Dr.-Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche AG, is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans. The headquarters of Porsche AG is in Stuttgart, and the company is owned by Volkswagen AG, a controlling stake of which is owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Porsche's current lineup includes the 718 Boxster/Cayman, 911, Panamera, Macan, Cayenne and Taycan.
A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance luxury sports car. Since the 2000s or 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as the flagship model within a vehicle manufacturer's lineup of sports cars.
The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The land speed record (LSR) is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs. Two runs are required in opposite directions within one hour, and a new record mark must exceed the previous one by at least one percent to be validated.
Craig Breedlove is an American professional race car driver and a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first person in history to reach 500 mph (800 km/h), and 600 mph (970 km/h), using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.
ThrustSSC, Thrust SSC or Thrust SuperSonic Car is a British jet car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers, and Jeremy Bliss.
Gary Gabelich was an American motorsport driver who set the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Land Speed Record (LSR) with the rocket car Blue Flame on October 23, 1970, on a dry lake bed at Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah.
A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to 'spoil' unfavorable air movement across a body of a vehicle in motion, usually described as turbulence or drag. Spoilers on the front of a vehicle are often called air dams. Spoilers are often fitted to race and high-performance sports cars, although they have become common on passenger vehicles as well. Some spoilers are added to cars primarily for styling purposes and have either little aerodynamic benefit or even make the aerodynamics worse.
The Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen was an experimental, high-speed automobile produced in the late 1930s. The streamlined car was derived from the 1937 open-wheel race car Mercedes-Benz W125 Formel-Rennwagen, of which also a streamlined version was raced at the non-championship Avusrennen in Berlin.
Ruf Automobile GmbH, is a German car manufacturer and division of the German automaker Porsche. They also manufactures and engineers original vehicles using unmarked Porsche chassis, specifically known as bodies in white. The cars are built from the ground up as completely new cars, using these bare chassis, and assembled using Ruf-made parts and materials, instead of badge engineering or disassembly of existing cars. This means the company is officially recognized as a manufacturer by the German government. As such, all Ruf models have certified Ruf VIN and serial numbers, and are recognized as production models, rather than modified Porsches. Ruf is historically known for its record breaking 211 mph CTR, and is the largest, most renowned company to make Porsche performance enhancements. Though primarily a manufacturer, Ruf has also made a name for itself operating as a car tuner, a specialist in customer-requested Porsche-to-Ruf conversions, and a restorer of classic Porsche and Ruf models. Ruf carries out service and crash repair, as well.
This is a list of the world's record-breaking top speeds achieved by street-legal production cars. For the purposes of this list eligible cars are defined in the list's rules. This list uses a different definition to the List of automotive superlatives. The variation is because the term production car is otherwise undefined.
The characteristics of a production vehicle or production car are mass-produced identical models, offered for sale to the public, and able to be legally driven on public roads. Legislation and other rules further define the production vehicle within particular countries or uses. There is no single fixed global definition of the term.
A rocket car is a land vehicle propelled by a rocket engine. A rocket dragster is a rocket car used for competing in drag racing, and this type holds the unofficial world record for the 1/4 mile.
The Mercedes-Benz SSK (W06) is a roadster built by German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz between 1928 and 1932. The name is an abbreviation of Super Sport Kurz, German for "Super Sport Short", as it was a short wheelbase development of the Mercedes-Benz Modell S. The SSK's extreme performance and numerous competitive successes made it one of the most highly regarded sports cars of its era.
Stan Barrett is a Hollywood stuntman, stunt coordinator actor, and former stock car racing driver. His biggest act was however outside the movie world. On December 17, 1979, he attempted to break the land speed record, and the sound barrier in the Budweiser Rocket rocket-powered three-wheel vehicle. His calculated speed was 739.666 miles per hour,, which would have made Barrett the first man to break the sound barrier in a land vehicle. The attempt was surrounded by controversy and the speed was never officially recorded. Barrett also raced in 19 Winston Cup Series races between 1980 and 1990, posting two top ten finishes.
Waldo Stakes is an American general contractor and designer of high speed vehicles. Stakes is planning to break the world land speed record using a rocket car powered by a second-hand X-15 rocket engine, which he has named the Sonic Wind Land Speed Research Vehicle.
9ff is a German car tuning company based in Dortmund. It was founded by Jan Fatthauer in 2001. It specializes in converting stock Porsches into street legal racing vehicles, either as fully tuned cars, or by selling individual parts or kits. The company is best known for building one of the first cars to exceed 400 km/h (249 mph), the GT9, capable of 256 mph (412 km/h). The former company, 9ff Fahrzeugtechnik GmbH, filed for bankruptcy in September 2013. A new company, 9ff Engineering GmbH was founded in October 2013.
1950s American automobile culture has had an enduring influence on the culture of the United States, as reflected in popular music, major trends from the 1950s and mainstream acceptance of the "hot rod" culture. The American manufacturing economy switched from producing war-related items to consumer goods at the end of World War II, and by the end of the 1950s, one in six working Americans were employed either directly or indirectly in the automotive industry. The United States became the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles, and Henry Ford's goal of 30 years earlier—that any man with a good job should be able to afford an automobile—was achieved. A new generation of service businesses focusing on customers with their automobiles came into being during the decade, including drive-through or drive-in restaurants and more drive-in theaters (cinemas).
The death of Hollywood actor James Dean occurred on September 30, 1955, near Cholame, California. Dean had previously competed in several auto racing events, and was traveling to a sports car racing competition when he crashed his car at the junction of California State Route 46 and California State Route 41. He was 24 years old.
In the field of vehicles authorized to drive, a one-off vehicle is a vehicle that was manufactured only once. The production of unique vehicles is reduced to one unit in each case. The easiest cases to analyze are those of cars and motorcycles. Unique automobiles and unique motorcycles are usually kept and displayed in museums. Aeronautical vehicles, with notable exceptions, are not preserved in the same way. Naval vehicles feature a myriad of unique models. A non-exclusive base of examples could be the field of sailing and motor yachts.
