What Is The Fastest Car In The World? (Here's Why That Gets Complicated)

Automakers have competed for the title of who has the fastest car arguably since the dawn of the automobile. It's one of the most perennial questions of automotive history — how fast can we get a car to go? And it's an answer that constantly changes, either depending on who you ask or what sort of car you're talking about.

To elaborate, let's start with the goalpost for the fastest car ever built. That title currently belongs to the Thrust SSC, which in 1997 became the first (and so far only) car to break the sound barrier, achieving a 763.04 mile-per-hour land speed record. Although it's difficult to categorize such a vehicle as a "car;" it's a pair of massive jet engines fitted with a cockpit and four wheels in between. It basically looks more like an F-4 Phantom II with no wings and a bullet-shaped fuselage.

But what about something that's more "car-like?" As in, something you can buy. Or what about a purpose-built race car? Also, there's the question of how the vehicle gets its speed. Some cars excel at maintaining extremely high average speeds on a track, specifically purpose-built racing machines. Whereas other cars, like top-level dragsters, are the fastest-accelerating vehicles piloted by a human on the planet.

So, the question comes down to two factors: what defines the term "fastest," and what sort of car we're talking about. Every type of car is good at something — hypercars excel at top speed, dragsters at acceleration, race cars at maintaining speed through corners, and so on. Let's take a look at each and determine which, among them, is the fastest at what they do.

Sure, you have the Thrust SSC, as mentioned earlier, but what about something more "normal"? In terms of what constitutes a more normal car, you essentially have two options: a car which is either built at-home or by a tuning firm, or a factory-produced hypercar.

For the first category, it's difficult to nail down such vehicles because of how much variation there is in design architecture between individual builders. However, if we go by the record books at Bonneville, the title of the fastest ever belongs to Speed Demon, a custom machine powered by an LS-derived 443-ci turbocharged V8. In 2021, this beast achieved the record for the fastest-ever piston-powered car, hitting 466.290 miles an hour while driven by owner George Poteet. However, this remains a highly specialized land speed vehicle; what about something even more normal? What's the fastest street-legal car, for example?

This remains just as much of a fiercely competitive field today as it ever was, with many manufacturers laying claim to producing the absolute fastest car over the years. As of 2025 though, that crown currently belongs to Bugatti, with the Chiron Super Sport 300+ becoming the first production car to break the 300-mile-per-hour barrier. Its record of 304.773 still stands today, though several companies, such as Koenigsegg and SSC (not related to the Thrust SSC) field some healthy competition of their own.

The undisputed king of acceleration remains the purpose-built Top Fuel dragster. Their engines produce five-digit horsepower figures and will reach the end of a quarter-mile drag strip at truly alarming speeds. Brittany Force holds the current record here, piloting her dragster to 338.94 miles per hour in just 3.641 seconds.

Much like the fastest car in a straight line, the fastest accelerating car is mainly a numbers game more than anything. It's about two factors: power to weight ratio and how that power gets delivered. The first is simple enough — a car with more power and less weight is faster to get up to speed. The second is where it gets more complicated, because delivering that power to the road means you need adequate traction. The one car to complete this package the best is surprisingly not an AWD electric car, but rather a traditional combustion-powered machine. The all-time fastest accelerating production car in the world belongs to the HEMI-powered Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, hitting 60 mph in just 1.66 seconds and producing a forward g-force of 2.004. This astounding acceleration is due in large part to its tires, coming from the factory with Mickey Thompson drag radials.

Conversely, if you're talking about a production car that's not just a dragster with a license plate, then you're looking at an electric car. Specifically, this title belongs to the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, reaching 60 mph in just 1.898 seconds. That's because while it doesn't have the Challenger's drag tires, it does feature AWD and instant electric torque. Electric motors produce all their torque up front, making these vehicles the optimal platform for outright acceleration in a street-legal platform.

Without any contest, the fastest car around a racetrack is Formula 1. It's a trait which the sport has built its entire image around, and in terms of outright pace, Lewis Hamilton holds the record for the highest average speed around any racing circuit. And he did it in 2020 in a Mercedes W11, a Formula 1 car, averaging 164.267 miles per hour around Monza during the Italian Grand Prix. However, these are single-seater, open-wheel cars. What about closed-wheel racers, or production cars?

For closed-wheel, closed-cockpit cars, the fastest ever belongs to the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, a car developed from the Porsche 919 Le Mans prototype. The Evo variant was a design study to see just how fast such a car could go without the hindrance of racing regulations, and the answer to that question is a staggering 5:19.55 lap time around the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife by driver Timo Bernhard. It's the only vehicle ever to lap the 'Ring in under 6 minutes, with the runner-up being the Volkswagen ID.R Pikes Peak machine claiming a time of 6:05.336, driven by Romain Dumas.

This track represents the main proving ground for many automotive manufacturers willing to test the mettle of their best-handling production cars, with the record changing hands multiple times within the last five years alone. The most recent of these records is also the highest recorded so far, currently held by the Mercedes-AMG One which lapped the circuit in 6:29.090, driven by Maro Engel.

However, this doesn't account for vehicles modified after they left the factory. That title belongs to Time Attack machines built specifically to lap racing circuits as fast as possible. These incredibly specialized cars represent the absolute best-handling production-based cars, with lap times and fastest vehicles varying depending on the tracks themselves.