such is the official recognition: in 2020 small series manufacturer SSC North America had already broken the 500 km/h limit with the Tuatara. An average speed of 508 km/h and a maximum speed of 532.93 km/h in one direction were even acknowledged by record holders. But some experts have measured, calculated, and concluded: Something is wrong. SSC acknowledged that the metering technology was not working and corrected the top speed downwards.
In other tests, including Johnny Bohmer’s Proving Ground, the SSC Tuatara didn’t even reach 300 miles per hour (482.8 km/h). In addition to Bohmer, this mark was exclusively made by Texan tuners from M2K Motorsports in March 2019, also with a pre-series version on the 2006 Ford GT (300.4 mph = 483.3 km/h) and the following fall 2019 Bugatti broken. Chiron Super Sport 300+ (304,773mph = 490.484km/h). These are also two unofficial records.
Officially the fastest
The latest confirmed speed record for a road car dates back to 2017. That November, the Koenigsegg Agera RS accelerated to 447.2 km/h (277.9 mph) on a public road in Nevada (USA), which was closed for the record. Here, too, the average value of the two attempts was entered in the Guinness Book of Records. The absolute peak of the Swedish hypercar was 457.9 km/h.
Where is the border?
Even if record hunters around Koenigsegg, Johnny Bohmer, SSC, Bugatti or Hennessy are convinced that their cars can easily reach 300 miles per hour, hitting the target is still difficult. Because the real problem is not the cars and their power, but the general conditions. Even on the space shuttle runway, which is almost 4.6 kilometers long, cars are running out of space. Because on this route you not only have to go above 480 km/h, but also brake again! And at this speed, it covers 4.6 kilometers in 34 seconds.
There are also uncontrollable aspects such as wind, bumps and animals on public roads. And then tires are also considered a limiting factor. Because they heat up faster at such high speeds. Until now, no one knows the effects of this load on the tire. But record hunters don’t let that deter them.