Top 10 fastest road-legal cars

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5 mins read

28 March 2025

Back in the late 1800s, during the dawn of the motorised carriage, the fastest cars in the world - such as Karl Benz's Patent Motorwagen - could achieve a heady 10mph.

On a good day. With a lightweight driver and a favourable wind. Today, nearly 140 years of development has pushed the very fastest cars past the 300mph mark.

The Benz’s brave driver could cover just 4.4 metres per second; while in 2019, with Andy Wallace behind the wheel, the Bugatti Chiron covered 136 metres per second.

It’s a fearsome prospect, and there are only a handful of places on Earth where cars of this calibre can reach their V-max, yet there’s no shortage of car manufacturers vying for top honours.

These include Bugatti, SSC, Hennessey and Koenigsegg, all of which hail from different countries around the world and are looking to become the successors to the current record holder. As a result, many of these cars are also the world's fastest-accelerating cars.

With that in mind, here are the fastest production road cars by the numbers, judged against manufacturer figures when they were tested on an airfield or a dedicated test track.

1. Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut

Top speed: 330mph (claimed)

Okay, so the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut hasn’t actually physically hit its top speed just yet, but the Swedish firm’s simulations confidently suggest it will achieve a staggering 330mph.

Driven by a searingly powerful twin-turbocharged 5.0-litre V8 engine, the Jesko Absolut is capable of producing 1280bhp, or 1600bhp when using E85 biofuel.

Koenigsegg says the car is inspired by fighter jets, and it’s not hard to see why.

All that power, partnered with an extra-slippery 0.278 drag coefficient and a nine-speed transmission, means it can hit 0-62mph in around 2.0sec and 0-100mph in 3.6sec.

If the Jesko can match its theoretical top speed and simulation results, it’ll be the undisputed fastest production car built so far.

2. Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+

Top speed: 304.7mph

Many would argue that the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport is the world’s actual fastest production car because it has actually officially clocked its ridiculous headline speed.

Based on the regular Bugatti Chiron, the Super Sport 300+ was launched by Le Mans winner and Bugatti test driver Andy Wallace to an eye-watering 304.7mph in Germany back in 2019.

Power comes from a W16 engine with 1578bhp and 1180lb ft, which is capable of sprinting from 0-124mph in 5.8sec and 0-186mph in a scarcely believable 12.1sec.

The record-breaking car was also fitted with lighter seats, a lowered ride height and a roll cage.

Just 30 Chiron Super Sport 300+ production cars were built, but these all had a limited top speed of 273mph.

Read our Bugatti Chiron review

3. SSC Tuatara

Top speed: 282.9mph

With 1750bhp and an 8800rpm redline, the SSC Tuatara means business. Power is sent to the rear wheels from a 5.9 litre V8 engine.

Mired in controversy from the outset, the SSC Tuatara’s initial claim of an ‘official’ 331mph top speed run was quickly debunked following accusations of misleading video ‘evidence’ and some belated admissions that there may have been ‘accuracy’ issues with the data logging kit.

The Tuatara returned for another attempt in 2021, hitting an average speed of 282.9mph over two runs on the same stretch of road. It might not be the initially quoted 316mph, but that’s still unbelievably quick.

4. Bugatti Mistral

Top speed: 282mph

The Bugatti Mistral is officially the world’s fastest open-top car, achieving a top speed world record at 282mph in 2024.

Although it might look like a Chiron with the roof chopped off, the Mistral is its own unique beast with bespoke bodywork.

It marked the final use of the brand’s famed W16 engine that first came into production with the Veyron.

If you want one, you unfortunately can’t have one. Just 99 cars were built and sold before the car was revealed, at a price of £4.17 million a pop.

5. Bugatti Tourbillon

Top speed: 277mph

The Bugatti Tourbillon is the firm’s latest ultra-powered hypercar and arrives 20 years after the hallowed Bugatti Veyron.

Its plug-in hybrid 8.3-litre, naturally aspirated V16 engine pumps out 1775bhp, which means a 0-62mph of just 2.0sec and a top speed of 277mph, though customer cars are limited to 236mph.

We doubt this will matter to most buyers, but as it’s a PHEV with a 25kWh battery, it can also travel up to 37 miles on electric power alone.

6. Henessey Venom F5

Top speed: 271mph

Unlike its Lotus Exige-based predecessor, the Hennessey Venom F5 is a bespoke build from the ground up - a first for the American firm.

