Here’s the Story Behind the McLaren F1’s Record-Breaking Top Speed
The fastest production car of the 20th century.
Nowadays when we talk about top speed a car that likely comes to your mind is the Bugatti Veyron SS (the world’s fastest production car today) or maybe (for obvious reasons) the Venom GT. But, before these insane hypercars come to the world pumping out thousands of ponies, back in 1998 a car made history reaching a top speed of 243 mph (391 km/h) at Ehra-Lessien.
Yeah, the car was the McLaren F1, and celebrating the 25th anniversary of the car McLaren released a video with Andy Wallace, the man behind the wheel the F1 on that day, talking the story behind the record-breaking 240.1mph top speed (combined top speed).
Oh, just in case you want to know, the McLaren F1 is powered by a 6.1-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine able to produce 636 hp and 651 Nm of torque. Weighing just 1138 kg (2508 lbs), the F1 can accelerate from 0-62 (0-100 km/h) in 3.2 seconds, 0-124 (0-200 km/h) in 9.4s and 0-186 (0-300 km/h) in 23.8s.
video by McLaren Automotive via YouTube
