It had to happen. Sooner or later these pissing competitions turn into farce. As a GPS navigation user (aviation) I have never heard about units requiring calibration. Maybe if they are using ground based stations in order to obtain greater accuracy...

Indeed the reliance on GPS as opposed to proper timing devices has always to be suspect as a method.

FUBAR - Had to Google it. It stands for Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. A new one on me !!! Interesting article though, Loz - as always.

@KeithW - I think you'll find the F in Fubar is another slightly stronger word... It's a WW2 expression it seems and you can hear it in Saving Private Ryan.
So maybe not the fastest car ever but a beautiful design.

I’m a bit surprised that a company with Shelby’s history and “track record” didn’t have all the requisite officials on hand to validate such a high profile event.

It’s a good thing they have said history in the event this turns out to be the second or third fastest car ever. They have, and continue to produce some of the most fabulous sport cars in existence.

If everyone is running on the same chunk of road, you could get absolute calibrations of the position of every tree, bush, guardrail post etc fairly easily. Then you would just need a known-untampered camera with time codes, or with a digital clock/phone app in the field of view.

Not to provide an excuse for these guys, but that stretch of road is not too far from where the US military routinely degrades GPS signals for testing and training purposes. It might explain some of the inconsistencies in GPS data.

I just don't get the point of these speed records. Imagine buying this and bragging about it being the fastest car in the world! "Have you ever even gone 200?" "Well, no"...

Ouch, that styling looks dramatically better in black (vs grey car photo) the where the overly busy lines and details are better disguised.

When I read this article and having done a lot of flying, the thought of tail winds came to mind. A few years ago I took a flight to Europe with a 150 mph tail wind where the GPS showed us exceeding the speed of sound at that altitude with the tailwind added to our air speed. Ironically exceeding the speed of sound without actually breaking the sound barrier. I could imagine times when the wind could rapidly change direction by up to 180 degrees over a short period of time which could give a tailwind boost in both directions. In other words making the second run in the opposite direction without also recording the exact wind speed and direction could skew the true speed capability of the car rather than truly cancelling out the difference in tailwind between the two runs, Another more likely example would be a tail wind in one direction with no wind in the other a short time later. This may sound like nitpicking and unlikely but it could affect the top speed by a few miles per hour. The bragging rights between being the fastest or second place could be worth a lot of money.