When you think about what makes a car truly useful, how fast it goes 0-60mph is not the most important factor.
But nothing sparks the imagination quite like top speed. It takes ingenuity, technology, and design to go this much faster than humans were ever meant to go.
Going fast is not just a question of building a bigger engine. World record breakers need to conceal a small but potent engine under a highly aerodynamic body to make use of all that power.
The below list – detailing the eight production cars with the highest top speeds in the world – feature vehicles that look more like spaceships or fighter jets than passenger vehicles.
And it’s not all for show. Incredible speeds require lots of aerodynamic downforce to keep them from literally taking flight, which means engineers need to get creative with their designs.
They need to be able to maintain traction at legendary speeds, cut through the air like knives, and still keep the driver safe in the event of a crash.
Their engines are marvels of technology as well. In all of them, turbochargers ram air into the intake ports – sometimes at more than twice atmospheric pressure – and massive injectors provide gobs of fuel to match.
More gasoline may not be all it takes to make your engine the best for long, though. In a change from much of the past decade, one of the cars on this list is a gasoline-electric hybrid, signaling a potential shifting tide in the market.
And the field has truly shifted since 2005, when the Bugatti Veyron came out and topped 250 miles per hour, making it the world’s fastest car. Now most of the world’s fastest are designed to go over 300 mph.
Let’s start close to the top, as we rank the eight production cars with the highest top speeds in the world:
8. Koenigsegg Agera RS: 277.9 MPH
The Agera RS held the record for world’s fastest car for a while, after posting a 277.87 average speed in November 2017. It still holds the record for top speed on a public road by a street-legal car, but it has since been surpassed by others on the track. The Agera RS is no slouch, its 5-liter V8 pumping out 960 horsepower with the help of twin variable-geometry ceramic ball bearing turbochargers.
7. Czinger 21C: 281 MPH
Los Angeles-based Czinger’s 3D-printed 21C presents a unique entry: Its powertrain is a gasoline-electric hybrid. A 2.88-liter twin turbo V8 drive the rear wheels, and two electric motors drive the fronts, for a combined power rating of 1,250 horsepower at an absolutely howling 10,500 RPM. It holds the record for fastest production car lap at both Laguna Seca and Circuit of the Americas.
6. SSC Tuatara: 295 MPH
This American-made hypercar rocks a 5.9-liter V8 with a flat plane crank for high revving capabilities. Like most of the cars on this list, it’s twin-turbocharged and has different power ratings depending on what kind of fuel is in the tank: 91-octane gasoline yields 1,350 horsepower, while E85 fuel will push 1,750. Its drag coefficient is just 0.279, which means it slips through the air like a fish through water. It was pushed to 295 mph over 2.3 miles at Space Florida ‘s Launch and Landing Facility in 2022.
5. Hennesey Venom F5 Revolution Roadster: 300+ MPH
Coming in at an estimated 300+ mph top speed, we are now entering the new era of hypercars – or ultracars, or megacars, depending on whose promotional materials you read. Whichever way you slice it, the Texas-built, roofless Hennesey Venom F5 Revolution Roadster might make you lose your hat as you rocket down the road at over 300 miles per hour. With a carbon fiber body and a 6.6-liter twin turbo V8, the Venom F5 pumps out a reported 1,817 horsepower at a screaming 8,000 RPM.
4. Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+: 304 MPH
France may not be the first place you think of when you think of the fastest cars in the world, but the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ has been clocked at just a hair over 304 miles per hour. Its 8-liter W16 engine has four turbochargers and an air-water intercooler system that feed 1,600 horsepower through a seven-speed gearbox.
3. SP Automotive Chaos: 310 MPH
Greece is perhaps an even more unlikely home for a hypercar than France, but the car’s ground twisting 3,065 horsepower 4-liter V10 says otherwise. The company makes a big deal of its space-age parts, like a milled billet aluminum block, carbon fiber turbocharger compressor housings, and a 3D-printed crankshaft that help the engine spin to a 10,000+ RPM redline.
2. Hennesey Venom F5 Coupe: 311 MPH
Clocking in at a few ticks faster than the Hennesey Venom F5 Revolution Roadster, the company’s Coupe version has an inherently more rigid chassis, thanks to the presence of a roof. It comes from the factory with the same powertrain, though, making it one of the fastest cars in the world.
1. Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut: 330 MPH
This Swedish monster is built to go faster than anything else out there. Its drag coefficient is one one-thousandth lower than the Tatuara’s, at 0.278. This car’s radical body work not only glides through air but also keeps it pressed to the road, and underbody flaps help reduce drag. Its 5-liter engine is force-fed by twin ceramic ball bearing turbochargers, making 1,600 horsepower on E85, and 1,280 horsepower on gasoline. The Jesko Absolut seems to stand still and turn the world beneath it, pouring power out through a 9-speed transmission.
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
