List of Street Legal 200MPH+ Production Cars?

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Call me a skeptic, but with only one exception in the 10 or so cars I looked at on the supercars.net website linked above, only one had any reference to the car having been actually driven at the claimed top speed.

The exception was the first car listed, a Calloway Corvette. And the reference was not to any reputable test, with citation, from an enthusiast magazine or other reliable source. The documentation consisted only of a claim that John Lingenfelter was the test pilot who achieved the rather impressive (if it occurred) speed of around 250 mph. No date, location, or other verifying info was given If Lingenfelter verified that he did, indeed, pilot the car to that top end, then of course things get more believable right away. Still, I'd like to know how the top end was measured even then.

I remember enthusiast magazines over the years running top speed tests of claimed 200 mph cars, where bona fide testing showed the cars wouldn't do what the tuner/manufacturer claimed. On the few occassions where a car actually went over 200, it was only by a few mph. (No, I can't recall the mags, dates, issues, etc, and I'm not going to take the time to look it up, but I bet many of you out there recall this, also.)

My guess is that the performance stats cited on the web site are taken straight from the press kits for the various cars. For that web site to be of any more value than just mild amusement, it needs to list the source of its numbers. Maybe a few of the cars actually go a fast as is claimed, but even the road going 962 and the McLaren F1 are claimed to be around 240 -250 (if my memory of the site is correct) and that seems unlikely.

In any event, until they can "roll the video tape" and show test results from an independent source - or even in-house track tests - those claims are as valid as the latest stock picks we hear about everyday on the TV.
 

Tom Friend

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No Vector could ever do 200mph, the hottest 12 cyl. versions could barely do 200kph. They had all the aerodymanics of a brick- very much akin to the Countach.
 

Luetic

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It was my understanding that neither the F50 nor the F1 were US street legal in there original form? Anyone?
 

Tenney

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The F50 was imported to the U.S. - haven't seen any road test numbers on this car. The Callaway Sledgehammer achieved 254.76 mph with Lingenfelter at the helm at The Transportation Research Center in Ohio. The car, with full interior and a cage, was driven from CT to Ohio and back. I have a VHS of this. It is cool. I think the Sledgehammer was sold to a German collector but not certain of this. A McLaren F1 topped out at 240.1 with Andy Wallace driving at the Volkswagen test facility in Wolfsburg in '98.
 
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Were the Calloway and Mclaren cars street legal at the time of their runs? Apparently, the Calloway car was legal before and after the run, but man, during the run?! It is hard to imagine that you can hop in your car for a trip to the 7-11 and return home at 250 mph!

I'd like to read any articles about those runs (Calloway or Mclaren) to see about the circumstances and just how legal they were...do you recall in what magazines the stories were written? Thanks for any info.
 

Tenney

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y2k - The Callaway you are referencing is not the Sledgehammer. It is acutally less streetable and more stripped out car. The test you refer to is on the same tape as the one I noted.

NVR - Just have a tape with the Callaway stuff. May have more info in some mags also but will have to dig through some crud to find - will have a look if a get a minute. McLaren test is in Autocar 4/22/98 issue.
 
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Vip-RT10

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Luetic........the F50 had to have some things done and crashed b4 they came in the USA. Otherwise, they are street legal in other countries...I can tell you that they are very legal in Italy.
 
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Tenney --

I don't get AutoCar. Too bad, as it would be interesting to read the test article. If you find any of the other stuff that we've posted about, I'd appreciate the info. Thanks.
 

Tenney

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Okay, NVR, here's the deal. The Tenney Decimal System power *****. Meaning I've sorta stored stuff in a haphazard manner that will require heavy lifting to get to the bottom of. I have McLaren, Callaway, F40 etc. tests in past issues of R&T, C&D, MT and so forth but am simply too lazy to retrieve them at this point. And so since I've thrown out one figure from Autocar, I'll stay consistent and offer up a few more that were at least a little handy.

If you haven't checked out Autocar, it is a UK bi-weekly equivalent to Autoweek except that they don't pander to manufacturers who buy ad space. If they test a car and think it's a steaming chunk, they'll apply the appropriate verbal shellacking.

Here are some Autocar figures: The first car that they tested that broke 200 was the Ferrari F40 (201). They got 212 mph from the Bugatti EB110GT. The Jag XJ220 - without cats - hit 223 at Nardo in Italy. Prior to Andy Wallace's run in the McLaren, another test was held (5/94) that produced these numbers: 0-60 in 3.2, 0-100 in 6.3, and 0-200 in 28 seconds.

And now back to Viperland. Autocar tested an Adelberg edition Steel Grey w/stripes GTS recently (not for top speed, though). Here's what they concluded: "In the end, the enduring appeal of the Viper is the fact that, for its myriad of faults, it is a car of overwhelming honesty. It does not pretend to be urbane or terribly clever and it has no smart tricks up its sleeve. Truth is, and however hard it is to believe, this car's looks write no checks its engine can't cash. And that is where you're lucky: to a greater extent than any other car I have known, to see a Viper is to have driven it. It is, in all important respects, as fast, difficult and wonderful to drive as it looks. If a Martian asked you the meaning of 'what you see is what you get', you could spend the rest of your life looking for a better definition than the Viper."
 
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Vip-RT10

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ACR_lover...
don't believe me then that the F50 is street legal, we have one, and it goes on the street just fine. It has a special suspention that lifts the front nose up 4 inches to go over speed bumbs, then it slams down after you reach 30 MPH.
 

Irid

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Are we talking purely production cars here? The Calloway is a tuner car and if you bring those up, there's the old RUF cars ("Yellowbird" @209mph or 212 I think) and DEVEK's "White Car" (928S4 @ 210mph) out in Porscheland. (It was the one in Hot Rod awhile back)

Actually, RUF is an actual manufacturer, not a tuner, so that qualifies under the strict "production" terminology at least. DEVEK's car posts those speeds at the open road events, and it's the only daily driver in the Unlimited categories I think, and it's never had a DNF in like 20 races or something, so that seems within the bounds of being a "real" streetcar to me.

The DAUER 962 probably qualifies too, but that's a loophole ;-) And I don't think it made it to the states either.
 
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