The fastest street legal car

Triumph for Bugatti Veyron

The Bugatti Veyron has wiped the floor with the opposition in Autocar's annual 0-100-0mph contest, featured in the current issue of the world's oldest car magazine, even managing to beat a Suzuki GSX-R1000 superbike.

Featuring 25 of the world's fastest cars, from the 14th placed £79,995 Aston Martin V8 Vantage to the second-placed £34,995 Ariel Atom, the shoot-out pitches the cars against each other in a straight fight to see which is the fastest to 100mph. There's more to it than just outright speed though –" slowing from 100mph to a dead halt is just as important.

The Veyron, with its 987bhp 16-cylinder engine, wasn't necessarily the favourite to win. "A low weight tends to be the key to a good 0-100-0mph car," said Autocar's road test editor Adam Towler. "Cars like the Ariel Atom and Caterham Superlight historically dominate this contest."

But the 1890kg £880,000 Bugatti ripped through the gears to hit 60mph in 2.8sec and 100mph in an astonishing 5.5sec. It then stopped in just 3.4sec, giving a 0-100-0mph time of 9.9sec.

Not only is the Bugatti faster than the Suzuki, it creates more g-force at maximum acceleration than you'd experience in an F-16 jet fighter at take off or when skydiving.

But the lightweights still turned in an impressive performance, from the relatively unknown £32k Brooke Double R in fourth place to the £35k Ariel Atom 300 in second.

"Although the Veyron is undoubtedly the quickest road car ever, you can still have nearly as much fun for much less money," said Adam Towler. "It's good to see British sports cars doing so well against such an impressive machine as the Bugatti."

Autocar also brought along an A1 GP car, driven by Brit Robbie Kerr, to see how a purpose-built race car would compare with road-going machinery. The 550bhp single seater weighs just 695kg, and proved to be the fastest vehicle on the day with a 0-100-0mph time of 8.4sec.

Competing Cars
0-100-0 Time
(seconds)

A1 GP
8.40

Bugatti Veyron
9.90

Suzuki GSX-R1000
10.70

Ariel Atom S'Charged
11.00

Ariel Atom 450
11.05

Atom Private Owned
11.05

Caterham CSR260
11.95

Brooke Double R
12.50

Porsche 911 Turbo
12.50

Ford Focus WRC
13.57

Lambo Gallardo
13.65

Ascari KZ1
13.80

Corvette Z06
13.80

Alpina B6
14.80

BMW M6
14.95

TVR Tuscan 2
15.00

BMW M5
15.20

Audi RS4
15.80

Aston V8 Vantage
15.81

BMW Z4M Roadster
15.95

Porsche Cayman S
16.46

Lotus Exige S
16.60

Nissan 350Z
18.80

Vauxhall Astra Sprint
18.85

Vauxhall Astra VXR
19.05

Renault Megane F1
20.55

Mazda 6MPS
21.00

Ford Focus ST
21.35

Vauxhall Vectra VXR
22.35

Vauxhall Astra Thurlby
22.65