Photo: Ferrari - edited by autoevolution
In the olden days, the supercar realm used to be a microcosm of everything that could be called ‘elite’ in respect to the amount of technology and most of all, purpose found in the automotive industry macrocosm.
In their quest for the quickest accelerations and the fastest top speeds, with many of them derived or following in the footsteps of race cars, the first supercars have always been some of the most technologically advanced wheeled means of propulsion on the planet.
Sure, some may argue that ‘technological advancements in cars’ should only relate to the number of motorized components or the addition of features like radar or night vision on a luxury car, but I’m here to tell you that they’d be wrong.
Just to give an example from the top of my head, the ill-fated Maybach 57 and 62 were probably ages ahead of the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII in terms of gizmos and various tech features, but that obviously wasn’t enough to consider them better luxury cars.
In other words, what is arguably the most prestigious luxury carmaker on the planet didn’t need stuff like heated and cooled cupholders, 14-way powered business-class rear seats, or a massive electrochromic sunroof that was more high tech than any bespoke option offered on the Phantom VII. No, because a true luxury car is more about ostentatious design and feel than about ostentatious technology.
Getting back to how supercars have always been the epitome of the best the automotive industry has to offer regarding engineering and exotic materials, I think it would be unfair to simply consider them applied science because they’re not that either.
Well, examples like the Nissan GT-R R35 with the sci-fi ATTESA E-TS or the latest Honda/Acura NSX with its 3 electric motors accompanying a twin-turbocharged V6 might be considered applied science, but most supercars are a lot more than that.
First and foremost, we should probably try and define what a supercar actually is. What checkboxes does a car need to tick to be considered super, anyway?
Considered by many to be the first example to use the modern definition of a supercar, the Lamborghini Miura ticked most known and unknown boxes related to the automotive industry when it went on sale in the 1960s. It had a transverse-mounted V12, a solution that had never been used before on a Lamborghini or any other road car until then, for that matter.
On top of it, engineering geniuses Gian Paolo Dallara, Bob Wallace, and Paolo Stanzani had decided to effectively merge the engine with the transmission and the differential in a single casing for better weight and space distribution of components, another feature that was unheard of at the time.
With an ageless design signed by none other than Marcello Gandini and enough performance to make it the fastest production road car on the planet at the time, it’s futile to search for the needle in the haystack and pinpoint what exactly made the Miura a supercar.
Either way, most of the checkboxes ticked by the Miura have been preserved and even improved in numbers over the years, albeit not as much as they’ve done it in the last decade.
For old-school purists, the latest additions to the supercar genre aren’t necessarily good news, especially if performance and technology are now being delivered via electric motors and/or fewer than say, six cylinders. That said, people like Christian von Koenigsegg don’t seem too phased developing supercars like the Gemera, which augments its powerful three electric motors with a tiny three-cylinder engine that powers… gasp!… the front axle.
According to the traditional definition of a supercar, whatever that definition may be, the Gemera is far from looking like it has a soul, doesn’t it? An AWD vehicle whose only suck-squeeze-bang-blow generator sends power to the front, like a Citroen, could have never been imagined to wear the “supercar” moniker in the olden days, and yet nowadays it does.
What about exclusivity, you ask? Yeah, that’s another pretty large checkbox to be ticked by a high-performance sports car on its way to becoming super. Exclusivity comes in many shapes, whether we’re talking about bespoke equipment and materials, low production numbers, or hand-crafted bodies.
Again, old-school purists will argue that a car like the Ferrari SF90 Stradale isn’t as ‘super’ as its predecessors. Why, because it’s essentially an F8 Tributo with a different design and some electric motors sprinkled over the tuned V8 engine from its lesser brother. Don’t laugh condescendingly, I heard a lot of people who think of it that way!
But using that horribly wrong train of thought, isn’t the F8 Tributo just a revamped Ferrari 488? And isn’t the 488 just a redesigned 458 Italia with a twin-turbocharged V8 instead of a naturally aspirated one? Does any of these cars deserve to be called less ‘super’ than their Prancing Horse predecessors? I think not.
To those people I can only give them the 288 GTO, an ‘old-school’ supercar from the golden age of Ferrari, when Enzo was still alive and (sometimes literally) kicking. Because as many of those purists should know, the 288 GTO was essentially a heavily modified 308 GTB, a so-called ‘entry-level’ Ferrari. That aspect didn’t make it less exclusive in any way, shape, or form.
Arguably, we’ve established that the type of propulsion isn’t that important in defining a supercar, nor is its exclusivity or the number of cylinders its powertrain has. Heck, the original Ferrari Testa Rossa (400 TR) was powered by a puny 2.0-liter four-cylinder!
The road to emission-free supercars has been a long one, but it has been somewhat recently paved with extraordinary go-fast machines like the hybrid hypercar trio known as the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari. All three were both greener and quicker than any of their predecessors.
