A supercar, also known as an exotic car, is a type of automobile generally described at its most basic as a street-legal sports car with race track-like power, speed, and handling, plus a certain subjective cachet linked to pedigree, exclusivity, or both.[1] The term 'supercar' is frequently used for the extreme fringe of powerful, low-bodied mid-engineluxury sportscars. A low-profile car may have limited ground clearance, but a handling-favorable center of gravity and a smaller frontal area than a front engined car. These characteristics can reduce supercars' aerodynamic drag, enabling higher top speeds. Since the 2000s,[citation needed] the term hypercar has come into use for the highest-performance supercars.[citation needed]
Supercars often serve as the flagship model within a vehicle manufacturer's sports car range and typically feature various performance-related technology derived from motorsports. Some examples include the Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Aventador, and McLaren 720S.
Automotive journalism typically reserves the predicate 'hypercar' for low (two- to low 4-figure) production-number cars, built over and above the marque's typical product line-up and carrying 21st century sales prices often exceeding a million euros, dollars, or pounds. Examples include the Porsche's Carrera GT, Ford GTs, and the Ferrari F40/F50/Enzo lineage. Only a few car makers, like Bugatti and Koenigsegg, only make hypercars.
In the United States, the term "supercars" was used already during the 1960s for the highest-performance muscle cars. As of 2024, "supercars" is still used in Australia to refer to Australian muscle cars.[citation needed]
The Lamborghini Miura, introduced in 1966 by the Italian manufacturer, is often said to be the first supercar.[2][3][4][5] By the 1970s and 1980s, the term was in regular use for such a car, if not precisely defined.[6][7] One interpretation up until the 1990s was to use it for mid-engine two-seat cars with at least eight cylinders (but typically a V12 engine), a power output of at least 400bhp (298kW) and a top speed of at least 180mph (290km/h).[1] Other interpretations state that "it must be very fast, with sporting handling to match", "it should be sleek and eye-catching" and its price should be "one in a rarefied atmosphere of its own";[8] exclusivity – in terms of limited production volumes, such as those of the most elite models made by Ferrari or Lamborghini– is also an essential characteristic for some using the term.[5] Some European manufacturers, such as McLaren, Pagani, and Koenigsegg, specialize in only producing supercars.[9][10][11][12][13]
During the 1960s, the highest-performance versions of American muscle cars were referred to as supercars.[14][15]:8 The description was sometimes spelled with a capital S.[16] Its use reflected the intense competition for primacy in that market segment between U.S. manufacturers, retroactively characterized as the "horsepower wars".[14]:8 Already by 1965 the May issue of the American magazine Car Life included multiple references to supercars and "the supercar club",[17] and a 1968 issue of Car & Driver magazine describes a "Supercar street racer gang" market segment.[18] The "S/C" in the model name of the AMC S/C Rambler produced in 1969 as a street-legal racer is an abbreviation for "SuperCar".[19]
Since the decline of the muscle car in the 1970s, the word supercar has been more broadly internationalized, coming to mean an "exotic" car that has high performance;[14]:5 interpretations of the term span from limited-production models produced by small manufacturers for performance enthusiasts to (less frequently) standard production cars modified for exceptional performance.[20]
During the early 1990s, Japan began to gain global recognition for making high-performance sports cars; the automotive media described the lightweight, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive, V6 Honda NSX produced from 1990 through 2005 as Japan's "first".[34][35][36] Matching contemporary European supercars in performance and features, the NSX was more reliable and user-friendly.[37][38]
In the 21st century, other Japanese makers produced their supercars. From 2010 until 2012, Lexus marketed the Lexus LFA, a two-seat front-engine coupe powered by a 4.8L (293cuin) V10 engine producing 553hp (412kW; 561PS).[39][40][41] The 2009–present Nissan GT-R has been described as a modern supercar that delivers everyday practicality.[42][43][44] It features a twin-turbo V6 producing between 473–710hp (353–529kW; 480–720PS), with all-wheel-drive and dual-clutch transmission.[45][46][47][48]
The second generation Honda NSX made from 2016 until 2022 used all-wheel drive, a hybrid powertrain (producing up to 602hp (449kW; 610PS)), turbocharging, and a dual-clutch transmission.[49][50][51]
Another term for high-performance sportscars is "hypercar", which is sometimes used to describe the highest-performing supercars.[52] An extension of "supercar", it too lacks a set definition. One offered by the automotive magazine, The Drive, is "a limited-production, top-of-the-line supercar";[53] prices can reach or exceed US$1 million, and already had by 2017.[53]
Some observers consider the tubular framed, first-ever production fuel-injection, world's fastest street-legal, 260km/h (160mph) 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL "Gullwing" as the first hypercar; others the revolutionary, first-ever mid-engined 1967 Lamborghini Miura; others yet the 1993 McLaren F1[54] or 2005 Bugatti Veyron.[55]
↑ Severson, Aaron (27 July 2009). "Super-iority: Defining the Supercar and Muscle Car". ateupwithmotor.com. Retrieved 16 January 2018. what we now think of as muscle cars were more commonly called "Supercars," often (though not always) spelled with a capital S.
↑ "Rambler Scrambler". Car Life. Vol.16. 1969. pp.33–36. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
↑ "Rambler Scrambler". Car and Driver. Vol.14. 1968. p.84.
↑ [hhttps://www.nissanusa.com/experience-nissan/news-and-events/evolution-from-skyline-to-gt-r.html "Nissan Skyline to GT-R: The Evolution of a Supercar"]. Nissan USA. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
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