Although in today's time's horsepower is still the metric used to compare cars the most, it indeed has lost its significant value. Cars now are fitted with ridiculously powerful engines, with station wagons producing 600 bhp and 7-seater SUVs with 710 bhp engines. Supercar automakers really need to push new boundaries in order to satisfy customer needs, however, with this comes new top speed records. Today we take a look at 3 such cars that are currently the fastest on the planet in terms of top speed. For this list, we will only consider automakers that have genuinely tested their vehicles' top speed figures on the tarmac and not those with claimed top speeds such as the SSC Tuatara.
Bugatti was known for its top speed record for the longest duration of time. Keeping in mind that their parent companies were capable of great funding, with a lot of effort and investment the Bugatti Veyron came into existence in 2005. This initial variant was mated with a W16 engine with 4 turbochargers producing 1001 bhp of power to an all-wheel drive train. However, after being beat by the SSC Ultimate Aero in a top-speed battle, Bugatti came back with the Veyron Super Sport. The car had a top speed of 431 kms per hour and also came with a convertible variant called the Grand Sport Vitesse which is the fastest open-top vehicle with a top speed of 408 kms per hour.
The Koenigsegg Agera RS was an automobile that took up the mantel of the fastest car in the world shortly after the Bugatti Veyron did. The Agera RS has an average top speed of 447 kms per hour. The car is equipped with a 5.0-liter V8 which produces a whopping 1160 bhp and 1280 Nm of torque. These insane figures allowed the car to reach a 100 kms per hour from a standstill in just 2.9 seconds. They got this test run done by having an 11 mile stretch of road in Nevada closed with the help of the Department of Transportation. On that day the fastest run recorded was at 458 kms per hour.
This is the first-ever factory car to break the 300 miles per hour mark. When the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport was launched, it not only beat the record of the Venom F5, but also created a world record of 490 kms per hour as a top speed. Although Bugatti has again and again been building the fastest cars in the world, they now claim that they will look into other aspects of driving pleasure. Currently, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport is equipped with a W16, quad-turbo engine producing 1479 bhp and 1600 Nm of torque.
