Top 5: Fastest Production Cars

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

There aren't too many things as exciting as extremely fast cars. Especially cars that you can walk into a dealership, drive off with and lose no less than half a million dollars in the process. Below are the fastest production cars in the world as of the year 2008. If you are like me, you'll be depressed at the fact that you will never be able to own one, so to try to make you feel better I also put how much a traffic ticket in one of these babies would cost if you were caught going top speed on the interstate. Actually, there would be no ticket. You'd go straight to jail at any of these speeds.

5) McLaren F1

When talking about super expensive, super exclusive cars, the McLaren F1 is probably one of the first cars that comes to mind. Ferraris and Lamborguinis are super cars, but the McLaren F1 was the first car to make a Ferrari look like a Yugo. It was the first production car priced over $1 million dollars. It's engine puts out 550HP and it's top speed is 231 miles per hour. This car was probably developed a couple years back right and recently got surpassed by newer competitors, right? Well, almost, it was actually developed in 1995 and its record took competition 10 years to beat.

Base Price: $1,050,000
Top Speed: 231
0-60 Time: 2.9 sec

Price of ticket if you are caught going the top speed on the interstate: $2184

4)Saleen S7 TT

What can you say about the Saleen S7? It comes standard with a 750HP engine and it costs a measly $595,296 dollars. However, for some people that just isn't powerful enough, so in 2006 Saleen made a "Performance Package" for their car which boosts the horsepower up to right about 1000 and boosts the top speed to 245 miles per hour.

Base Price: $595,296
Top Speed: 245

0-60 Time: 3.4 sec
Price of ticket if you are caught going the top speed on the interstate: $2380

3) Koenigsegg CCX

The Koenigsegg CCX has arguably the sweetest name of the bunch. Leave it to the the Swedish for that. The CCX pumps out 806 horsepower and tops out at 245 miles per hour. Speaking of Swedish, however, I can count exactly 0 car manufactures off the top of my head that are based out of Sweden, however they definitely have one and that one makes the 3rd fastest production car in the world. "Not bad" I say, "not bad."
Base Price: $610,000
Top Speed: 245

0-60 Time: 3.1 sec
Price of ticket if you are caught going the top speed on the interstate: $2380

2) Bugatti Veyron 16.4

Face it, when you began reading this article you thought the fastest production car in the world was probably the Bugatti Veyron. So you are probably surprised that it has the number "2" next to it. The Veyron 16.4, as it's name suggests, has a 16 cylinder 4 turbo engine pumping out 1001 horsepower. In fact, its so powerful that Bugatti has its own horsepower meter inside the car. While your car probably has one radiator to dissipate the heat from the engine, the Veyron has 10. Yeah, it needs 10. The engine is that powerful. While the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 isn't the fastest car in the world (anymore) it is still the most expensive at a whopping $1.2 million dollars! At that price you would probably guess that Bugatti is making pretty good money off them right? Well, no. Bugatti actually loses over $6 MILLION DOLLARS on each Veyron sold. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too!
Base Price: $1,200,000

Top Speed: 253
0-60 Time: 2.46 sec
Price of ticket if you are caught going the top speed on the interstate: $2492

1) SSC Ultimate Aero TT

So here it is, the fastest car in the world and it's made in the USA. The Ultimate Aero TT holds the official Guinness World Record title for the fastest production car ever made. It packs quite a punch with a 1,183 horsepower V8 engine, enough to get a top speed of 255 miles pr hour. What kind of people buy cars like the SSC Ultimate Aero? Well to quote one customer, "The Aero is more comfortable than my Bugatti Veyron."
Base Price: $650,000

Top Speed: 255.83 mph
0-60 Time: 2.78 sec
Price of ticket if you are caught going the top speed on the interstate: $2520