If it wasn’t the new 903bhp McLaren P1 that grabbed you by the thorax last week, then it was the new Enzo – sorry, LaFerrari – that did so, boasting even more power, even more barking performance and an even more heinous price tag to go with it.
And that’s before you so much as mention Lamborghini’s latest £3 million Veneno, Koenigsegg’s £1.5 million Agera S or Audi’s proposed new hypercar, which may or may not become a production reality depending on who you talk to at VW. They all hit the headlines at Geneva.
Question is, though, do such cars have any kind of a point or meaning to them, beyond providing a means of alleviating boredom for the über-wealthy car enthusiast, or is that really all there is to them?
In most cases, I believe personally that there is a point to them, and that their existence can be justified quite easily. For several reasons.
One, in the case of the Ferrari and McLaren in particular, the technologies being pioneered in these cars will, there can be little doubt, make the cars of tomorrow safer, more efficient, faster (yes, probably) but also just better all round. And when I say the cars of tomorrow, I don’t mean the supercars of tomorrow – I mean the everyday cars in which the rest of us will mostly bumble about in.
Two, they will make the sports cars of tomorrow more affordable. What’s on the cutting edge today invariably costs a fortune to create, yes, but unless someone, somewhere ventures towards that edge and explores it, it will forever remain unattainable – and therefore way beyond expensive. But once the likes of Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren have pushed the boundaries at the extremes, everything else gets that little bit closer. And then, eventually, the man in the street will benefit.
Three, despite what some people may think, the idea of merely being 'into' exceedingly fast, obscenely expensive, deliciously loud, low and breathtakingly beautiful-looking cars is, for the most part, still fairly harmless. Some of us, in fact, still just like gawping at the things, because our very small brains are largely unaware of, and therefore mostly unperturbed by, the potential moral or geopolitical issues that they may arouse.
Four, they provide magazines like ours with some killer content. The new 950bhp Enzo may not be quite what’s required to ensure that world peace occurs any time soon, but as a car nut I can’t get enough of its 15.5sec 0-300km/h claim. And as a car journalist, I can’t wait to verify Maranello’s claims for the car, at Mach 3 on some deserted airfield in the middle of nowhere.
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Super Cars....
Day by day technologies are increasing and people love to be advanced with the changing scenario. It is seen in every sector and especially in automobile sectors. Automobile sector is one of the sectors which have seen much advancement in a few span of time. The recent change is seen that more people like the super cars. These super cars come with many features. These cars are efficient, fast, more adorable, and gives us a better mileage. The best example of a super car is Lamborghini cars.
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Improving the Breed
Manufacturers are being pushed to make cars to ever more stringent rules and regulations by governments. These hypercars are surely their way of showing imaginative solutions which will ultimately find their way down to something affordable for us mere mortals. Meanwhile there are folk who are willing and have the wherewithal to pick up the tab. Positive responses to today's and tomorrows' challenges while creating employment in the motor industry as a whole so win, win, all round.
It makes sense to them
The Ferrari is already sold out, all 500 of them, so it makes sense to the 500 who will get one, to the other 500 who would have wanted one but got there to late, and to the manufacturer, who will get the money plus the publicity and the aura that translates to the whole range. To the rest of us, we can't have one but it's great to look at, kind of like automotive p*rn.
As for the Veneno, it seems to me that Lambo is building a habit of making very limited edition, very expensive, very exotic cars based on existing tech, just to see how a new design language gets received. There is a fair bit of the Murcielago-based Reventón in the way the Aventador looks, so I would not be surprise if some language cues from the Veneno translated into future Lamborghini; if not the Gallardo replacement, then probably the Aventador replacement.