For most Americans , the Germanautobahnis a nearly - mythical beast , a snaky wonderland of multi - lane blacktopping where the speed limit has been slain and the impassioned horses under the hood can be unleash .
It sounds almost too good to be true . A public road , in a notoriously button - up land , where a soul can drive as tight as their locomotive engine size and nerve will allow ? Yes , devout reader , there is an autobahn . And these 10 vehicles have been pushed to their limits on this fabled route .
The affair is , it ’s just a highway , like almost any you ’re familiar with . It ’s not a closed course or a race track with rubber tyre stacked on the shoulders of the route . So anyone who lets the sawbuck out to play and nears 200 international nautical mile per hour is lay on the line not only their own life but also the lives of the poor fool in the Citroens and Fiats in the next lane . A mistake at that speed is usually , well , middling dreadful .
But that does n’t stop people from putting the super in supercar . Here the 10 fastest times clocked on the legendary autobahn – and just to keep you interested right wing to the end , the top two speeds will criticize your high - tech , twenty - first century drogue off .
10: 192 miles per hour (309 kilometers per hour): Corvette ZR1
USA ! USA ! The only American entry on this list of top pep pill is of course the Corvette ZR1 , one of the most powerful production cars usable , make more than 600horsepower . In a realm of Porsches and Mercedes - Benzes and Audi R8s , the ' Vette we take for cede is a special kind of hurrying devil in Germany . deed over , the ZR1 is a exceptional form of speeding devil no matter where it is .
In 2008 , a team from the Dutch autoblog ( ABHD ) accept one of the first ZR1s to hit Europe on theautobahnfor a picayune gamey - speed examination . Thanks to some plaguy traffic and a few body of work zone ( it ’s plausibly dependable to say those guys were well-chosen they wear out helmet that day ) , the team only managed to get the ZR1 up to 192 knot per hr ( 309 kilometers per 60 minutes ) . " Only " 192 miles per hr because the railroad car is engineered to remove 205 naut mi per hour ( 329.9 kilometre per hr ) . Even so , I doubt the bozo driving the car were sad to be 13 air mile per hr below the car ’s full capability . How sad would you be at 192 miles per hour ? you may check out the video , too .
9: 199 miles per hour (320 kilometers per hour): Lamborghini Aventador
You might look the latest car on the list to also be the greatest , but alas , it ’s not . The 2012 Lamborghini Aventador might be passably bully for a destiny of reasons , but the 199 miles per hour ( 320 kilometers per 60 minutes ) achieved by the reporter at Inside Line only gets this Lambo to number nine .
Surely the railroad engineer in Sant’Agata , where the Aventador was built , are exclaim , " It was daytime ! There was dealings ! How could you expect the 690 - horsepowerV-12 to reach its full speed of 217 miles per hour in such conditions ? Cavolo ! " ( That ’s Italian for " crap ! " It ’s also Italian for " cabbage . " ) But all the other cars on this list ( exceptions note , of course ) were subject to the same condition , and sometimes bad .
Besides , the newsman got to drive the Aventador from habitation base in Italy to theautobahnin Germany and back . There are worse ways to spend two years .
8: 200.7 miles per hour (323 kilometers per hour): Porsche 911 GT3 RTS 4.0
When theautobahnis in your backyard , you ’re going to build up some pretty insane cars to drive on it . There are mass of German auto maker who build very quick cars , but Porsche and its radio receiver friends have taken nearly half the blot on this list .
The 911 GT3 RTS 4.0 is a factory - prepped car , and the Porsche guy wire really poured all they had into it . Thanks to their passion ( or insanity ; it is so tough to tell the difference sometimes ) , the Road & Track examiner were able-bodied to push this car to a hair over 200 miles per 60 minutes . If you take in thevideo , you’re able to hear the exhilaration of the guy wire in the cockpit when the speedo hits 323 kilometers per hour and the number one wood depart to back off the throttle . Also note that this ravel was done at night , when traffic was a number loose .
7: 201.3 miles per hour (323.96 kilometers per hour): Ruf CTR Yellowbird
What did you do at work today ? File something ? Maybe make a phone call ? Have a squad meeting in the group discussion room , which for some reason always smell like onions ? Well , self-propelled journalist James M. Clash ’s spent a workday taking the Ruf CTR Yellowbird for a jaunt on theautobahn . Not quite a PowerPoint presentation , is it ?
Ruf Automobile is a German car company that , in addition to building its own sports railcar , guide the skin and bod from Porsches and build nearly unrivaled supercars using its own portmanteau word of automotive operation theatrical role . The CTR , which is better known as the Yellowbird , is based on a 1987 Porsche 911 .
In 2003 , Clash was ask over by Alois Ruf , the possessor of Ruf Automobile , to take the Yellowbird on an autobahn speed run . On the A81 , a section of autobahn that runs between Würzburg and Heilbronn , Clash got the Yellowbird up to 201.3 nautical mile per hour ( 323.96 kilometers per hour ) . He described the experience as nerve - wracking , but such a run is truly a once - in - a - lifetime experience – unless you ’re self-propelling diarist James Clash .
6: 206.3 miles per hour (332 kilometers per hour): Kelleners BMW M6
If you ’re a real exotic car fiend , or a veridical racing game fiend , you ’re probably conversant with Kellener ’s wheel . In the real world and the wash game world , their lightweight wheels are covet for reducing weight and look freakin ' cool .
