Top 10 Fastest Cars in the World

If you happen to be a self-proclaimed speed-aholic - with no dearth of money whatsoever, here is a list of the top 10 fastest cars in the world that have the ability to satiate your craving for speed. At 200 mph, these mean machines are what everybody dreams of, but only few are able to own.

When we entered the realms of super cars in a bid to find out which is the fastest among them, one of the first cars that we came across was the ThrustSSC. It is a British jet-propelled supersonic car, which boasts of an amazing speed of 750 miles per hour (mph). Even though the supersonic car was a technological marvel in itself, it was not something that we were looking for. A road-legal car which boasts of being the fastest in the world - that was what we were looking for, and did manage to find at the end of the day.

Fastest Car in the World

The record for the fastest car in the world - with a top speed of 267.85 mph, is held by Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which displaced SSC Ultimate Aero off the top spot in 2010. A German Volkswagen Group and Bugatti Automobiles SAS collaboration, Bugatti Veyron has been named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron - best known for winning the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing - 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 1939. The enormous power that this car boasts of is derived from the 1200 horsepower engine that it is equipped with. Even though the speed of 267.85 mph is the top speed for this car, the models in production have been tweaked to facilitate a maximum speed of 258 mph to protect the tires. Other than being the fastest road legal car, Bugatti Veyron is also the most expensive car in the world with a price tag of $2,600,000.

Top 10 Fastest Cars in the World

While Bugatti Veyron Super Sport boasts of being the fastest car in the world today, with a top speed of 267.85 mph, there exist more than a dozen road-legal cars out there with the top speed exceeding the 200 mph mark. They are not just fast and expensive, but also safest cars of the world: courtesy the state-of-the-art safety measures used in them. Given below is a list of the top ten fastest cars in the world which have the ability of making your dream of cruising at the speed of 200 mph come true.

Rank	Car Model	Top Speed	0-60 mph	0-100 mph	Price
1	Bugatti Veyron Super Sport	268 mph	2.5 secs	5.0 secs	$2,600,000
2	SSC Ultimate Aero TT	257 mph	2.7 secs	5.8 secs	$654,500
3	Koenigsegg CCX	250 mph	3.4 secs	7.7 secs	$720,000
4	Saleen S7 Twin-Turbo	248 mph	2.8 secs	5.9 secs	$597,000
5	McLaren F1	240 mph	3.9 secs	6.7 secs	$1,100,000
6	Ultima GTR	231 mph	2.6 secs	5.3 secs	$118,000
7	Gumpert Apollo	224 mph	3.0 secs	8.0 secs	$400,000
8	Ferrari Enzo	220 mph	3.14 secs	6.6 secs	$670,000
9	Jaguar XJ220	217 mph	3.6 secs	7.9 secs	$580,000
10	Ascari A10	220 mph	2.8 secs	5.8 secs	$550,000

Being on the wheel of these cars is a dream for many people, but only a few can afford to own one of these amazing cars. Not at all surprising, as these models also have the distinction of being the most expensive cars in the world. So what makes these cars so fast? There are numerous factors which come into play. First of all, each of these cars are armed with an immensely powerful engine. For instance, Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is armed with a 1200 horsepower engine, while SSC Ultimate Aero TT has 1183 horsepower engine on board. Yet another factor - as you see in every single car in the aforementioned list, is their sleek aerodynamic design. Other than the design, even the material from which the various parts of these cars is made play an important role in making them the fastest.

Before Bugatti Veyron Super Sport became the fastest production car in the world, it was SSC Ultimate Aero TT which topped the list of the world's top 10 fastest cars. At 256.18 mph, SSC Ultimate Aero TT was the fastest car - a record which it established on 13th September, 2007, until Veyron Super Sport came in the picture. Even though it is argued that this car can clock a speed of 273 mph - a claim that is supported by simulation and testing, it hasn't been proved on road as yet. While the top speed of these cars is amazing in itself, one also has to pay some attention to their acceleration. For instance, Ultima GTR - which features in the list on the 6th position with a top speed of 231 mph, has an amazing acceleration owing to which it has the ability to clock a speed of 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds and 0-100 in 5.3 seconds. That is second only to Bugatti Veyorn Super Sport which can reach 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds and 0-100 in 5.0 seconds.

While these cars which cruise at the speed of 200 mph may seem amazing today, the chances are that they will be soon replaced by cars cruising at speed of 300 mph. After all we have just begun taking giant strides in the world of technology, and a lot more is yet to come - say a car with the speed of 500 mph! Impossible as it may seem today, the chances of the same car topping the list of top 10 fastest road-legal cars in the world a decade from now, cannot be ruled out.
By Abhijit Naik