The first automobile ever produced was the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built in 1886 by Karl Benz. Unique and consequently the fastest, it established a record speed of 16 km/h (10 mph). A little more than a century later, in September 2005, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 registered the latest record, for a production car, of 407.08 km/h (252.95 mph).

1901 - 96 km/h

The Mercedes 35 hp reached 85 km/h (53 mph) in 1901, and a few years later, its derivative, the Mercedes 60 HP, reached 96 km/h (60 mph).

[edit] 1948 - 257 km/h (160 mph)
It took 46 additional years to reliably and consistently double the Mercedes 60 HP figure, or 193 km/h (120 mph). It was the 1948 Jaguar XK120, so-called for achieving precisely that speed.

The first production Ferrari was launched in 1948 as well, sharing their V12 engines with the grand prix cars. The 410 Superamerica reached over 257 km/h (160 mph).

[edit] 1961 - 241 km/h (150 mph)
The 241 km/h (150 mph) Jaguar E-type (or XK-E) was launched in 1961. It was the first really affordable fast sports car ever, at roughly half the price of the cheapest Ferrari.

[edit] 1962 - 298 km/h (185 mph)
The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO consistently reached 298 km/h (185 mph), but it could hardly be considered a production model. Very few were built, mainly to allow Ferrari to homologate it for racing. GTO means "Gran Turismo Omologato", a denomination later borrowed by Pontiac.

The 1966 Lamborghini Miura also had an astonishing speed of 274 km/h (170 mph).

[edit] 1994 - 372 km/h (231 mph)
In 1994, the McLaren F1 reached a speed of 372 km/h, using the factory rev limiter limiting the engine to 7500 rpm.

[edit] 1998 - 391 km/h (240 mph)
The McLaren F1 without the factory rev limiter reached a top speed of 391.1 km/h at an engine speed of 7800 rpm.

[edit] List
Rows in italics indicate modified production cars.

Date Car Speed
1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen (first purpose-built automobile, not a production car) 16 km/h (10 mph), Karl Benz's best guess
1987 Ferrari F40 323 km/h (201 mph)
1987 RUF CTR (modified Porsche 930) 340 km/h (211 mph)
1994 McLaren F1 372 km/h (231 mph) at factory rev limit
March 31, 1998 McLaren F1 391.1 km/h (240.1 mph) with factory rev limiter removed. This was achieved in Germany on the Volkswagen proving ground by Andy Wallace
February 28, 2005 Koenigsegg CCR 387.87 km/h (241.01 mph)
October, 2005 Bugatti Veyron 407.5 km/h (253.2 mph)

Note that various limited-production or one-off cars are rumored to have reached speeds higher than the current record, such as the Lamborghini Diablo VT Twin Turbo (410 km/h at 9 psi turbo pressure)[1] or the Callaway Corvette Sledgehammer (409.91 km/h)[2], however these tests did not meet requirements and so have not qualified for new records.

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