Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren captures London Land Speed Record
Weekly British automotive mag Autocar recently shut down the London City Airport because they wanted to find out what car was the fastest in London. Amidst a field that included hometown hero Bentley's Continental Flying Spur, as well as a Ford GT (it lost to the British-built SLR by nary 1.4 mph, fix!), Corvette Z06, Shelby Daytona Cobra, Porsche 911 Turbo, BMW M6, Alpina B5, and Vauxhall Maloo, the SLR McLaren was able to post the fastest time of 175.7 mph on the one-mile long airport runway. No word on how fast the bike in picture went, though.
The record attempt marks the fastest a car has ever been driven legally in London and will be submitted to the Guiness Book of World Records. Here are the final trap speeds of the other contestants.
Mercedes McLaren SLR - 175.7 mph
Ford GT - 174.3 mph
Corvette Z06 - 167.0 mph
Porsche Turbo - 162.6 mph
BMW M6 - 162.5 mph
Shelby Daytona Cobra - 159.7 mph
Alpina B5 - 155.4 mph
Bentley Flying Spur - 157.4 mph
Vauxhall Maloo - 160.8 mph
Later tonight, I will be attempting the Cleveland, Ohio Land Speed Record in my 1999 Oldsmobile Alero on I-90 between mile markers 150 and 151. Wish me luck!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
alero represent! 8:13PM (7/17/2006)
Awesome Alero reference.
Good showing by the Vette, although I have to figure a Maloo is even cheaper and thus bests the Vette on price/performance.
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chewy 8:24PM (7/17/2006)
What vehicle will you be using? Don't kill yourself/others along the way.
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Rob 8:51PM (7/17/2006)
No word on the motorcycle because it probably stomped the McLaren.
Other sportbikers like myself can appreciate that our (much) cheaper rockets can beat a McLaren.... :)
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Luis Longo 9:02PM (7/17/2006)
WHATS THE 4TH CAR IN THE LEFT?
Looks like a boosted last gen 3 series.
Wheres the Enzo?
Wheres the Veyron?
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cowboy bob 9:15PM (7/17/2006)
My question would be what car was the fastest for the buck. Really, compute the speed per dollar, and find out who had the cheapest speed. Anyone have THE answer, and not a lot of stuff about their favorite? Me? Hell, I'm just trying not to miss a payment on my pick-up.
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Corey 9:16PM (7/17/2006)
Alpina B5. Above pic with hi-res goodness:
http://www.newspress.co.uk/DAILY_LINKS/arc_jul_2006/170706aut.jpg
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Cowboy Bob's uncle 9:33PM (7/17/2006)
"5. My question would be what car was the fastest for the buck. Really, compute the speed per dollar, and find out who had the cheapest speed. Anyone have THE answer, and not a lot of stuff about their favorite? Me? Hell, I'm just trying not to miss a payment on my pick-up."
Cowboy Bob,
if you were one of those folks who would be buying a car like slr you wouldnt be asking such stupid question because money would not be an object. But if you insist, I would say that Mazda miata would be just right for you.
lol
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Dave 9:47PM (7/17/2006)
The bike is a Kawasaki ZX-14, it's top speed is 186 mph (300 kph), electronically limited. I have no idea if it can get up there in one mile though...
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ik 9:56PM (7/17/2006)
I think the value vs. price ratio is more important than the speed vs. price. It doesn't matter what the top speed of a car is because you will never go that fast.
I think that the corvette has the highest value to price ratio.
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alero represent! 10:17PM (7/17/2006)
I doubt the cheapest speed is even on the list. The regular Corvette costs 3/4 what the Z06 does and it'll reach more than 130 in this test, so it would best the Z06 here.
I think cheapest speed is a pretty dumb measure to buy a car by. It's fun to think about, but how often are you going to be at top speed anyway? If not often, why measure by this? If often, your fuel bill will be so large that saving a few K on the car won't help.
