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Fastest production car
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- For the U2 song, see Fast Cars (song).
The first automobile ever produced was the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built in 1886 by Karl Benz. Unique and consequently the fastest, it established a record speed of 16 km/h (10 mph). A little more than a century later, in September 2005, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 registered the latest record, for a production car, of 407.08 km/h (252.95 mph).
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The Mercedes 35 hp reached 85 km/h (53 mph) in 1901, and a few years later, its derivative, the Mercedes 60 HP, reached 96 km/h (60 mph).
It took 46 additional years to reliably and consistently double the Mercedes 60 HP figure, or 193 km/h (120 mph). It was the 1948 Jaguar XK120, so-called for achieving precisely that speed.
The first production Ferrari was launched in 1948 as well, sharing their V12 engines with the grand prix cars. The 410 Superamerica reached over 257 km/h (160 mph).
The 241 km/h (150 mph) Jaguar E-type (or XK-E) was launched in 1961. It was the first really affordable fast sports car ever, at roughly half the price of the cheapest Ferrari.
The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO consistently reached 298 km/h (185 mph), but it could hardly be considered a production model. Very few were built, mainly to allow Ferrari to homologate it for racing. GTO means "Gran Turismo Omologato", a denomination later borrowed by Pontiac.
The 1966 Lamborghini Miura also had an astonishing speed of 274 km/h (170 mph).
In 1994, the McLaren F1 reached a speed of 372 km/h, using the factory rev limiter limiting the engine to 7500 rpm.
The McLaren F1 without the factory rev limiter reached a top speed of 391.1 km/h at an engine speed of 7800 rpm.
Rows in italics indicate modified production cars.
| Date | Car | Speed |
| 1886 | Benz Patent Motorwagen (first purpose-built automobile, not a production car) | 16 km/h (10 mph), Karl Benz's best guess |
| 1987 | Ferrari F40 | 323 km/h (201 mph) |
| 1987 | RUF CTR (modified Porsche 930) | 340 km/h (211 mph) |
| 1994 | McLaren F1 | 372 km/h (231 mph) at factory rev limit |
| March 31, 1998 | McLaren F1 | 391.1 km/h (240.1 mph) with factory rev limiter removed. This was achieved in Germany on the Volkswagen proving ground by Andy Wallace |
| February 28, 2005 | Koenigsegg CCR | 387.87 km/h (241.01 mph) |
| October, 2005 | Bugatti Veyron | 407.5 km/h (253.2 mph) |
Note that various limited-production or one-off cars are rumored to have reached speeds higher than the current record, such as the Lamborghini Diablo VT Twin Turbo (410 km/h at 9 psi turbo pressure)[1] or the Callaway Corvette Sledgehammer (409.91 km/h)[2], however these tests did not meet requirements and so have not qualified for new records.
Speed records
Air speed record (Transcontinental) | Land speed record (Railed | Road car | Motorcycle | British) | Water speed record (Underwater)
Sound barrier | Speed of light
Distance records
Flight distance record | Flight altitude record | Ocean depth record | Flight endurance record
Boundary of space
see also: Spaceflight records | List of transport records | FAI records
- Wood, Jonathan - The Ultimate History of Fast Cars - Parragon Publishing, 2005 - ISBN 1-4054-5467-9
- Brown, Langworth, and Auto Editors of Consumer Guide - Great Cars of The 20th Century - Publications International, 1998 - ISBN 0-7853-2523-9