6 Of The Fastest Supercars Ever Made, Ranked By Top Speed

Achieving top speeds of over 200 miles per hour takes serious horsepower, a purposeful approach to aerodynamics, specialized tires, and components throughout the car that can withstand a lot of abuse. Combining all those needs with creature comforts like well-padded seats, a quiet interior, and a stereo is even harder. That’s why it’s so rare to see a production vehicle with a top speed (quoted or otherwise) that exceeds 200 mph while also being legal to operate on public roads.

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The kinds of engineering, materials, and production quality that are required to achieve top speeds of over 200 mph (and, in some cases, over 300 mph) are also extremely expensive. Most vehicles that can achieve those kinds of speeds are in the supercar class — priced well over a million dollars. There are exceptions that fall under the million-dollar mark, like the (yet-to-be-priced) Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 with its newly-reported 233 mph top speed, but even the 1,064-hp Chevy isn’t fast enough to make it on this list. So, what is?

For this list, we’re going with production cars from established manufacturers and there’s no limit on price — no need to differentiate between Supercars and Hypercars. The cars also need to be road-legal. So, rocket cars won’t qualify, and you won’t see any one-off builds here, but they are pretty much exclusively multi-million dollar vehicles with relatively low production numbers.

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If there’s one production-car top-speed run that’s been seen by more humans worldwide than any other, it might be James May’s attempt to max the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport way back in 2011. The at-the-time BBC Top Gear presenter was nicknamed Captain Slow for his notoriously sluggish pace while behind the wheel, but even he was able to reach a documented speed of 259.11 mph in the Super Sport. The Veyron engineers and test drivers, however, thought they could do better. And so they did. Pushing beyond May’s limits, the Bugatti test driver averaged 268 mph in the Super Sportsetting a production car record.

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James and the test drivers hit their astonishing top speeds thanks in part to the Veyron Super Sport’s massive W16 engine. The 16-cylinder engine (called the 16.4) used four turbochargers and produced 1,200 hp. By most modern supercar standards, the Veyron Super Sport was pretty heavy, with a quoted curb weight from Bugatti of 4,162 pounds (1,888 kg), making its top-speed run that much more impressive. In its day, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport was priced at $2.5 million.

Back in 2017, Koenigsegg used a customer-owned car to set a number of records in the Nevada desert. The Agera RS was once the fastest Koenigsegg around, capable of insane acceleration, and it was the car that Koenigsegg used to take down Bugatti. At the time, Bugatti’s had a standing top speed of 268 mph (431 kph) in the Veyron Super Sport, but the Koenigsegg blitzed that record. The Agera RS was able to hit 284.6 mph on its first run across Nevada’s Highway 160, then hit 271.2 mph on the way back across the closed public road. At the time, that meant the Agera RS’ top speed average of 277.9 mph was a record for the fastest production car in the world.

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Power for the Agera RS was provided by a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V8 that produced between 960 hp and 1,160 hp, depending on what fuel was used. Koenigsegg’s quoted curb weight for the Agera RS was 3,075 pounds. Prices for the Agera RS when it was new started around $2.5 million, but today, asking prices are closer to $5 million.

A few years back, SSC (also known as Shelby Supercars) was mired in quite a bit of controversy. They claimed that their supercar, the Tuatara, went over 330 mph on a top-speed run, averaging 316.11 mph across multiple runs. Then, after significant backlash online and about a year of trying to repeat the claimed top speed, Tuatara admitted that the original 300+ top-speed run never happened. It was a big disappointment to hear that SSC hadn’t hit their record (even though it wasn’t much of a shock to the folks who claimed the original record was faked), but SSC kept at it with the Tuatara and eventually hit 295 mph. And this time, they brought receipts.

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GPS tracking and onboard data logging recorded the Tuatara’s top-speed run at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in May of 2022. The Tuatara is powered by a 5.9-liter flat-plane-crank V8 engine that sports twin turbochargers and produces 1,350 hp on 91-octane gasoline. Fill up the tanks with ethanol or methanol fuel, and power shoots up to 1,750 horses, according to SSC. The V8 revs all the way to 8,800 rpm, while the lightweight carbon-fiber body and monocoque help the Tuatara stay extremely light at 2,750 pounds (dry weight). Prices for the Tuatara range between $1.3 and $1.9 million.

