Journey to 300: World’s Fastest Supercars Past, Present and Future

On July 3, with little more than nerves of steel, a pair of racing gloves, and a helmet, Pierre Henri Raphanel sped his way into the Guiness Book of World Records with a 267.86 mph speed. Oh yeah, he did have a little help from a a 1,200-horsepower quad-turbocharged Bugatti Veyron Super Sport that was more juiced up than Barry Bonds in his 73 summer of 2001.

After it broke the previous two-year-old record by more than 11 mph, you’d have think that the supercar gurus would have given Bugatti a little time to enjoy the fruits of its labor. They didn’t. The previous winner, Shelby Supercars, issued what looked to be a proclamation of war days later, and Koenigsegg, the leader before SSC also hinted at a possible go at the title.

A year from now, it’s anybody’s guess, but for now, these are the fastest production cars of all time.

THE VETERANS

Jaguar XJ220

Most people think of Jaguars as fancy luxury cars with a menacing silver cat distinguishing them from every common car on the road, but for a brief period in the 1990s, the Jaguar XJ220 brought the brand into the mix of supercars like the Porsche 959, Bugatti EB110 and Ferrari F40. And never was Jaguar’s supercar stock higher than when the XJ220 took the world record in 1992 with a 212.3 mph on the Nardo track in Italy. Not quite satisfied, Jaguar stripped the catalytic converter off the car and fired it up to 217 mph the same year. In the age of monstrous 12- and 16-cylinder engines, you’d be surprised to note that Jaguar captured the title with nothing more than a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 worth 550 horses. Arguably (or not that arguably) the best-looking car on the list, the Jag sold for around $650K.

McLaren F1

Still a lusted-after icon more than 10 years after its production ended, the McLaren F1 was the unchallenged champion of its time. In March of 1998, an F1 XP5 prototype obliterated the Jag’s 217-mph mark with an official record that stood for seven years. They did it on Volkswagen’s Ehra Lessien track. At 240.1 mph, it wasn’t exactly left in the dust when the CCR got around to taking its crown in ’05, either. A near-million-dollar supercar built in the heyday of the dot-com bubble, the McLaren F1 earned its 627 horses with a 6.1-liter BMW V12. No superchargers. No turbochargers. When your car weighs just 2,579 pounds, you can get away with a little less juice in the engine. The F1 remains the world’s fastest naturally aspirated car to this very day, a fact that the company is all too happy to point out now that it’s back in the market.

Koenigsegg CCR

In February 2005, the CCR set an official speed record of 241 mph at the Nardo track, breaking the McLaren F1′s record set back in the previous millenium by a hair. One of the most powerful cars in the world at the time, the CCR boasted 806-hp worth of dual-supercharged 4.7-liter V8 engine. In addition to a world record, the CCR held a $600,000 price tag. If you ask us, the CCR is one of the more ungainly and awkward cars in the upper echelons of speed, but like a slovenly, hairy guy with an eight-figure bank account, a world-record-breaking car doesn’t need to be pretty.

SSC Ultimate Aero TT

Whether you want to name Bugatti with its unofficial 253 mph run or the Koenigsegg CCR with its official 241 mph time the fastest car at the time, Shelby Supercars took it down with a 256.19 mph run in September 2007. No fancy European track for this American bumpkin, the Aero did it on a stretch of public highway in Washington state.

With half the cylinders and turbochargers of the Veyron, the Aero TT pumped 1,183 horses out of its twin-turbo V8 set-up. The bullet-like Aero had a drag coefficient of .357, and wind-tunnel testing indicated that it would be stable at up to 273 mph. It never made it that far, but its 256 mph speed  was enough to give it nearly three years at the top. And at around $650K, it was a relative steal for such potent hardware.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

The ‘run-of-the-mill’ Bugatti Veyron 16.4 wasn’t quite enough to capture a speed record. Not officially anyway. So Bugatti swapped out the ‘standard’ turbochargers for a larger set, along with larger intercoolers, to boost power of the massive V16 by about 200 horses to 1,200. It also fitted the Veyron with a new aerodynamics kit to cut drag. Not surprisingly, it all paid of. This time, Bugatti learned from its past mistakes and had Guiness trackside at the Ehra Lessien to witness it all. Brilliant.

And yeah, it really wore that black-and-neon-orange paint scheme on record day. Like that pompous quarterback in high school, it surely couldn’t care less what you think.

Buy-in for this piece of supercar history is expected to run about $2.5 million.

NEXT-GENERATION CONTENDERS

Imminent Challenger: Days after Bugatti set the record in July, SSC teased a new Ultimate Aero that it is set to reveal later this month. The company hasn’t offered up any specs of the new car, but it’s expected to be more powerful and more aerodynamic than the last model. Recently leaked images indicate that it will cut through air even better than it did in ’07. It’s pretty clear that SSC wants the title back.

Possible Wild Card: According to Top Gear, Christian von Koenigsegg has also hinted at a possible challenge with the latest weapon in his arsenal: the Agera. Looking a little more sleek and styled than the CCR, the Agera packs 900 horses in a neat 4.7-liter V8 package. Top speed is listed at an estimated 245+, so Koenigsegg will need to pull out a few tricks to make the 25 mph jump.

Outside Looking In: U.S. company TranStar Racing has shown some renderings and prospective specs of its Dagger GT, and its clear that it has the ambition if not the legacy to earn a speed title. With a 9.4-liter V8 engine, TranStar plans to bombard the wheels of the Dagger with 2,000 horses and 2,000 lb-ft of torque. With that warehouse-full of output on its side, TranStar is angling at being the first to the 300-mph barrier with a projected top speed of 308 mph. It’s also throwing some verbiage behind a 1.5-second 0 to 60 mph. Since TranStar has no history, and all of its numbers sound completely over the top, we’re writing it off as vaporware until the smoke clears and it shows up toting a Guiness certification in hand.

Undeclared Opponent?: McLaren, which made a comeback earlier this year with the MP4-12C, has indicated that it has several other cars planned. One of those cars is expected to be a range-topping, F1-replacing halo. McLaren hasn’t provided any details yet, and hasn’t even whispered the slightest allusion of another world record, but we’d be lying to say that it isn’t in the back of our minds.