For the past decade, automakers from different countries have been engaged in an intense battle to see who can produce the fastest Sports car ever. While not yet a production car, the 2019 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ shocked the world when it became the first car to break the 300 MPH mark and showed how far automotive technology has come.
However, there are many classic sports cars that are still fast by modern standards despite “outdated” technologies. These ten classic sports cars may be decades old, but they still have enough power to rival some of the fastest sports cars of the past decade.
10 McLaren F1
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Ask each gearbox to list the greatest British sports cars ever made and the McLaren F1 is sure to be among the top picks. After dominating the F1 racing scene in the 1980s, McLaren decided to use his experience to develop the most powerful sports car in the world – the legendary F1.
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McLaren wanted the F1 to break the speed record for production cars, so they outfitted it with a fire-breathing 6.1-liter V12 engine with 618 horsepower on tap and various F1-inspired technologies. The result was a top speed of 240 MPH, making the F1 the fastest production car of its time. To this day it is the fastest suction vehicle.
9 Jaguar XJ220
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Before McLaren introduced the outrageous F1 in 1993, the Jaguar XJ220 was the fastest British car ever produced. Jaguar introduced the XJ220 concept in 1988 and every transmission was impressed. It had a sleek design and was originally supposed to come with a massive Jaguar V12.
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Unfortunately, for various reasons, Jaguar was forced to replace the V12 with a turbocharged V6, which led to a collapse in demand for the Jag. Still, the XJ220 could go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and reach a top speed of 212 mph.
8th Porsche 959 Turbo
Via: duPont Registry
The 80s were fantastic for Porsche. With most other manufacturers being destroyed by emission restrictions, the German brand had discovered the secret to making ultra-fast legal sports cars – turbocharging. After releasing several turbocharged models, Porsche eventually built the model that really proved that turbocharging was the future – the 959 Turbo.
Via: Wikipedia
Introduced in 1986, the 959 Turbo was powered by a six-cylinder, twin-turbocharged engine that produced 444 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. It could reach a top speed of 197 MPH, making it the fastest street legal production car in the world.
7th Call CTR
Via classicdriver.com
Ruf Automobile is a German automaker known for building new cars with unmarked Porsche bodies. The company has tuned almost every generation of the iconic 911, but taking over the 1987 911 Carrera 3.2 has to be its biggest endeavor. This car, dubbed the CTR or Yellowbird, was a milestone when it came out as it could outperform supercars like the Lamborghini Countach and the Ferrari Testarossa.
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It had a lighter body than the Porsche it was based on and a better engine – a 3.4-liter six-cylinder with two turbochargers and 463 horses. The CTR broke the previous speed record of the Porsche 959 Turbo when it reached a top speed of 213 MPH on the Nardo Ring.
6th Ferrari F40
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The F40 is one of the most iconic Ferraris ever made for a number of reasons. This fantastic sports car was made to mark Ferrari’s 40th anniversary and is also the last vehicle that Enzo Ferrari brought onto the market before his death a year later.
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Ferrari engineers had one goal in developing the F40 – to beat the aforementioned Porsche 959 Turbo. To that end, they fitted the F40 with a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8 that delivers 471 horsepower and 426 lb-ft of torque and has a top speed of 201 mph – slightly better than the 959.
5 Mercedes CLK-GTR
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The Mercedes CLK-GTR is a street legal sports car that was manufactured to meet homologation requirements for the FIA GT Championship – which it won in 1997. Despite being perfectly legal for road use, the CLK-GTR is so insane that it is still considered a racing car on the road.
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The CLK-GTR retained most of the racing car features, including a massive M297 V12 that could produce 604 horsepower and 572 pound-feet of torque. It could accelerate to 62 mph in 3.8 seconds and had a top speed of 214 mph. When it was launched, the CLK-GTR was the most expensive production car of all time, priced at just over $ 1.5 million.
4th Lamborghini diablo
Via: duPont REGISTRY Daily
When Chrysler bought Lamborghini in 1987, its first task was to develop a successor to the Countach. This is how the Diablo was born. Marcello Gandini initially designed the Diablo, but Chrysler asked its Detroit design team to revise it, which Gandini is known to have left unimpressed.
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The first Diablo had a 5.7 liter V12 that delivered 485 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels for a top speed of 202 mph. The Diablo was the first Lamborghini to break the 200 mph mark, and the automaker hasn’t looked back since.
3 Ferrari 288 GTO
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The 288 GTO was a street legal sports car that was built to meet the homologation requirements for Group B racing. The 288 GTO was developed alongside the legendary Testarossa and was the perfect combination of sublime beauty and a raw level of performance. Ferrari built 272 examples, most of which became road vehicles after the FIA canceled Group B.
Via drive-my.com
The GTO had a longitudinally mounted 2.9 liter V8 under the hood with Weber-Marelli fuel injection and IHI twin turbochargers. It could accelerate to 60 mph in about 5 seconds and reach a top speed of 189 mph.
2 Lamborghini Countach LP5000 Quattrovalvole
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The legendary Lamborghini Countach doesn’t need an introduction. Most transmissions growing up in the ’70s and’ 80s had posters of this car in their bedrooms, largely thanks to its outrageous wedge-shaped design, huge spoiler, and scissor doors. The Countach is undoubtedly one of the best designs by the famous Marcello Gandini.
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The most powerful version of the Countach was the LP5000 Quattrovalvole, released in 1985. Powered by a revised 5.2 liter Lamborghini V12, the Quattrovalvole had 455 horsepower and could reach a top speed of 185 MPH.
1 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1
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When the C4 Corvette first launched in 1984, it was still extremely weak thanks to strict emissions regulations in the US. The Corvette was slowly losing its identity, and so Chevrolet began work on a remarkable engine to bring the Vette’s performance back to pre-emission levels.
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Chevrolet partnered with Lotus on the project, and after years of development, the new engine was finally installed in the 1990 ZR-1. The ZR-1 was equipped with a 5.7 liter LT5 engine that developed 405 horsepower, making it faster than many European sports cars that were twice as expensive.
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Martin Peter
(63 articles published)
Martin is a veteran content creator who has been writing about cars for over a decade and has fallen in love with them even longer. Growing up, Martin was surrounded by gears that instilled in him a deep love and understanding of cars at a young age. He loves learning and writing about all developments in the auto industry – especially in the EV space. When he’s not writing about cars, he enjoys spending time with his wife, children, and fur baby.
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