We all know Sonic is fast. But how fast is fast by the hedgehog's standards? Not fast enough to win the race against Mario, clearly. Sorry, I know it's still too soon.


The research scientists over at The Escapist's Game Theory video series put Sonic's famed running abilities under the microscope and came up with some surprising results. According to their number-crunching, the top speed Sonic has attained so far in his career is 80 meters per second, or 179 miles per hour:


For a point of reference here, I asked Michael Ballaban from our sister site Jalopnik how Sonic's top speed compares to modern auto standards. He told me that Sonic is about as fast as a Porsche 911 Carrera. Plenty of high-end Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches can get above 200 MPH at this point.

And when it comes to actually breaking the sound barrier like Sega has claimed Sonic can do? Well, the Thrust SCC made history back in 1997 when it clocked in at 763 MPH.

Wait a minute: a real-life automobile can go faster than a make-believe video game character? I don't know what to believe in anymore.

via BuzzFeed