What's the fastest car you've experienced?

[Haymansafc]

This conversation come up in work the other day (for reasons I'll explain at the end) and I thought I'd share it here and ask our fellow members, especially giving Driveclub hasn't long been released also. What is the fastest car that you've either driven or experienced as a passenger? I'm not talking about actual speeds done (no need to incriminate yourself!) just the actual car will do...!

I've not had a huge amount of highlights to be honest, even though I'm into cars and enthusiastic about them. The first properly quick cars that I've driven would have been in around 2006 when I was invited by my local Vauxhall dealer to Oulton Park for a 'VXR race experience day'. For those outside of the UK and don't know who they are, Vauxhall is a division of General Motors. 'VXR' is what they call their fastest models and Oulton Park is a race track which is about 20 miles from where I live. Over the course of the day, I was fortunate enough to race almost their entire VXR line up. Back then, the Corsa didn't have a VXR model (that come about six-twelve months after this event), but I drove the Mervia, Astra, Vectra and Monaro VXR models. A very surreal day and an experience I'll never forget.

From there in around late 2008/early 2009, at work, I managed to blag three or four drives around in the sales director's then new Audi A4 S-Line 3.0TDi Quattro. That has to be about the finest diesels I've ever driven to date. A real masterpiece in engineering and the acceleration in second and third gear was truly staggering. Since this time they've revised this engine and Bi-Turbo'ed it! It didn't need any more power, believe me! I'm determined to experience one of these one day...

Next up was in March last year, again in work after I'd changed jobs from the above. I get on well with both directors in the company and this particular one had just picked up a brand new Mercedes Benz C63 AMG Coupe in white. It was a matter of four days out when he offered to take me out for a spin in it. What an animal that is... I've always had a soft spot for AMG tuned Mercs simply for the noise they make. You don't need a stereo in this range and the C63 has one of the nicest soundtracks I've ever heard from it's 6.3 V8. It was a real privilage to even be a passenger in this. Very, very impressive.

The latest will probably be quite hard to believe and I'll understand if you have doubts. The other director is seriously into his sports cars - and I mean seriously. Lets just say a lot of this company's profits clearly goes into his love for sports cars. He's onto his third in the four years I've worked there. Earlier on this year I was treated to a spin out in his car... a McLaren MP4 12C Spyder. Yes, you read that right. In black, with black alloys. All that I can say about this is that I've never, ever felt acceleration like what that can produce. It actually blurs your vision and it wasn't even in it's full fat 'track' mode. He even dropped down the electric rear window behind our heads so the engine could be heard more... Nice touch! We decided against dropping the roof simply because it was freezing cold outside! The drive was only to a petrol station about five miles up the road and of course the same back, but this has to be one of my automotive highlights to date. The gull-wing doors are a bit of a faff when you're climbing in and out to be honest (I was virtually on my hands and knees getting out), but looked the business when raised! I couldn't stop smiling for around a day after that ride out... I highly doubt I'll experience anything like that again.

Last week he replaced it - and hence this conversation come up in work. He's replaced it with the new McLaren 650S Spyder - effectively the replacement for the MP4 12C. It's in dark grey. Nope...I've not experienced this one yet but I've already dropped a hint...!

So, what's the fastest car you've experienced? Or the fastest few cars, rather. Again, not to exclude our younger members, even if it's only as a passenger. It still counts!

 

[drunkchiksrEZ]

The fastest car I've driven and ridden as a passenger in would have to be my friends dads 2013 Nissan GT-R! So damn sexy!! I would love to own one or a 1999 Skyline R34 GT-R. (dream car)

 

[khristato]

I'm gonna sound like a noob saying saying a 2.6l diesel mercedes. To be fair it pulls like a fuckin train but it's still not all that quick. We also used to have a SL320 up our way but it never left the driveway at all so I've not a clue what it's like.

 

[Alex_68]

Alfa Romeo 166, 3.0v6
Quite an old car but the fastest of the serie. I could push it up to 220 kms/h (yeah I was younger and had no kids :grin )

-Edit- I also jumped on a Lamborghini once, but it was parked in one exhibition booth... lol.

 

[Haymansafc]

I'd love to experience a Nissan Skyline or even the GT-R (the latter sounds very nice when being pushed through the rev range). Quick Nissan's have always alluded me so far. The quickest Nissan I've experienced, as a passenger, is a late 1998 Primera 2.0. Not exactly a 'highlight'! At the time it was brand new and owned by a now sadly deceased relative of mine - well, husband of a relative. He had it for about four years before downsizing.

When I first passed my test in 2002, at work we had a small fleet of then brand new Ford Mondeo's. They were amongst the last to be fitted with the 2.0 TDDi diesels. I think they were only the standard 110bhp versions (there was a higher output version). Regardless of this though, I honestly thought they went like stink. The low down grunt they had really did push your head into the head restraint. I had a few 'interesting' moments in these Mondeos! However, at the time I did have my first car - a 1999 Ford Ka, so near enough anything I driven felt at least half as quick again...! I really enjoyed driving them. Ford changed them to TDCi diesels and sadly when we updated our fleet for replacement models in around mid 2005, they all come with the later diesel. What a let down... In my opinion at least, they sounded notably lumpier at low speeds and certainly didn’t have the same low-down turbo 'punch' the earlier engines had. You had to rev them much harder to get close to the same level of grunt. I never got on with them... They were always temperamental and limped back to the main dealer with warranty claims too... We never had such problems with the earlier TDDi engines.

My current car uses a 150bhp 2.0 diesel, coupled together with a six speed DSG auto gearbox. Being a reasonably small family car, the power to weight ratio is impressive. Surprisingly it doesn't feel anything special up to about 15mph (borderline mediocre, actually - no quicker than my old car which was larger and had 10bhp less ), but from there up until about 50/55mph, not much would keep up with it unless you had some sort of notable fast hatchback or indeed, a genuine sports car. It gives a notable shove...!