Image via Complex Original
It's incredible to look at how much quicker cars have become over the past 25 years. What was considered a supercar in the '90s could be passed by stock sports cars now. And even though the fastest cars still run on gasoline (that'll change in another 25 years), a few of the most recent beasts also incorporate electric engines.
We've found the The Quickest Production Car in Each of the Past 25 Years, based on 0-60 times. The definition of a production car is widely contested, but for our purposes, we're looking at cars produced for the general (albeit wealthy) public. Plain and simple. We don't care about the number of models. We've also disqualified cars from winning in more than one year unless they've been significantly upgraded (please do keep this in mind). So for example, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 can't win in 2006 and in 2007.
Click ahead to learn about some of the most spectacular vehicles in recent memory.
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1990 TVR Griffith
0-60 Time: 4.1 seconds
Price: $41,506
Remember TVR? You've seen the company on this site a few times, but if you can't recall the name, TVR is an independent sports car manufacturer, and in 1990 it swung in the big leagues with the Griffith, a moniker revived from the company's past. After debuting at the Birmingham auto show, 350 orders were taken—legend has it at a rate of one every eight minutes—but the 320-horsepower cars wouldn't be delivered until 1992.
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1991 Porsche Ruf 911 CTR
0-60 Time: 3.7 seconds
Price: $223,000
Nicknamed the "Yellowbird," the CTR was a super-limited Porsche made by Ruf Automobile. Only 29 were built from scratch, but Ruf also converted 911s for customers. The Ferrari Testarossa and Lamborghini Countach were more well known, but it was the twin-turbocharged flat-6 that reigned supreme. That is until the CTR2 upgraded the new 993 in 1996.
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1992 Bugatti EB110 SS
0-60 Time: 3.2 seconds
Price: $450,000
The EB110 SS made its debut exactly 110 years after the birth of Bugatti founder Ettore Bugatti. His cars were some of the most impressive of his time, but we doubt he imagined his company would go on to produce a six-figure, quad-turbo 533-horsepower V12-powered all-wheel drive supercar. Bugatti stopped making the EB110 once it was purchased by VW, but Dauer Racing GmbH continued to sell it under its own name.
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1993 Dauer Porsche 962 Le Mans
0-60 Time: 2.7 seconds
Price: $1,200,000
Dauer also got down with Porsches and made the 962 race car into one of the most badass production cars of the past 25 years. It was only made for the public as a loophole to get the 962 back in racing. The World Sportscar Championship made a new rule that all race cars had to be based off of road cars, so Dauer made it street legal, and the racing version went on to win the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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1994 McLaren F1
0-60 Time: 3.2 seconds
Price: $815,000
Car and Driver was so impressed by the McLaren F1 that it opened up its glowing review with a simple but gushing lede: "It's flying." It was the fastest supercar the magazine had ever tested, and no other car would touch it for nearly a decade. A year after the Dauer 962 won at Le Mans, the F1 took the honors for itself.
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1995 Porsche 911 Carrera
0-60 Time: 4.1 seconds
Price: $65,028
Porsche has always done a great job of giving you more than your money's worth of speed, and the 1995 Carrera was no different. Succeeding expectations, it has become commonly accepted as one of the best cars Porsche has ever made. Not bad for staying in the five-figure range.
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1996 Ferrari F50
0-60 Time: 3.7 seconds
Price: $480,000
Despite its status as Ferrari's newest model, the F50 had to make do with a non-exclusive engine. No one would mind, though, considering the 4.7-liter V12 previously appeared in the 333 SP, Ferrari's first race car in 20 years. Surprisingly, the racing version of the F50 was scrapped before it ever hit the track, but the street one was plenty quick enough.
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1997 Ameritech McLaren F1
0-60 Time: 3.4 seconds
Price: $1,131,120
Ameritech's F1 wasn't faster than the stock McLaren, but it was more expensive. That may sound crazy, but it was made less powerful and converted into a one-seater in order to become legal in the United States. Sadly, none of the seven made are left. But someone did sell an Ameritech conversion kit on eBay earlier this year.
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1998 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR
0-60 Time: 3.4 seconds
Price: $1,573,000
Similar to the Dauer 962, the CLK GTR was made by HWR into a street-legal car so it could race in the GT series. It was worth the effort, as the racing version won 17 of the 22 contests it entered. The CLK GTR also put up a W off the track, securing the Guinness Book of World Records spot for the most expensive production car ever made. To this day, it's still one of the wildest designs we've ever seen.
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1999 Hennessey Venom 650R Viper
0-60 Time: 3.3 seconds
Price: $165,450
Let's drop it back down about a milli and get back into American power. This street-legal Viper could have beaten cars competing in the IRL and Winston Cup series (NASCAR's premier name before it sold the rights to Sprint). Speaking of names, the "650" was for the horsepower of John Hennessey's freakish creation that beat the Viper GTS's 0-60 time by a full .8 second.
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2000 Saleen S7
0-60 Time: 3.9 seconds
Price: $388,500
Saleen spent years tuning cars from Ford before making an ungodly fast car of its own. With its 550hp Ford small-block V8, it was a great choice for Jim Carrey when he became Bruce Almighty. And unlike most cars on this list, the S7 was made entirely right here in America.
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2001 Lamborghini Murciélago (Tie)
0-60 Time: 3.6 seconds
Price: $270,000
The Murciélago is so rare that Kanye couldn't even lock one down for the "Mercy" video (the Lamborghini featured is a Gallardo). It was the first new model from the Italian supercar manufacturer since the Diablo debuted in 1990, and it wasn't replaced until the Aventador (which Kanye did get his hands on thanks to Kim) came around in 2011.
