McLaren built the McLaren F1, the road car that reached 240.1 mph in 1998.
Designed by Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens, the McLaren F1 was developed by McLaren Cars, then associated with the McLaren Formula One racing organisation. Production began in 1992, and the car used a carbon-fibre monocoque, a central driving position and a naturally aspirated BMW V12 engine.
On 31 March 1998, an unrestricted McLaren F1 reached 240.1 mph, or 386.4 km/h, at Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany. That run made it the fastest production car at the time. The record is sometimes reported without noting that the car’s rev limiter had been removed for the attempt.
The F1 remained extremely exclusive: only 106 cars of all versions were built, including road cars, prototypes and racing variants. It is also easy to confuse the F1 with later McLaren supercars, such as the P1, which uses a hybrid powertrain.