Nowadays manufacturers haul their cars in specially-constructed trailers to uber-secret test facilities like Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien to verify records under strict testing conditions, with only the finest in professional race drivers at the wheel. But back in the day, things were a bit different.
Magazines like Motor, and its rival Autocar, would drive a car out to a runway or a track and simply see how fast a car could go, with nought but a scraggly journalist behind the controls. Occasionally, they’d set a record.
Let’s take a look at some of those select record holders for “World’s Fastest Production Car” over the years:
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