Five of the highest-revving road cars ever built
Gordon Murray’s long-awaited T.50 supercar (that’s it, above) features a 3.9-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine from Cosworth, and it will rev right up to 12,100rpm. That makes it the highest-revving production car ever made and it is precisely at this point that your ears might as well give up.
Or should they? Because while it’s now the highest-revving production car ever made, there are other road cars that have really, really, ridiculously high rev limits. We like really, really, ridiculously high rev limits here at TG because NOISE.
Here then, are five more road-going production cars with – you guessed it – high rev limits. There are others of course, this is a mere starter. Pile in below with your favourites.
Honda S2000 – 9,000rpm
Yep, we’re into the 9k club already, with the fantastic Honda S2000 and its ridiculous 2.0-litre VTEC that revved sky high. Later iterations would lower the rev limit substantially, but still, the early S2000 honoured its S800 predecessor magnificently.
Lexus LFA – 9,000rpm
Hello, old friend, and welcome back. You don’t need reminding that the LFA’s bespoke 4.8-litre V10 produced 553bhp, was made from aluminium, magnesium and titanium alloys and was as light as a V6.
You also don’t need reminding that it revved to 9,000rpm and made a noise that’d wake the dead. Perfection.
Porsche 918 Spyder – 9,150rpm
Really quite good, the Porsche. TG’s Holy Trinity test confirmed that much. Ears confirmed the 918 Spyder’s 4.6-litre V8 (producing 612bhp) sounded positively nuts. It remains a race engine, essentially: fancy stuff like dry-sump lubrication, carbonfibre air induction, lightweight rods and so on.
Also, top-mounted exhaust pipes. They’re just cool.
LaFerrari – 9,250rpm
The car that emerged as the winner in aforementioned Holy Trinity test was this, the superlative LaFerrari. Like Murray’s T.50, this car boasts a V12. Unlike Murray’s T.50, this one’s a 6.3-litre.
Ariel Atom V8 - 10,600rpm
Most notable about the old Atom V8 isn’t its ridiculous acceleration nor power-to-weight ratio (though both of those things are incredible), but its ability to rearrange your face into incredibly amusing shapes. Oh, and the fact it revs to 10,600rpm.
That’s thanks to a pair of Suzuki Hayabusa bike engines, merged to create a 3.0-litre V8 with 500bhp and 385Nm of torque. Perhaps not the cheapest nor most precise plastic surgeon, but definitely the most comical.
