When the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles was considering which cars to put into its newest exhibit World's Fastest: A Timeline of Record Setting Automobiles, it had to set some ground rules.

The year is 2019. The Bugatti Chiron Supersport 300+ has just hit 304.772 mph (490.484 km/h) on a test track in Germany. The world looks on in awe and disbelief, wondering if there will ever be a ...