Chysler Me Four-Twelve: The Forgotten 248 MPH Concept

If this car would’ve been produced back in 2004, this would’ve been the fastest car in the world, and it would have kept that title until the Bugatti Veyron would have came and took that record. Just imagine if the Chrysler brand would’ve held the top speed world record. What a crazy time that would’ve been.

Chrysler making this car is like Rolls Royce making a track-car; it’s bizarre. For example, the Mercedes V12 with the 4 turbochargers made the ME Four-Twelve faster than a cat running away from a dog. It’s capable of producing 850 horsepower and 850 torques. The Chrysler ME Two-Four is just as, if not less heavy than the hypercars of today, as it only tips the scales at 2,880 pounds. So then, it has the recipe for a super fast 0-60; lightness and plenty of power. And indeed it is super fast, as it’ll do it 2.9 seconds. And yes, this car is said to go all the way up to 248 miles per hour. Bear in mind that this is all in 2004.

So What Happened?

At first, the production of the ME Four-Twelve seemed inevitable. The press release of the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve even said that the car isn’t much of a concept, but more a road- going model that will go on sale in the summer of what would have been 2005. However, there was a problem. Daimler-Benz, otherwise known as Mercedes, owned Chrysler at the time. Also at the time, the Mercedes McLaren SLR had just finished being developed, which as you could imagine, was quite costly to develop. The ME Four-Twelve would’ve been much more expensive to develop, but in turn, it would’ve been faster. Mercedes didn’t want a Chrysler to be faster than their new Mercedes McLaren SLR, nor did they want to spend money making such a car, and therefore, the car was axed. In other words, it’s fair to say you can blame Mercedes as the reason we never got a road-going ME Four-Twelve.