10 Insanely Fast Concept Cars That Actually Proved Their Speed

Story Cars
8 minutes ago
6 min read

Concept cars have always been a place for automakers to make outrageous promises. Wild horsepower figures, futuristic technology and projected top speeds look great on a spec sheet—but actually putting a prototype on a track and proving what it can do is another matter entirely.

That distinction is important for this list.

Take the 1995 Ford GT90. Its quad-turbo V12 and futuristic body came with a widely publicized claimed top speed of 253 mph, yet the prototype never underwent a genuine full-speed test. When journalists including Jeremy Clarkson and MotorTrend got behind the wheel, the car had been heavily restricted and was reportedly limited to around 40 mph (64 km/h).

So rather than ranking concepts by theoretical or manufacturer-claimed performance, we're looking at cars that actually recorded their speeds in real-world testing.

Here are 10 of the fastest.

10. 1988 Lamborghini P140 — 183.3 mph (295 km/h)

Engine: 4.0-liter naturally aspirated V10

Before the Gallardo made the V10 synonymous with Lamborghini's smaller supercars, there was the P140.

Developed in the late 1980s as Lamborghini explored a replacement for the aging Jalpa, the wedge-shaped prototype introduced a new V10 engine and represented a potential new entry-level Lamborghini. The project ultimately failed to reach production, but its development helped lay groundwork for Lamborghini's future V10 cars.

More importantly for this list, the P140 wasn't confined to an auto-show stand. It underwent genuine testing, with the prototype recording 183.3 mph (295 km/h).

9. 1956 Renault Étoile Filante — 191.9 mph (308.9 km/h)

Engine: Turbomeca Turmo gas turbine

Nothing about the Étoile Filante was conventional.

Created during the jet-age obsession of the 1950s, Renault's experimental machine traded pistons for a Turbomeca gas-turbine engine. Its extraordinarily low body, exposed wheels and enormous tail fins made it look more like an aircraft without wings than a conventional automobile.

Renault took the Étoile Filante to the Bonneville Salt Flats to find out what the turbine-powered machine could really do. The result was a recorded 191.9 mph (308.9 km/h) in the configuration represented in our ranking.

Nearly 70 years later, it remains one of the strangest high-speed experimental automobiles ever built.

8. 1984 Dodge M4S — 194.8 mph (313.5 km/h)

Engine: 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged inline-four

The Dodge M4S looked like an exotic supercar, but underneath its dramatic body was something much less expected: a heavily developed 2.2-liter Chrysler four-cylinder.

The name stood for Mid-engine, 4-cylinder, Sport, and Chrysler wasn't playing around. With twin turbochargers helping the small engine produce roughly 440 horsepower, the M4S was an extraordinarily serious piece of engineering for the period.

Testing at the Transportation Research Center in Ohio produced a recorded top speed of 194.8 mph (313.5 km/h).

The M4S later found another kind of fame when it appeared in the 1986 film The Wraith, but its genuine high-speed performance may be even more interesting than its Hollywood career.

7. 1978 Mercedes-Benz C111-III — 210 mph (338 km/h)

Engine: 3.0-liter turbocharged diesel inline-five

A 210-mph diesel in 1978 sounds almost absurd.

Yet that was exactly the sort of engineering challenge Mercedes-Benz tackled with the C111 program.

The third major evolution, the C111-III, received an extraordinarily streamlined body wrapped around a 3.0-liter turbocharged five-cylinder diesel. Rather than relying on enormous horsepower, Mercedes attacked aerodynamic drag relentlessly.

The resulting machine recorded 210 mph (338 km/h).

Its performance becomes even more remarkable when viewed in context: Mercedes was extracting extreme speed from diesel technology at a time when the fuel was associated primarily with economy, durability and commercial vehicles.

6. 1988 Peugeot Oxia — 217 mph (349.2 km/h)

Engine: 2.85-liter twin-turbocharged V6

The Oxia was Peugeot showing the world what it could build when practicality was no longer the priority.

Its mid-mounted 2.85-liter twin-turbo V6 was combined with all-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, giving the car a technological specification that wouldn't have looked out of place on a supercar decades later.

But Peugeot didn't stop at displaying it.

The functioning Oxia was subjected to high-speed testing and recorded 217 mph (349.2 km/h).

That made the sleek French concept one of the fastest functioning prototypes of its era—and one of Peugeot's most extraordinary creations.

5. 2005 Maybach Exelero — 218.4 mph (351.5 km/h)

Engine: 5.9-liter twin-turbocharged V12

At more than 19 feet long, the Maybach Exelero doesn't look like something that should be capable of more than 200 mph.

It was.

