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What would you do if you were on a road trip, and one of the four cars developed a problem after a few hundred miles? Leave the guy on the side of the road to fend for himself, or blow the weekend’s plans and roll the dice? What if it was two cars that had problems? Or three?

I can tell you what WE did… Used three tow trucks, brought in a replacement car from Vegas, drove through the night, left a Ferrari in Reno, and took part in a story worth more than any tow bill (or three).

Five of us headed to Tahoe on a Friday morning with high hopes, three Italian cars (Ferrari 355, Ferrari 550, Lambo Countach)and one German (BMW Z8). I was riding shotgun in the 355 as my Pantera is too loud, stiff and thirsty for an 1,100 mile trip.

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OK, so it isn’t the world’s fastest car. That would be some jet fighter without wings, but I’m talking about the world’s fastest production car. It has officially gone faster than the Bugatti Veyron—257mph.

It is called the SSC Ultimate Aero TT. 1180ish horsepower and modestly priced at around $600,000. This isn’t a concept car…you can actually buy one.

A small group of us took our cars out to Red Rock Canyon, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, with the designer/owner and a film crew. They were shooting for Newsweek.

Point of interest: Tires are the weak link when going over 250mph. Shelby’s tire partner had scientists and engineers at the top speed run (held in 2007) to help. No tire was allowed to stay on for more than 30 miles as the tires can’t stand up to that much punishment for long, and tire failure at those speeds causes a fatal crash, period. It doesn’t matter what kind of safety equipment is in the car.

Need wide tires with 29 miles on them?