IN THIS FEATURE McLaren in the rearview mirror 45 years and still going strong Total update The enthusiast's dream car

Until this very moment, the title of world's fastest accelerating production car has been held by the same machine for the last 11 years. I've remembered for all this time that the £627,000 McLaren F1 scorched from rest to 60mph in 3.2sec not only because if you're a true enthusiast, this is not the sort of figure you forget, but also because I happened to be on board at the time.

But now, if an official claim can be believed, this record has been broken, not by another half-a-mill-plus ultra car, but by a funny-looking British sports car costing nearly 20 times less today than did the McLaren over a decade ago. Caterham reckons that its new, £34,000 Seven CSR260 will hit the magic mark in just 3.1sec. And, having driven it on road and track I, for one, don't doubt them.

CSR260 costs from £34,000

This little car will take your idea of fast - whatever it may be - and burn it before your eyes. It is a car to reduce Maseratis to milk floats, Porsches to push-bikes. I've been gorging myself on an orgy of supercars for most the last month, from the Ferrari F430 and BMW M6 to the Bentley Flying Spur and Maserati MC12, and I do not joke when I say that when the Caterham kicks, it does so harder than any of them, at least until speeds rise well into three figures.