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The coolest cars that can do 200mph | Axon’s Automotive Anorak

25th November 2022
Gary Axon

OK. It’s confession time. What is the fastest you’ve ever driven on a public road?

Of course, none of us have ever exceeded the UK’s 70mph speed limit. But as we’re among friends, I will admit to pushing the needle beyond an indicated 70 on a few of occasions. Usually on a totally deserted motorway in the wee small hours on a quiet Kent motorway when rushing to catch a scheduled early car ferry or Channel Tunnel shuttle to get across the Channel. I won’t even mention giving an ex-boss’ real Lancia Stratos the full beans (and scaring myself silly in the process) on the M4 many years ago. It was a nailing biting experience, but wow, it was worth it. What a car.

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Away from the UK’s highways and speed restrictions, I will also confess to exceeding 150mph for hour-after-hour on an empty autobahn in Northern Germany (where it’s legal) en route to Sweden on one of my regular business trips to Trollhattan, usually in a lively Saab 9-3 Viggen or 9000 Aero. Also great cars, but unlike the Stratos, they always felt fully planted and safe at any speed, inspiring me to push on.

Just a few days before taking over for her record short-lived and fatefully pernicious stint as the UK’s Prime Minister, apropos of nothing in particular, Liz Truss curiously mentioned abolishing the UK’s antiquated 70mph speed limit and making our roads unrestricted, for reasons unknown and never really explained. She soon had much bigger issues to deal with as she moved into Number Ten, before rightfully stepping down just 49 days later. We never did get to learn anything more of her wild “abolish British speed limits” thinking.

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In the highly improbable possibility that she would have got that idea through Parliament, the thought of flimsy supercars or elephantine SUVs bearing down on tiny city runabouts at breakneck speeds – potentially up to 200mph – in the outside lane of the M1 doesn’t bear thinking about. Especially in this age of low emissions and high fuel costs and safety issues.

Being able to travel at speeds quite so high as 200mph, though, was something of an impossibility even as recently as 36 years ago, because at that time no road-legal car could yet reach or exceed such a landmark velocity.

There were various overly-ambitious claims over the years: a specially-prepared 1969 Hemi V8 Dodge Charger Daytona (which achieved a timed 200.447mph in 1970, driven by Buddy Baker), or the Aston Martin Bulldog concept car from 1980 (which has yet to pass the magical 200mph barrier, despite various attempts). The Lamborghini Countach came close in 1974, reaching a top speed of 196mph, but until 1987 no actual ‘real’ road-going production vehicle had been able to exceed 200mph.

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That all changed when Ferrari proudly claimed that its new F40 ‘hypercar’ was the first production road car capable of exceeding 200mph (321.87 km/h). Over the subsequent 35 years, a surprising plethora of roads cars have since blasted through this magical speed barrier to join the now not-so-exclusive 200mph club. 

There have also been several high-profile names to fall tantalisingly short. The likes of the Mercedes-Benz SLS (197mph), Ferrari F430 Scuderia (198mph), Audi R8 V10 (196mph) and Mercedes-Benz SL65 Black (199mph), with many of the latter’s contemporary German performance rivals electronically limited to a maximum speed of 155mph.

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The first ever machine to exceed 200mph was way back in 1926, when Land Speed Record ace Henry Segrave took the mighty 22.4-litre V12 Sunbeam 1000 HP (a.k.a. The Slug) to a phenomenal record speed of 203.79mph on Daytona Beach – a popular Land Speed Record attempt location in its day. It now seems amazing that it took a further 61 years for a production car to reach this sort of permanence level.

Since the Ferrari F40’s speed-breaking debut 35 years ago though, the 200mph Club has expanded rapidly to include these highlights:

Speed (mph)

Car

200

Aston Martin Vanquish S

201

Ferrari F40

201

Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder

202

Ferrari 458 Italia

203

Lexus LFA

204

Porsche 911 GT2

205

Ferrari 599 GTB

205

Ford GT

207

Maserati MC12

207

McLaren MP4-12C

207

McLaren Mercedes SLR

208

Porsche Carrera GT

208

McLaren Senna

210

Bristol Fighter S

211

Lamborghini Reventon

212

McLaren 720S

212

Jaguar XJ220

213

Lamborghini Aventador SV LP670-4 SV

214

Pagani Zonda Roadster F

214

Mercedes CLK GTR

215

Noble M600

217

McLaren P1

217

Pininfarina Battista

217

Ferrari Enzo

224

Gumpert Apollo

233

Zenvo ST1

240

McLaren F1

245

Koenigsegg CCX

250

McLaren Speedtail

253

Bugatti Veyron 16.4

258

Rimac Nevera C Two

267

Bugatti Veryron 16.4 SS

270

Hennessey Venom GT

278

Koenigsegg Agera RS

281*

Czinger 21C

295

SSC Tuatara

300

Hennessey Venom F5

305

Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+

310

Bugatti Bolide

330

Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut

347*

Devel Sixteen

(*claimed by manufacturer)

Although the above is not a definitive list of passenger cars that can achieve 200mph or more, it gives a fairly strong flavour of how performance has grown over the past 35 years.

While we may still have to take the ‘top of the tree’ Devel Sixteen’s 347mph claims with a pinch of salt, until proven. The table above illustrates the potential of just how fast passenger cars have become in an age when, ironically, speed restriction devices and limits have become ever more vigorous and anti-social worldwide.

  • Axon's Automotive Anorak

  • Ferrari

  • F40

  • Koenigsegg

  • Jesko

  • Absolut

  • McLaren

  • Bugatti

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