Fastest production cars in the world - header

The title of world’s fastest road car is more hotly contested than ever. Here’s our round-up of the fastest cars on the planet

The Koenigsegg Agera RS is the fastest production car in the world, taking the Bugatti Veyron’s record with a 277.9mph top speed, but it seems incredibly likely that the record will change hands once again in the not too distant future.

It isn’t just the Bugatti that is in contention for the fastest production car title either, American performance firm Hennessey has built a new hypercar, called the Venom F5, which can reach a claimed top speed of 300mph. Then, of course, you have the Bugatti Chironwhich is surely destined to exceed the top speed of the VeyronSuper Sport and home-in on the 300mph barrier. Tyre experts Michelin are claimed to be working on a tyre which can withstand the forces experienced at 300mph+, allowing the Chiron to reach its full potential.

So the world’s fastest car contenders are queueing up in an almost unprecedented fashion with the 300mph mark realistically in their sights. Will the Chiron, the F5 or some other insanely powerful hypercar yet to be launched take the crown next? We don’t know. What we do know is the current top 10 fastest road cars in the world, and here they are.

Top 10 world’s fastest road cars

  1. 1. Koenigsegg Agera RS
  2. 2. Bugatti Veyron Super Sport
  3. 3. Hennessey Venom GT
  4. 4. SSC Ultimate Aero
  5. 5. McLaren F1
  6. 6. Pagani Huayra
  7. 7. Noble M600
  8. 8. Aston Martin One-77
  9. 9. Ferrari LaFerrari
  10. 10. Lamborghini Aventador

World’s fastest car timeline

Ever since the beginning of the car, there has been people committed to building increasingly fast versions. Over the years, this devotion has evolved to the point where the fastest production cars are at the forefront of vehicle development technology, racing past 200mph and currently chasing the elusive 300mph mark.

• What is the world’s fastest car?

When you think back to when a man with a flag had to walk in front of your car to warn others of your glacial approach, it almost seems ridiculous that a little over a century later, manufacturers can accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 3 seconds and reach top speeds that surpass those of certain planes.

Land speed records were the focus of speedhunters for decades, but it wasn’t until halfway through the 20th century that manufacturers started to boast about the top speeds for their road cars.

An excellent early example of this was the Jaguar XK120, named after the top speed it was claimed to be capable of. The truth of the matter was it was marginally faster than that, but the XK127.49 doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

Shortly after the Jag, Mercedes swooped in with the 300SL Gullwing and hit 140mph for the first time during 1955. Team Britain fought back with a 150mph Aston Martin DB4 GT in 1959, only to be beaten in 1959 by the Iso Grifo which reached 160mph. Not long after this, the beautiful Lamborghini Miura sped past 170mph and then another Lamborghini (the Countach) went on to break through 180mph in the 80’s. Ferrari’s awesome F40 then went on to smash the 200mph barrier in 1987.

However, things got really ridiculous when the UK once again entered the fray. Six years after the F40, McLaren reached a speed of 230mph in the F1. The groundbreaking car from Woking was the brainchild of designer Gordon Murray, who wanted to create the ultimate high-performance car. It would be a 12-year wait until the Bugatti Veyron managed to beat the McLaren, however, the F1 remains to this day the fastest naturally aspirated car ever built.

• Best hypercars

The Veyron Super Sport used a 1,200bhp quad-turbo W16 engine producing torque of 1,500Nm, which was connected to a four-wheel drive system and featured active aerodynamics to reach a top speed of 267.9mph and claim the official title of World’s fastest car. It didn’t take long for the controversy to start. Hennessey claimed that its Venom GT should have the crown of fastest production car, as the Veyron Super Sport ran with a deactivated speed limiter to reach its record speed.

Guinness World Records temporarily agreed, stripping the Veyron of its title, before deciding that the fact a production car is prevented from reaching a top speed, does not change the fact it can reach that speed. It therefore reinstated the Bugatti. Then the Koenigsegg Agera RS arrived and blew them all off the runway.

Check out our world’s fastest car timeline below…

Year Make and model Top speed (mph)
1894 Benz Velo 12.0
1949 Jaguar XK120 124.6
1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL 150.7
1959 Aston Martin DB4 GT 152.0
1963 Iso Grifo GL 365 161.0
1967 AC Cobra MkII 165.0
1968 Lamborghini Muira 171.0
1968 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona 174.0
1974, 82, 84 Lamborghini Countach 179.0, 182.0, 188.0
1984 Ferrari 288 GTO 188.0
1986 Porsche 959 197.0
1987 Ferrari F40 202.7
1995 RUF CTR2 217.0
1998 McLaren F1 221.0
2005 Bugatti Veyron 253.8
2010 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport 267.9
2017 Koenigsegg Agera RS 277.9