The McLaren F1 is the legend of legends and is still considered by some to be the best car ever made. It was engineered by a team of hand-picked masterminds with a focus on reduced drag, increased downforce, and mind shattering performance all wrapped up into one sexy package that effectively raised the bar for all supercars that came after it. Not only was it pleasing to look at, but the design itself was pure genius as it accommodates enough downforce that there was no need for a big, bulky spoiler or wing on struts in the rear. With a curb weight of around 2,500 pounds and a 6.1-liter, BMW, V-12 that had 627 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque, the McLaren F1 took a dominating toll on the record books in the early 1990s. And that folks, is what brings me to the topic at hand: the F1’s crazy top speed record of 240.1 mph.
To this day, the F1 is still the fastest naturally aspirated road car ever built and is still one of the most exclusive cars in the world. It’s top speed record has since been beaten, but a recently revealed video of the F1s record-breaking speed run comes to remind us of just how amazingly fast the F1 was in a time where fast didn’t come quite as easy as it does today. In the video you’re about to watch, you’ll see Le Mans winner Andy Wallace make several passes at the Ehra-Lessien proving ground, eventually pushing the F1 to the very threshold of its limits. All told the F1 actually hit 391 km, which is 242.956 mph, but because records average out two runs in opposing directions, the record was officially set at 240.1 mph.
In the video, you’ll see the in-car footage of this crazy record being set and can even hear everything Wallace had to say during the process. Once the car creeps over the 220 mph mark, you’ll finally get to see just how scary it really was for Wallace as the car was quite literally ready to take flight and even the slightest wrong move would have ended in disaster. But, that didn’t happen, and now we have the glory of sharing that experience with the man who pushed the F1 and himself to the limit. Click play and enjoy!