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2001 Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0 (Tie)
0-60 Time: 3.6 seconds
Price: $292,415
The Diablo was replaced by the Murcielago, but it still managed to be just as quick in its final year, thanks to its 543-horsepower V12 engine (up from the original Diablo's 480). With how strongly the Diablo went out, perhaps it was more fitting of the Murcielago name—from a famous bull that survived 24 sword strokes.
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2002 Ferrari Enzo
0-60 Time: 3.14 seconds
Price: $659,330
Ferrari waited to produce a truly astonishing car before giving it the name of its founder. Only 400 models were produced of the Formula One-inspired 12-cylinder Enzo, which featured a carbon fiber body, ceramic composite brakes, and computer-operated rear wing. Mixed reviews led to it being named the fourth-greatest Ferrari by Motor Trend and one of the 50 ugliest cars in the past 50 years by Bloomberg. Still, we can all agree it had a better name than its successor, the LaFerrari.
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2003 Dodge Viper SRT-10
0-60 Time: 4.0 seconds
Price: $79,995
2003 wasn't the most exciting year for new cars, but we can't hate the champion Viper SRT-10. Especially when it's priced like Spam compared to the rest of the list. A lighter, stronger version was scrapped because of cost, but at least Hennessey utilized the suspension for its Viper Venom 1000 Twin Turbo.
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2004 Koenigsegg CCR
0-60 Time: 3.2 seconds
Price: $650,000
Reaching 241 mph, the Koenigsegg CCR broke an eight-year-old Guinness World Record held by the McLaren F1 for top speed reached by a production car. Too bad the record only lasted a few months until the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 hit 253 three months later, in April 2005.
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2005 Saleen S7 Twin Turbo
0-60 Time: 2.8 seconds
Price: $555,000
The 2005 Saleen S7 came through even quicker than its predecessor with a 750 horsepower, 700-lb-ft of torque, twin-turbo V8. No one else—not Ferrari, not Maserati, not McLaren—came even close to matching that ratio. 'Merica.
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2006 Bugatti Veyron 16.4
0-60 Time: 2.6 seconds
Price: $1,700,000
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 has so much horsepower (1,001 to be exact) it has a gauge on the instrument panel just to tell you how much it's using at any given time. Even more impressive than the ludicrous 0-60 time is the Bugatti's climb past 200 mph, which takes just 24 seconds from a dead stop. And then there's also that Guinness World Record we mentioned a few slides ago.
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2007 Caparo T1
0-60 Time: 2.5 seconds
Price: $353,108
Of course the Brits had to try to compete with the French. English car manufacturer Caparo made its own 1,000-horsepower supercar, the T1. Twenty-five were supposed to be made each year, but so far Caparo, which also works in aerospace, has only made 16 total.
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2008 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
0-60 Time: 3.3 seconds
Price: $262,306
If you're unaware, the Scuderia name, which means "stable" in Italian, comes from Scuderia Ferrari, the racing division of the Cavallino Rampante. That means that any Scuderia special edition model road car is going to be faster and lighter than its base model. The 2008 F430 update added 20 horsepower and shed 221 pounds, as well as tacking on another $70,000. This pushed the 430 far past the point of an "entry-level vehicle."
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2009 GReddy GT43 GT-R
0-60 Time: 2.5 seconds
Price: $176,629
GReddy souped up the already-potent Nissan GT-R in a more extreme way than BALCO did Barry Bonds. The upgraded 4.3L V6 nearly doubled the stock GT-R's horsepower and torque to 900 and 750 lb-feet, respectively.
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2010 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport
0-60 Time: 2.46 seconds
Price: $2,700,000
The Bugatti Veyron beat its own record for top speed with the 16.4 Super Sport. Boosted to 1,183 horsepower, the Bugatti topped out at 267.8 mph, a mark only beat by the Hennessey Venom GT. And those extra 14 mph only cost another million bucks. What a deal!
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2011 Hennessey Venom GT
0-60 Time: 2.5 seconds
Price: $950,000
Hennessey took a nod from Saleen and decided to go from tuning to manufacturing its own supercars. The Venom GT got up to 270 mph at the Kennedy Space Center, but because it's registered as a modified Lotus Exige and only 11 models have been made to date, Guinness won't show the Texas manufacturer some love and give it the title.
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2012 Ariel Atom 500 V8
0-60 Time: 2.3 seconds
Price: $225,000
The Ariel Atom only puts out 500 horsepower, but this British shell of a supercar weighs just 1,200 pounds. Its 3.0L V8 engine was developed by American John Hartley (USA! USA! USA!) using two Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle engines. Reaching that insane weight did away with nearly any and all frills, but that's the price you pay for speed. The gold frame indicates its limited nature with just 25 models produced.
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2013 McLaren P1
0-60 Time: 2.6 seconds
Price: $1,150,000
Yes, you're really looking at a plug-in hybrid. And yes, an electric motor can contribute to a 900-horsepower supercar that is so sweet that Jay Leno had to be the first one to have it in America (piss off, Jerry). If you slept on how cool green cars can be until now, you'll have to wait for the next McLaren hybrid (apparently, there will be a bunch in 10 years). All 375 units of the P1 sold out last November.
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2014 Porsche 911 Turbo S
0-60 Time: 2.7 seconds
Price: $182,700
Porsche's fastest production car ever brought the company back in the quick mix after a near-20-year absence. The 3.8-liter, 552-horsepower twin-turbocharged flat six comes at a ridiculously cheap price, too—comparatively, that is. Porsche will put out an even faster car soon, but for a hell of a lot more...
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(Bonus) 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder
0-60 Time: 2.4 seconds
Price: $847,975
There's still time for something to come around and beat the 918 Spyder; we just don't see it happening. The only threat to this car—which features an 887hp V8 with two additional electric motors—is the now-confirmed track-focused P1. Which ... we're not even sure how the P1 can get even more insane.
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