List of fastest production cars

A Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport World Record Edition. It is currently the world's fastest road legal production car, with a top speed of 431 km/h (268 mph).

Top speed (mph) by year

This is a list of the world's fastest street-legal production car (as opposed to concept cars or modified cars). The production car is a car of which 20 or more were originally built by its manufacturer to the same or faster specification than the record setting example. This list uses the same definition as the List of automotive superlatives for the sake of consistency and because the term production car is otherwise undefined. It is also limited to cars that were constructed after World War 2. The Benz Velo, as the first production car, is an exception.

Comparing claimed speeds of the "fastest car(s) in the world", especially in historical cases, is difficult as there is no standardized method for determining the top speed, nor a central authority to verify any such claims. The current title Guinness World Records holder, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, was certified for the average top speed achieved on a two-way run, registering 431 km/h (268 mph). While only 5 of the World Record model were made out of a total of 30 Super Sports, the other 25 Super Sports will all also achieve this speed with the limiter turned off. Guinness, after a review by a panel of experts, consider this not to be a modification and thus it is eligible for this list.

In 2014, a Hennessey Venom GT was recorded as exceeding 270.49 mph (435.31 km/h), but as the run was in one direction only, and only 16 cars out of a planned total of 29 have been sold, it does not qualify under the Guinness Book of Records or this list's criteria as the worlds fastest production car.^[1][2]

List rules

Post 1945 only

This list is also limited to post World War 2 production road cars. The Benz Velo as the first petrol driven car is the only exception.

Production car definition

For the purposes of this list a production car is defined as:

1. being constructed principally for retail sale to consumers, for their personal use, and to transport people on public roads (no commercial or industrial vehicles are eligible);
2. having had 20 or more instances made by the original vehicle manufacturer, and offered for commercial sale to the public in new condition (cars modified by either professional tuners or individuals are not eligible); and
3. being street-legal in their intended markets, and capable of passing any official tests or inspections required to be granted this status.

Measurement of top speed

To establish the top speed for cars at least since the 1990s the requirement is, in addition to the above, an independent road test with a two-way run. The mean of the top speed for both runs is taken as the cars top speed.^[3][4]

Fastest production vehicles

See also

• History of the automobile
• Land speed record
• List of fastest production cars by acceleration - note that this list uses a different definition of a production car to both the list of fastest production cars and the list of automotive superlatives

References

Further reading

• Wood, Jonathan (2005). The Ultimate History of Fast Cars. Parragon Publishing. ISBN 1-4054-5467-9. 
• Brown, Langworth; Auto Editors of Consumer Guide (1998). Great Cars of The 20th Century. Publications International. ISBN 0-7853-2523-9.  Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)

Notes for editors

• Cars excluded from the list together with the main reason for exclusion
• Discussion and determination on the 20 car limit