More and more electrified supercars, hypercars, and even Koenigsegg’s megacars are transitioning toward a lower-emission future, and it looks like electric-powered mobility is here to stay. So no, green supercars will not ruin anything. Except maybe for their status-quo.
Sure, some may argue that ‘technological advancements in cars’ should only relate to the number of motorized components or the addition of features like radar or night vision on a luxury car, but I’m here to tell you that they’d be wrong.
Just to give an example from the top of my head, the ill-fated Maybach 57 and 62 were probably ages ahead of the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII in terms of gizmos and various tech features, but that obviously wasn’t enough to consider them better luxury cars.
In other words, what is arguably the most prestigious luxury carmaker on the planet didn’t need stuff like heated and cooled cupholders, 14-way powered business-class rear seats, or a massive electrochromic sunroof that was more high tech than any bespoke option offered on the Phantom VII. No, because a true luxury car is more about ostentatious design and feel than about ostentatious technology.
Getting back to how supercars have always been the epitome of the best the automotive industry has to offer regarding engineering and exotic materials, I think it would be unfair to simply consider them applied science because they’re not that either.
Well, examples like the Nissan GT-R R35 with the sci-fi ATTESA E-TS or the latest Honda/Acura NSX with its 3 electric motors accompanying a twin-turbocharged V6 might be considered applied science, but most supercars are a lot more than that.
First and foremost, we should probably try and define what a supercar actually is. What checkboxes does a car need to tick to be considered super, anyway?
Considered by many to be the first example to use the modern definition of a supercar, the Lamborghini Miura ticked most known and unknown boxes related to the automotive industry when it went on sale in the 1960s. It had a transverse-mounted V12, a solution that had never been used before on a Lamborghini or any other road car until then, for that matter.
On top of it, engineering geniuses Gian Paolo Dallara, Bob Wallace, and Paolo Stanzani had decided to effectively merge the engine with the transmission and the differential in a single casing for better weight and space distribution of components, another feature that was unheard of at the time.
With an ageless design signed by none other than Marcello Gandini and enough performance to make it the fastest production road car on the planet at the time, it’s futile to search for the needle in the haystack and pinpoint what exactly made the Miura a supercar.
Either way, most of the checkboxes ticked by the Miura have been preserved and even improved in numbers over the years, albeit not as much as they’ve done it in the last decade.
For old-school purists, the latest additions to the supercar genre aren’t necessarily good news, especially if performance and technology are now being delivered via electric motors and/or fewer than say, six cylinders. That said, people like Christian von Koenigsegg don’t seem too phased developing supercars like the Gemera, which augments its powerful three electric motors with a tiny three-cylinder engine that powers… gasp!… the front axle.
According to the traditional definition of a supercar, whatever that definition may be, the Gemera is far from looking like it has a soul, doesn’t it? An AWD vehicle whose only suck-squeeze-bang-blow generator sends power to the front, like a Citroen, could have never been imagined to wear the “supercar” moniker in the olden days, and yet nowadays it does.
What about exclusivity, you ask? Yeah, that’s another pretty large checkbox to be ticked by a high-performance sports car on its way to becoming super. Exclusivity comes in many shapes, whether we’re talking about bespoke equipment and materials, low production numbers, or hand-crafted bodies.
Again, old-school purists will argue that a car like the Ferrari SF90 Stradale isn’t as ‘super’ as its predecessors. Why, because it’s essentially an F8 Tributo with a different design and some electric motors sprinkled over the tuned V8 engine from its lesser brother. Don’t laugh condescendingly, I heard a lot of people who think of it that way!
But using that horribly wrong train of thought, isn’t the F8 Tributo just a revamped Ferrari 488? And isn’t the 488 just a redesigned 458 Italia with a twin-turbocharged V8 instead of a naturally aspirated one? Does any of these cars deserve to be called less ‘super’ than their Prancing Horse predecessors? I think not.
To those people I can only give them the 288 GTO, an ‘old-school’ supercar from the golden age of Ferrari, when Enzo was still alive and (sometimes literally) kicking. Because as many of those purists should know, the 288 GTO was essentially a heavily modified 308 GTB, a so-called ‘entry-level’ Ferrari. That aspect didn’t make it less exclusive in any way, shape, or form.
Arguably, we’ve established that the type of propulsion isn’t that important in defining a supercar, nor is its exclusivity or the number of cylinders its powertrain has. Heck, the original Ferrari Testa Rossa (400 TR) was powered by a puny 2.0-liter four-cylinder!
The road to emission-free supercars has been a long one, but it has been somewhat recently paved with extraordinary go-fast machines like the hybrid hypercar trio known as the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari. All three were both greener and quicker than any of their predecessors.
More and more electrified supercars, hypercars, and even Koenigsegg’s megacars are transitioning toward a lower-emission future, and it looks like electric-powered mobility is here to stay. So no, green supercars will not ruin anything. Except maybe for their status-quo.
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