World's Fastest Regular Production 4 Seaters

I've seen this term thrown out a lot when the 456 first came out. It got me thinking, what is the history of this and who is the reigning champ?

I don't claim to have all the info, so that's partly why I am posting here. This is what I came up with:

Car
#7) Ferrari 456 1992-2002 192 mph
#6) Bentley Continental GT 2003 198 mph
#5) Aston-Martin Vanquish S 2004-2006 200+ mph
#4) Bentley Continental GT Speed 2007-2008 202 mph
#3) Bentley Continental SuperSports First Gen 2009-2010 204 mph
#2) Ferrari FF 2011-2016 208mph
#1) Bentley Continental SuperSports 2nd Gen 2017-Present 209 mph

In the spirit of academic rigor and intellectual honestly, I invite examination, challenges, and criticism.

Keep in mind the criteria I followed is this

1) Manufacturer Claimed Top Speed (please link a source, if you challenge my ranking)
2) Regular production car (can't be a secondary 'tuner' or post market modification/enhancement - that would be a slippery slope indeed)
3) Of course, 4 seats out of the factory

Hope you enjoy this.

 

Thanks for chiming in, I had that in my research. However considering the 612 was out from model year 2004-2011, the Vantage, two Bentley, and FF slightly beat it during that time frame, hence the exclusion.

Cheers

 

I have no doubt in terms of 0-60 & 1/4 (probably 1/2 mile too) the P100d will blow every other 4+ seater out of the water. However, my parameters are strictly stock. Not knocking Teslas either, my brother has an S and X, deposit down for roadster, and my dad has a 3. My family is a big fan. So while the Teslas do offer otherworldly performance, they are very far from this list.

****

We all know speed = money + time + (- reliability), throw after market mods in the mix and this will go forever until we're talking about rockets.

It's a slippery slope that I don't want to slide down.

 

Oh and one errata, I did not limit my research to 4 seaters, 5,6, etc, were also considered.

 

Thanks Eric for your reply! Could you give me the year, I will check it out!! Thanks

 

This is a good point, i did see the flying spur, but top speeds are superceded by the Continental GTs. My list just qualifies 4+ seats, as for the size of said seats, that was yet another slippery slope I am purposely avoiding.

As for the Vantage, I suspect it is the 2 seat config, but since it was available in 2+2, added it in anyways as I saw no qualifier from Aston Martins published claims.

 

HI Eric,

I have no cause to doubt your claim, on the contrary, I fully believe you. I assume however this is due to circumvention of the electronic limiter?

I see on Mercedes-Benz website top speed of an S65 is 155 and 186 for sedan and coupe respectively.

Both of these facts stated, I'm hoping you can have someeither manufacturer or a major 3rd party publication with published top speeds of S63/S65 with said limiters defeated? I could not find any other then the youtube videos you mention which I am purposely avoiding to avoid any externality in conditions (weather, condition, mods, etc)

Cheers and kind regards.

 

I hope folks do not find this post conceded. I"m a nerd when it comes to these cars, so I enjoy looking at these things (reminds me of folks that like to ponder over baseball stats)

I would not begin to even think of trying to approach any of these speeds on an ordinary highway. Only very controlled conditions would I ever even imagine to attempt to contact these speeds.

I've also noticed the 'top speed' stat seems to be held in higher esteem generally more so in Europe than the USA. I've always seen top speed as a stat that does not give you any assurance of performance because you plan to go that fast; but more so that if you know what an engine is capable of at the 'max,' one theoretically can be assured at 1/2 or 1/4 level - said unstressed engine output would be more 'capable' vs. a car that cannot reach those top speeds.

I also can see that the historical 4+ seat qualifier can be an automatic milquetoast asterisk, hardly worth the examination in itself.

 

Thank you very much! This is cool. Do you know of any magazine or Mercedes Benz source that has electronic limiter removed stats?

Cheers

 

Appreciate all the replies, I am grateful for the comments and points of view.

This is what I came up with for a unofficial definitive list from 1990-2019 if you don't count the 'champ' methodology I used in the first post.


Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I think this follows what I've historically seen with my 'magazine' racing. It seems there are areas in Europe that are more favorable for higher speed touring. Of course here in the states, there are tons of roads as well, but I don't know if it's cultural thing or perhaps stricter law enforcement, it seems to be less emphasized based on what I see.

 

I totally agree, this is all just academic and anecdotal (although I'm trying to be somewhat official), I would be a fool to regularly attempt to even approach these speeds on public roads.

 

Thanks Jaguar, I added a list above, I only saw one stat for the Charger, so I would put the Challenger in that zone as well. I agree 100% top speed is just a number with minimal bearing in the real world, when I acquired the 456M, the claim I saw thrown judiciously was "It is the fastest 4 seater in the world (at the time)" - so I was curious to see what the landscape was and how that title had evolved over time. Hope you found this entertaining and just a fun exercise.