Where's the Enzo? Veyron? They tested the cars they could get. British car mags are a lot more likely to test cars they borrow off people (Nick Mason) than from car companies. I don't know why they do this, but it helps somewhat keep them from being beholden to the car companies. So likely no Enzo or Veyron was within easy reach that day.
I personally would have rather seen an 80s/early 90s supercar in there to test against. How does the McLaren F1 measure up now?
I wish we had the Maloo/Ute here. Lutz said he'd bring it but the bean counters won't let him. Damn bean counters.
I love how they parked the car in the back there and it's not obvious it is an El Camino-alike.
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KML 10:59PM (7/17/2006)
Saw an SLR cruising around here in Redmond the other day...definitely not as impressive as I thought it would be. Not nearly the road presence of a murc or ford gt.
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Robert 11:25PM (7/17/2006)
I know all these are amazing numbers but more thing to note is that even though the sixth car only went 160 mph, that car also hasn't been produced since 1965. So that car was going that fast 41 years ago when cars that could go that fast were far and few between.
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Dan 11:29PM (7/17/2006)
So how fast did the ZX-14 go?
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PJ 11:29PM (7/17/2006)
Cowboy Bob's question wasn't stupid. Lighten up.
If you're counting brand-new mass-production cars, and using Car & Driver's top speed figures, I think your answer would definitely be the Corvette--186 MPH for $43,690.
For acceleration, though, I think it'd probably be one of those Cobra replicars. A Factory Five Mark II with a lightly-modded 5.0-liter Mustang V8 did 0-60 in 3.6 seconds in another C&D test. Total cost, including the mods, was said to be under $33,000.
Or you could just buy a $12,000 sportbike and blow 'em both away.
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Curt Kicklighter 12:16AM (7/18/2006)
Yeah, what about the bike? Did they run it? Check here http://videos.streetfire.net/video/7F9D781A-BB9F-4CCB-8274-A2FF38FFE441.htm for video of a basically stock ZX14 that ran the 1/4 mile in 9.17 at 153mph. I'm pretty sure the $11,000.00 bike put the hurt on the supercars.
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chewy 1:31AM (7/18/2006)
Here is another great 1 mile "race"
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=2572
The motorcytle didn't win because it had too much drag.
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Mad Cow 7:36AM (7/18/2006)
Thanks for that link, chewy, I find it much more interesting then the London speed record. For one, in London they started with a rolling start, and then didn't even come close to some of the cars from a standing start in the Road and Track test. I love the SLR, but I would love to see results from the Veyron more. Blue Devil anyone?
And I think the fastest "legal" driving is a joke, just because they were able to drive on a runway, doesn't put it in the same class as driving on the motorway. I'm sure there were some speeds in the London Gran Prix that were higher, and technically that was "legal", too.
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G. Snyder 8:13AM (7/18/2006)
While motorcylces are very fast asd have tremendous power to weight, powerful sports cars end up toping them at the high end due to drag. Even the sexiest sport bike is not very aerodynamic.
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spdracerut 9:13AM (7/18/2006)
In the R&T standing mile test, the MV Agusta motorcycle only lost to highly modified cars (twin turbo Viper, twin turbo Saleen S7) and actual race cars. Also, the MV Agusta is not the fastest straightline bike there is. The ZX14 puts down around 165whp whereas the MV is rated at 174 at the crank. Granted, the ZX14 weighs more, but it has already run the 1/4 in the 9's at over 150mph. I think the bike would have enough to top out this particular group of cars.
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Nicko 10:22AM (7/18/2006)
The Z06 is an incredible car for the money, no one can argue that.
Nice to see the Maloo "ute" getting on the list! It would be awesome if they brought that to the US. Everyone has a big ass truck over here [which imo is not needed] I think the Maloo would sell really well.
And yeah drag tends to hold bikes back at 150+ I know of a 3000GT VR4 [10 sec car] that reeled in a Busa, the VR4 started to reel the bike in at 150-160, it was almost even at 190 when they let off.
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