New 308mph speed record: Yangwang reckons it could have gone even faster

Marc Basseng is no stranger to breaking records. In 2007 he set the then lap record for a road-legal supercar at the Nürburgring with a 7m 27.82s time in a Pagani Zonda F. Three years later it was the same story in a racecar, this time a 6m 47.5s in a Pagani Zonda R.

A fearsomely talented GT racer, he also has several 24-hour class wins to his name, including at the Nürburgring, Daytona and Spa. At 46 years of age, he’s showing no signs of slowing down – last week he hit 308.4mph at ATP Papenburg’s high speed oval in the Yangwang U9 Xtreme, making it the fastest production car on the planet.

“It’s pretty up there,” he said when we asked him how it ranks in terms of his achievements. “A great moment, not just for me as a driver, but for the whole team, I really think we did something special.”

Marc took just three laps to beat the record, hitting 300mph on the first, 302mph on the second, and 308.4mph on his third and final attempt, finally toppling the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ (304.8mph). But astonishingly, the computer data suggests he could have had it pinned for even longer.

“Theoretically, I could have stayed on the throttle for another second and a half. Theoretically,” he tells us. Indeed, Daniel Yin, lead engineer on the project, later revealed that he still had another 250kW (335bhp) in the tank.

It’s an interesting point, because as far as high speed circuits go, ATP Papenburg is pretty small. Its straights are under 2.5 miles long, less than half that of Ehra-Lessien – where Bugatti recorded its now broken top speed in 2019. Did this hold him back?

“No, no,” he says. “The straight is more than long enough because of the acceleration. I exit the banking at 300kph (186mph), I could easily do it faster but there's no need for it, I don't want to stress the tyre too much with the lateral load.” Just FYI, said banking has a recommended maximum speed of 250kph (155mph) and is angled at 49.7 degrees.

So were the tyres a concern for him? After all, it’s not just the speeds they’ve got to contend with, it’s the heft of all those batteries too, with kerbweight standing at 2,480kg. “Not at all. In testing they could run for nine minutes at 500kph [311mph] on the drum test. Here, we were running at top speed for three to four seconds.”

Neck-breaking acceleration aside then, what’s the biggest difference between driving an internal combustion car and mad EV at these sorts of speeds?

“In this car you can absolutely focus on the driving. I don't have to look at the revs, I don't have to shift, there's no disturbance, even if you have the smoothest gearbox, you always have a pause in the power delivery.

“When you have a car that accelerates so smoothly, you can unlock the full potential. Apart from steering, the only thing I have to do is press the boost switch to unlock the full battery power, which is like going from a superfast car to a rocket.”

High praise indeed, though we suspect it wasn’t quite as straightforward as Marc makes out. Needless to say, driving a car at these kinds of speeds is fraught with dangers.

“When we were developing the car we definitely had some tricky moments with wind gusts. Around 300kph (186mph) it’s no problem, even 350kph (217mph). But beyond 400kph (249mph), the way the car behaves really changes every 10-15kph (6-9mph).”

Does he ever get tired of doing stuff like this? “No! I'm now 46 years old, I've never stopped having this passion for driving cars, I would love to race every weekend, and I really hope that this relationship with BYD continues.

“Everyone knows my favourite track is the Nordschleife, I’ve 26 victories there [in the Endurance Series], I won the 24-hour race [back in 2021], let's see if I can help them there. Maybe there's a future in motorsport too.”

For now though, it’s back to business. “Afterwards I got in my car, drove 600km (373 miles) back home and was up at 6am the next morning for the school run.”

Turns out he is human after all.