McLaren Speedtail Goes To NASA For High-Speed Tests

There's only so many places in the world where a supercar manufacturer can verify just how fast its new flagship can go. Some have used the Volkswagen Group's Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany. Others have had stretches of highway closed down so they could undertake their testing. But to stretch the legs on its newSpeedtail, McLaren went to the same runways they used to land the Space Shuttle.

In the final stage of its development, McLaren brought a Speedtail prototype (dubbed XP2) to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There it ran the latest member of its Ultimate Series to 250 miles per hour – not once, not twice, but more than 30 times.

Behind the wheel for the endeavor was McLaren's chief test driverKenny Brack. The Swedish racer won the Indy Racing League title in 1998 and the Indy 500 in '99, andlapped the McLaren P1 LM around the Nürburgringin just 6:43.22. So he knows a thing or two about going fast, especially in Woking's finest.

McLaren isn't the first to use the shuttle runway at NASA's facility on Cape Canaveral to test their top speed. Hennessey did the same with its Venom GT, topping 270 miles per hour. And Genovation ran its electric-converted C6 Corvette Z06 up to 200 on the same runways. But those are both American companies.