While the new Tourbillon may be getting all the headlines these days, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ still holds the title for the fastest family member of the Bugatti family. Unlike some other top-speed supercars on this list, the Chiron Super Sport 300+ has been tested out in the field, and it achieved a top speed of over 300 mph –- specifically when it went 304.773 mph in 2019. What did it take to get there? A lot of power, of course, and special changes to set the 300+ apart from other Chirons.

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On the outside, the 300+ is covered in exposed lightweight carbon fiber, and it rides on magnesium alloy wheels, which are strong enough to withstand the extreme forces of a 300-mph test run but also extremely lightweight. The Chiron Super Sport 300+ also uses a reworked version of the standard Chiron’s 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 engine and produces 1,578 hp and 1,180 lb-ft of torque. That’s about 100 hp more than the standard Chiron model.

Changes were made to the 300+ that updated the transmission and addressed the “thermal management” –- making sure the Bugatti stayed cool during its astonishing top-speed run. It also has what Bugatti refers to as a longtail, which lengthens the car by 25 cm and improves aerodynamics. Bugatti produced just 30 examples of the 300+, and they all sold to buyers at a minimum price of $3.8 million.

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According to the spec sheet for the Hennessey Venom F5, it’s capable of achieving a top speed of 500 kilometers per hour (or 310.7 mph), but its top speed runs haven’t broken the 300 mph barrier just yet. The incredible engine that powers the F5 is called “Fury” by the Hennessey team, and it’s a wild storm of numbers. The Venom F5’s powerplant is a 6.6-liter V8 with twin turbochargers with an 8,500-rpm redline. All that kit produces 1,817 hp and 1,193 lb-ft of torque. On top of being one of the most powerful production cars ever made, the Venom F5 holds the distinction of being the most powerful production car ever offered with a manual transmission. Limited numbers of the six-speed gated manual transmission are being made (just 12, to be exact), and all of them are already sold.

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Like pretty much all supercars these days, the Venom F5 uses carbon fiber liberally during construction. The monocoque is carbon fiber. as are the body panels and even the steering wheel. The pedals, shifter paddles, wheels, and several parts of the engine are built with aluminum. As a result of using all these lightweight materials, the F5 stays extremely light compared to its capabilities. Curb weight is quoted from Hennessey at 3,053 lbs (1,385 kg) which is lighter than most standard passenger cars. The price for all this high-horsepower lightweight engineering starts at a cool $3 million.

So far, it’s only a claim, but it looks like the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut is serious about breaking all sorts of records and being the fastest production supercar ever, with a top speed of 311 mph. In real-world testing, the Jesko Absolut has set some seriously fast records, like going from zero to 250 mph, then back to zero again (0-250-0) in 28.27 seconds. According to chassis dyno simulations run by Koenigsegg, the Jesko Absolut is capable of going over 311 mph (500 kph), but the attempt hasn’t been made yet because the company hasn’t found a suitable road.

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Accelerating to 311 mph isn’t the only task; they also have to slow down from that incredible speed, which requires quite a bit of room. Interviews with the company CEO, Christian von Koenigsegg, confirm that the company is still focused on attempting a record-setting top-speed run (at least as recently as July of this year), but it just hasn’t happened yet.

Like other supercars on this list, the Jesko Absolut gets maximum power while running on ethanol fuel (E85). The 5.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 puts out 1,600 hp on maximum attack, producing as much as 1,280 hp on standard gasoline. Max torque is 1,106 lb-ft (1,500 Nm). And, like the other lightweight supercars listed here, the Jesko Absolut uses plenty of carbon fiber (monocoque, bucket seats, intake manifold) to keep the weight down to a scant 3,064 lbs (1,390 kg). The price? $3.4 million.

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