The enormous one-off coupe was developed in collaboration with tire manufacturer Fulda, which needed an exceptionally powerful vehicle capable of testing high-performance tires at extreme speeds.

Under the hood sat a 5.9-liter twin-turbocharged V12, producing roughly 690 horsepower and an enormous amount of torque.

Former racing driver Klaus Ludwig subsequently drove the Exelero to 218.4 mph (351.5 km/h).

The result made the Exelero more than one of the wildest luxury concepts of the 2000s—it proved the giant coupe could deliver the performance its appearance suggested.

4. 2001 Volkswagen W12 Nardò — 221.8 mph (357 km/h)

Engine: 6.0-liter naturally aspirated W12

Volkswagen building a 220-mph supercar sounds strange today. At the turn of the millennium, however, VW was eager to demonstrate just how far its engineering capabilities could stretch.

The W12 concept centered around Volkswagen's unusual 6.0-liter W12 engine, mounted in a purpose-built supercar chassis.

The W12 Nardò wasn't simply created for motor-show attention. Volkswagen subjected the car to serious high-speed and endurance testing at Italy's Nardò test track, and the machine recorded 221.8 mph (357 km/h) in the figures used for our ranking.

Its endurance accomplishments were arguably even more impressive. Volkswagen's W12 program demonstrated that the company's unconventional engine architecture could survive sustained operation at enormous speeds.

3. 1980 Volkswagen ARVW — 224.9 mph (362.1 km/h)

Engine: 2.4-liter turbocharged diesel inline-six

The Volkswagen ARVW might have the most ridiculous power-to-speed relationship on this entire list.

ARVW stood for Aerodynamic Research Volkswagen, and that name explains the car's mission. Volkswagen wanted to investigate how extreme aerodynamic efficiency could reduce the amount of power required to achieve enormous speeds.

The answer was remarkable.

Powered by a comparatively modest 2.4-liter turbocharged diesel inline-six, the needle-shaped experimental vehicle recorded 224.9 mph (362.1 km/h).

Rather than overcoming the air with gigantic horsepower, Volkswagen concentrated on slipping through it as efficiently as possible.

2. 1979 Mercedes-Benz C111-IV — 251 mph (403.9 km/h)

Engine: 4.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8

Mercedes wasn't finished after the C111-III.

For the C111-IV, the company took the basic high-speed philosophy behind the program and turned everything up dramatically. The diesel engine was gone, replaced by a 4.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8.

The body became even more extreme. Huge aerodynamic appendages and an ultra-low profile transformed the C111 into something that looked built specifically to attack a stopwatch.

Because it was.

In 1979, the C111-IV recorded 251 mph (403.9 km/h).

Breaking through 400 km/h was an extraordinary achievement at the end of the 1970s—and it makes the C111-IV one of the most remarkable experimental Mercedes vehicles ever constructed.

Yet it still isn't number one.

1. 1987 Oldsmobile Aerotech — 267.9 mph (431.1 km/h)

Engine: Turbocharged Oldsmobile Quad 4 inline-four

The fastest car in our ranking isn't powered by a V12.

It isn't even powered by a V8.

The Oldsmobile Aerotech used a highly developed version of the company's Quad 4 four-cylinder, wrapped inside an extraordinarily slippery body created to explore the limits of aerodynamics and engine performance.

And Oldsmobile handed it to one of America's greatest racing drivers: A.J. Foyt.

The Aerotech program produced several different high-speed figures depending on the car, configuration and type of run. Contemporary accounts document the long-tail Aerotech averaging 267.399 mph (430.337 km/h) over two flying-mile runs, while another documented run has been reported at approximately 267.9 mph (431.1 km/h).

Our ranking uses the latter 267.9 mph (431.1 km/h) figure shown in the Story Cars graphic.

Either way, the accomplishment was extraordinary. Oldsmobile had built a four-cylinder experimental car capable of traveling comfortably beyond 250 mph in 1987.

Claimed Speed vs. Proven Speed

That's what makes this list different.

Concept-car history is filled with spectacular numbers that never had to survive contact with an actual test track. A manufacturer could calculate a theoretical maximum based on gearing, aerodynamics and horsepower and announce that number alongside the concept.

The Ford GT90 is the perfect example. Its famous top-speed claim has been reported as high as 253 mph, which would put it near the very top of this ranking. But Ford never conducted an official maximum-speed test. The version provided to journalists was substantially detuned and limited to around 40 mph.

Putting the GT90 ahead of cars that actually traveled beyond 200 or even 250 mph would therefore be comparing a projection with an achievement.

That's why it isn't here.

The cars on this list did something more interesting than generate an impressive number on paper: they went out and proved how fast they could go.

Which forgotten concept or experimental car deserves to be added to the list next?