21 May 2022
I have yet to find a definitive explanation; I have seen one definition, ‘a Supercar is an eye-catching factory stock car, which accelerates faster and is more expensive than at least 98% of other cars manufactured in the same year.’
As I understand it, three things are more important than anything else when defining a Supercar, namely, cost, design and performance.
Of course, not to forget the appearance and a monumental price tag. Both Supercars and Hypercars are rare beasts at the pinnacle of the manufacturer’s skill and scientific precision, all in the pursuit of undrivable speed.
‘If a necessity is something everybody needs, a luxury must be something nobody needs but many people want.’
The requirement for unusable speed, noise, discomfort, inconvenience, limited practical use and an environmentally unfriendly vehicle can’t be a necessity; therefore, it must be a luxury.
As Coco Chanel so aptly put it, ‘Luxury begins where necessity ends’. Luxury is an emotional need and not a basic need.
To put this emotional need into perspective, one of the most iconic supercars of the 1970s and ’80s, the Lamborghini Countach, reached around 180 mph. The current fastest supercar, the Devel Sixteen, which can reach a speed of 347 mph. Just think of the speeds hypercars will go in 2040. Fascinating but indeed not a necessity.
None of which helps explain the difference between Super and Hypercar.
If a Supercar accelerates faster and is more expensive than at least 98% of other cars. Would it be reasonable to assume the remaining 2% must refer to the definition of a Hypercar, ‘the most superior and high-performance cars on the market worldwide?’
Driving a Hypercar is not a requirement; it is an event.
Long live the Hypercar.