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Here's Why the Old Space Shuttle Landing Facility Makes the Perfect Hyper Car Test Track

At 15,000 feet (4,572 m) in length, the Shuttle Landing Facility was so long that it'd tower over everything but the most prominent mountain ranges in the world if stacked into the sky.
SLF McLaren Speed Test 6 photos
Photo: NASA (inner image)/ McLaren (Outer Image)
Shuttle Landing FacilityShuttle Landing FacilityShuttle Landing FacilityShuttle Landing FacilityShuttle Landing Facility
Most normal airplanes could land comfortably on the facility's main runway with a couple of miles to spare. The only vehicle that could possibly give the three and a bit-mile (4.82 km) long runway a challenge was, of course, the venerable Space Shuttle coming in after re-entry and decelerating from 20,000-ish miles per hour (32,186.8 km) all the way down to around 210 (337.8 kph) or so.

The only problem is the Space Shuttle's been enjoying retirement since 2011. So what on Earth is one of the world's longest runways going to do to pass the time? Well, besides testing out other experimental spacecraft (which they've been known to do with the highly classified X-37 reusable space drone), a very profitable side business the people on site have devised is to bring in the world's fastest hypercars for a run on one of the handfuls of places on Planet Earth you're likely to max out something of that nature.

Starting in 2015, Space Florida Company managed and operated the facility under a 30-year lease from NASA through the present day. Private companies have been utilizing the SLF for its unique properties starting in the year 2011 and will continue to do so with Space Launch Florida for the foreseeable future. In 2012, Performance Power's test driver Johnny Bohmer did set the Guinness World Record for the Fastest Standing Mile-Street Car when his Ford GT broke the 275 mph (443 km/h) barrier, setting an all-new World Record record at 283 mph (455 km/h).

This was followed up in 2012 with the Hennessey Venom GT recording a top speed of 270.49 mph (435.31 km/h) before running out of the runway in both directions. The Lotus Elise-based hypercar was one of two iconic sports cars to use the platform as an underpinning, the other, of course, being the original Tesla Roadster. The cool rodster before EVs were cool.

Shuttle Landing Facility
Photo: Bugatti

Other hypercar platforms like the Bugatti Chiron and the McLaren Speedtail also stretched their legs on the gargantuan runway. They are not quite reaching World Record status in their runs there, but nonetheless making for some absolutely awesome B-roll footage of both the McLaren and the Bugatti blitzing down the famed stretch of tarmac.

Both runs were extensively marketed and hyped on YouTube and other social media. Both runs were used in official press kits for the Chiron and the Speedtail that would go on to cement both vehicles' place on the current list of the most powerful and fastest hypercars on the planet.

Other activities undertaken at the Florida runway include its use as the runway for the Virgin Galactic Global Flyer, as well as the landing site for the world speed record certified by the Guinness World Records and the global aviation authority, the World Air Sports Federation Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Shuttle Landing Facility
Photo: McLaren
To cap it all off, even NASCAR's used the facility to test the upper limits of their Cup Car's abilities in an environment other than a banked oval. Believe it or not, NASCAR teams do value the data from these kinds of runs.

It's safe to say that the Shuttle Landing Facility isn't going anywhere anytime soon. If anything, a lack of a solid Space Shuttle replacement as of 2022 leaves the place all too open for more motorcar based tom-foolery that we, the viewing public, will continue to watch in their entirety as they push the laws of physics to the very extreme in some of the world's fastest hypercars. Check back for more vehicle and location profiles and so much more here on autoevolution.
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