Cars doing that speed at Bonneville run solid tires, sometimes solid aluminum is used. Those runs are also straight line runs also. The Bugatti has to do this on a track with lateral g-forces and stuff.

My best guess is that there are pretty significant differences between road-worthy tires and something like land speed record tires. For example, I found this blurb about the Mickey Thompson LSR specialty tires.

I drove a friends when they first arrived in the US and it was a monster compared to the Civics everyone drove at the time. Its hard to remember, but 15 years ago some of the fastest cars you could buy were doing the 0-60 sprint in just a hair under 4 seconds. This thing pulling it off in 5 smashed conventional…

I interpreted it as the weight of the valve cap is not the limitation nor a balance issue — the value cap was an example to illustrate how dramatic the load forces on the wheels and tires are at 261+ mph.

The article more uses the valve caps as an example of the exponential changes when you get up to those speeds.

Meh, coffee is overrated anyways. I haven’t touched that stuff in years and I have no need to. Water + willpower is all I need to get going in the morning.

buddy of mine had one. it was so fantastic - when the turbo kicks in, no other word to describe it, it erupts. Handling was also so much nicer than the equivalent Suby, with the awd system dialing out understeer. Just a counter intuitive machine. If understeering, floor it. Oversteering? Floor it. Took it autocrossing…

Tire noise and only tire noise. Clicked for the bait and left disappointed. As it is now, I suppose.

Your entire body....13 times.

Continuation chassis, whatever...They’re still real to me Dammit! This thing is drop dead sexy IRL. Just stunning.

Oh, yeah. Every time I see one of those I think it’s a Chinese copycat.

Likely. They are also one of the few companies that offers a manual on every model they sell, regardless of engine option.

Should be a bargin at $50,000 before “options”

Can we agree that the four regular door Minis look terrible?

I think I’d prefer a Boxster/Cayman in this price range for sure.

They also put a 3.7 liter V6 in one.

What kind of noob takes half a second to shift?

Well the ZL1 does have rev matching. Without having to heel-toe that puts it somewhere between a manual and DCT.