Featuring a carbonfibre tub and a twin-turbocharged 6.6-litre V8 that packs a monstrous 1817bhp and gearbox-shredding 1193lb ft, the F5 sprints from 0-250mph in just 15.5sec – half the time of the Bugatti Chiron.

Hennessey also promises a top speed of 341mph, although 271.6mph is as fast as the car has gone so far.

7. Koenigsegg Agera RS

Top speed: 268mph

When it used a customer's Agera RS to earn the outright world record top speed in 2017, Koenigsegg also took the record for the highest speed ever recorded on a public road.

Mercedes had held that particular crown since 1938, when a highly modified W125 grand prix car managed 268mph on a closed stretch of autobahn.

As an indication of 80 years of progress, the Agera RS was entirely standard, with Koenigsegg's optional 1MW engine package producing a colossal 1360bhp.

8. Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

Top speed: 267.85mph

Unhappy about losing the record – and at the hands of American upstart SSC – Bugatti gave the Veyron a substantial overhaul in a bid to reclaim the top-speed title.

The Veyron Super Sport was limited to just 30 cars, each one boosted to 1184bhp and featuring an aerodynamic overhaul to cope with the forces generated beyond 250mph.

In July 2010, Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel lapped the Ehra-Lessien oval at 267.856mph.

9. Rimac Nevera

Top speed: 258mph

If ever there was a car that put to bed the myth that electric cars were slow, it was the Rimac Nevera.

The Croatian hypercar has clocked 258mph, making it the joint-fastest electric car in the world.

It’s also the world’s fastest-accelerating production car over the quarter mile (8.582sec), it can accelerate from 0-62mph in 1.95sec and it can do 0-100mph in 4.3sec.

If there’s a caveat, it’s that customer cars are limited to ‘just’ 219mph, but Rimac can override this to achieve V-max at official Rimac events.

Read our Rimac Nevera review

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10. Aspark Owl

Top speed: 258mph

It seems as if a new hyper-EV is launched every week, but few can lay claim to bragging rights like Japan's Aspark Owl can.

Like the Rimac Nevera, it claims a clutch of records: at 258mph, it's the fastest electric car money can buy, and it recorded a 192mph average speed over an eighth of a mile and 198.12mph in the quarter mile.

Aspark says the Owl is fitted with a “unique” battery pack and claims a 280-mile range – although its 64kWh lithium ion pack is smaller than those fitted by Rimac and Lotus.

FAQs

Where are land speed records set?

There are only a handful of places on earth where these hypercars can truly stretch their legs. The Nardo Ring in Italy is a 7.8-mile-long circular track, and its banking famously allows cars to travel at up to 149mph with no steering input required from the driver. Bugatti uses its Ehra-Lessien facility with its 5.4-mile straight, while Hennesey prefers the space shuttle runway at the Kennedy Space Centre. Closed sections of autobahn and airstrips have also been used.

What was the first car to set a speed record?

The Mercedes Velo was the first production car, so became the unofficial holder of the world’s fastest car accolade in 1894. Some 1,200 Velos were built, and they could achieve a dizzying 12mph.

What was the first car to go 200mph?

Road legal cars had gone faster, but in terms of regular production cars, the Ferrari F40 was the first to break the 200mph barrier. Ferrari claimed a 4.1sec 0-62 time and a 200.88mph maximum. This, along with its stunning chassis and technological advances means it’s still considered one of the greatest Ferraris ever made.

Can a car go 400mph?

Short answer: not yet. Since 2019, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport has been the only car proven capable of more than 300mph, but the Koenigsegg Jesko and Hennessey Venom F5 could yet beat it. Speeds like these pose engineers a stern challenge in terms of power, aerodynamics and even tyre wear, so it’s hugely complicated and expensive to achieve even a small gain. But still manufacturers keep trying, so the prospect of a 400mph hypercar is a very real one. Just one that we’re not going to see any time soon.

What is the fastest land speed record ever?

The current land speed record holder, rather surprisingly, doesn’t wear number plates. Thrust SSC was powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines – as used in the RAF’s Phantom II fighter – and achieved 763mph in October 1997, and in so doing became the first car ever to break the sound barrier. That its record has stood for more than two and a half decades is proof of the technical complexity, cost and danger of these runs.

Jonathan Bryce

Title: Social Media Executive

Jonathan is Autocar's social media executive. He has held this position since December 2024, having previously studied at the University of Glasgow before moving to London to become an editorial apprentice and pursue a career in motoring journalism.

His role at work involves running all of Autocar's social media channels, including X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn and WhatsApp.