It's 2021 and supercars are capable of well in excess of 200 mph. Bugatti has hit the 300-mph mark with a version of the Chiron and at least three carmakers, including Koenigsegg, Hennessey, and SSC, are planning to do record runs soon. Now an achievable goal, 300 mph was the stuff of dreams in the 1980s, when automakers were still racing to hit 200 mph. I'm obviously talking about road-legal production cars, because the land speed record had already exceeded 200 mph in 1927. The Ferrari F40 and Jaguar XJ220 were among the first production cars to hit 200 mph and Top Gear brought them together to find out "which is the ultimate 200-mph pioneer."

The Ferrari F40 was introduced in 1987 as a successor to the 288 GTO, but it was also designed to celebrate the company's 40th anniversary. It's famous for being the Ferrari personally approved by Enzo Ferrari and for surpassing Maranello's production targes by more than three times despite a massively expensive sticker. Powered by a twin-turbo, 2.9-liter V-8 engine, the F40 came 471 horsepower and 426 pound-feet of torque on tap. It needed 4.2 seconds to hit 60 mph, which was outstanding at the time, and Ferrari claimed it could reach a top speed of 201 mph. There is some debate that the F40 was actually capable to do that since independent tests done outside Italy revealed top speeds of 197 to 199 mph, but the F40 is generally recognized as the first production car to hit the magical 200-mph mark.

Unlike the F40, the Jaguar XJ220 scored a Guinness-recognized world record. The British supercar hit a top speed of 212 mph, but it happened in 1991, four years after Ferrari introduced the F40. The XJ220 also packed a twin-turbo engine, but in the form of a 3.5-liter V-6. It was also much more powerful than the F40 at 542 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque, and reached 60 mph from a standing start in just 3.6 seconds. Despite these impressive figures, the XJ220 wasn't as successor as the F40, with Jaguar selling only 282 units from 1992 to 1994.

Before you pick a favorite, you should know that none of the supercars above were actually the first to hit 200 mph. This trophee goes to the RUF CTR "Yellowbird." Based on the first-generation 911 Carrera 3.2, the CTR broke cover in 1987 before the F40 did and was tested to a top speed of 213 mph. The 463-horsepower and 408-pound-foot coupe improved RUF's previous 190-mph benchmark, but also surpassed the 198-mph record that Porsche set in 1986 with the 959. RUF's record was a also just a tad higher than Jaguar's and stood as the official benchmark until McLaren hit 221 mph with the F1 in 1993.

But enough talk, it's time to watch the Ferrari F40 and Jaguar XJ220 being driven by the very lucky Chris Harris and Freddie Fintoff.