Why the fastest car in the history of humanity is a Tesla

Tesla is dominating the global drag-race circuit, but the American carmaker is also shooting for the stars with the Tesla Roadster which has been labeled the fastest car in history.

Full transparency: you won’t be seeing it on the track anytime soon.

The Tesla Roadster in question was launched into space in 2018 by a Falcon Heavy rocket and is still drifting through space.

The convertible is currently approximately 239 million miles from Earth, moving at nearly 4,000 mph.

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This Tesla Roadster is the world’s fastest car

The EV orbits the Sun and occasionally drifts nearer Earth and Mars.

‘Starman’ isn’t actually in the proverbial driving seat, however.

A tribute to the late David Bowie, he is in fact a mannequin in a spacesuit, who will remain seated inside forever.

The convertible is approximately 239 million miles from Earth, moving at nearly 4,000 mph.

The vehicle has traveled far enough to drive all of the world’s roads 86.4 times at the time of writing and completed about 4.6 orbits around the Sun.

With a mileage like that, the vehicle is suspected to have sustained damage from radiation and micrometeoroids.

Starman won’t be bored on his road trip.

If the battery was still working, Starman has listened to ‘Space Oddity’ 694,345 times since he launched in one ear, and to ‘Is there Life On Mars?’ 935,601 times in his other ear.

And the stereo has played Douglass Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a total of 10,484 times.

The fastest car on Earth

The Tesla Roadster has a superlative accolade due to zero friction or resistance to slow it down in space.

This allows the EV to maintain extremely high velocities indefinitely.

Back on Earth with more grounded speeds, however, the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut holds the title of ‘fastest car in the world’ – on paper.

It’s claimed to be capable of hitting over 310mph (499km/h) – however, it’s only done this on a computer via static testing and not on a track yet.

Meanwhile, the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 smashed a speed record and became the fastest US production car in late 2024.

Meanwhile, the title for the fastest EV in history belongs to the Rimac Nevera R.

The supercar can go 0-97km/h in the blink of an eye.