Kelleners specializes in prettying up BMWs , but it also tuned a beast of an M6 and take it to theautobahn . Given that we ’re halfway through the list , you know what ’s coming . This BMW M6 hit the pavement in 2009 and flew to 206 Admiralty mile an minute ( 332 kilometers per hour ) . There is , of course , avideo , which helpfully provides GPS substantiation in the upper right paw corner .
5: 208.7 miles per hour (335.87 kilometers per hour): Ruf R Turbo
" Hey , James Clash , call up that time you drive the Ruf Yellowbird to a record - set speed on theautobahn ? "
" Yes , Alois Ruf , I retrieve . It was a few minutes ago . Also , it was mentioned earlier in this top 10 list . "
" How would you like to do it in another of our cars ? One that perhaps go … faster ? "
" Um , yeah ! "
The above is the imagined conversation that happen properly after that run in the Yellowbird in 2003 , because Clash hopped into a Ruf R Turbo , which has 50 morehorsepowerthan the CTR , and hit 208.7 miles per hour ( 335.87 kilometer per 60 minutes ) . Keep in idea , this was Clash ’s work day . It was n’t some midnight campaign ; it was daytime on an open , public road , with traffic and building and people just trying to get to their irksome jobs as anything but automotive journalist hanging out with one of the premier tiptop car radio in the world .
4: 219 miles per hour (353 kilometers per hour): Bugatti Veyron
The Bugatti Veyron is the king of the beasts , as far as exotic automobile go . It tops most of the list out there , from most expensive to most exclusive to mosthorsepowerto most coveted . But it does n’t top this lean .
It is included on this list as a lofty representative of all the questionable inexpert television on the net showing multitude doing dangerous things in powerful cars . For instance , in this 2011videoyou can see flashing visible light on the right side of the screen . There are two explanation for this in the comment - verse : either the law are chasing him ( doubtful ) or he has a policemotorcycleescort ( more in question ; what bike could keep up with him ? ) or he affixed flashing lights to convince other driver to move over out of his style ( somewhat likely ) . And is he really hold his owncamerawhile he drive ?
In any case , thespeedometerreads 353 klick per hr , which is 219 miles per hour . That ’s believable for a Bugatti , since they ’ve lay out record above 250 mile an hr on the track . But it ’s a classic case of " do n’t try this at habitation " – not that many of us have a Veyron sit around waiting for us to do ridiculous thing at high-pitched hurrying .
3: 236 miles per hour (381 kilometers per hour): Porsche 9ff GTurbo850
Yet another tuned Porsche kick passes on theautobahn . Ho busyness . This one is tuned by a company anticipate 9ff . The car protrude its lifetime as a bare Porsche 997Turbo(that ’s a recent 911 embodiment , in case you were n’t sure ) . Then 9ff get their hands on it and upped thehorsepowerto 850 . Yikes .
The 9ff GTurbo850 goes so tight , it does n’t need spaces in its name . It also carry off this record - lay out time during daylight hours in 2010 , with other cars on the road . It ’s the fastest clip in 72 year , and the top two record holders had a couple of advantage . It ’s gruelling to believe reward over a tuned Porsche are potential , but you ’ll see what I mean .
2: 268.432 miles per hour (432 kilometers per hour): V-16 Auto Union
Here ’s where the reality - show - mode shocker come in , right at the end , when you least carry it . ( Except that if you ’ve seen enough of those show , you recognize that there ’s always a twist in the last two instalment , so maybe it ’s actually when you most expect it . )
The fastest times on the Germanautobahnweren’t fix yesterday , or a year ago , or even a 10 ago . They were set in 1938 . On the same daylight . By Mercedes Benz and Auto Union ( which would eventually become Audi ) .
Bernd Rosemeyer drove an Auto Union streamliner that had a mid - mounted V-16 engine , twosuperchargersand an estimated 400horsepower– not too tatty even today . It was design by Ferdinand Porsche . What the streamliner did n’t have , unfortunately , was enoughdownforceto keep it planted on the route at high focal ratio . Rosemeyer finagle to hit 268.432 miles an hour ( 432 kilometers per hour ) when word came in that the Mercedes - Benz machine driver had managed a faster speed .
The shockers do n’t quit there , though . Rosemeyer headed out again , and on that outpouring , tragedy struck . He fall back control of his car in crosswind and was killed .
1: 268.8 miles per hour (432.59 kilometers per hour): Mercedes-Benz W125
How fast was Rosemeyer ’s rival ? A half a mile an hr . No joke . A record so near it seemed sane to set out again to stress to fail it .
Ninety minutes before Rosemeyer made his final run , driver Rudolf Caracciola set anautobahnspeed record of 268.8 mile per hour ( 432.59 kilometers per hr ) that has not been break since in a Mercedes - Benz W125 with a V-12 engine .
How is it possible that these two could plant records that have resist for the honorable part of a century ? Well , first of all , they were using cars built for the intent of vanquishing a rival , not production cars like half the rest of the guys on this lean . secondly , Rosemeyer and Caracciola did n’t have to divvy up with dealings . They had sections of the autobahn shut out down so these guys could go all out . And there were certainly no expression work party around .
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for hoard the top 10 times on the autobahn , I had to comb through video after video on the Internet , trying to retrieve the fastest time on speedometers , checking to see if there was GPS or other verification , looking for a reliable source – like a car magazine – to verify the result . It was a tough slog .
Try telling that , though , to your champion crunching act in kiosk all day . Try convincing them that your job , which involves find out YouTube videos of fast cars for a yoke hours , is a slog . Trust me , it does not work . You get a pile of petite violins act the world ’s distressing song for you .
