There's no hard and fast definition of what makes a supercar, other than most cost about the same as a mid-priced Vancouver condo and must feature arresting performance and head-turning design.
Buyers expect neck-snapping acceleration with a sound that tells the unwashed that you are behind the wheel of something special.
But this is a world where someone can walk into a Dodge dealership, spend $75,000 and drive away in a 707-horsepower Hellcat, or pick up a 650-horsepower Corvette at the local Chevy store for less than $100,000. Supercars must up the ante to justify $200,000-plus asking prices.
At the far end, there's the stupid-fast 16-cylinder Bugatti Veyron hypercar, with 1,001 hp on tap in standard trim, 1,200 hp for the Super Sport. It's out of production so you'd have to wait for its expected successor, the Chiron, with 1,500 hp and a rumoured top speed of more than 460 km/h, almost 50 km/h faster than the Veyron.
Boutique supercar makers such as Pagani take a more conventional route, relying on brute power, such as the Huayra's Mercedes-AMG-sourced 730 hp V-12.
High output numbers are mostly about bragging rights, says Frank Stephenson, design director for McLaren Automotive, the English sports and supercar maker.
"If you get over a thousand horsepower, you're doing something incredible," he said in a recent interview at the Vancouver Luxury and Supercar Show. "But who can use that? I think it's all about how you can use the power and how you can put it to the road."
McLarens are not exactly slugs, with power ranging from 562 horsepower for an entry-level 570S to 666 horsepower for a 675LT and the P1 hybrid, whose combined gasoline-electric power train pumps out 903 horsepower. All use variants of McLaren's 3.8-litre V-8.
Stephenson said McLaren, which shares technology with its Formula One team, prefers to focus on reducing weight and increasing aero efficiency so it takes less power to punch a hole through the air.
"That's why our cars are driveable," he said. "People are surprised but it's probably more due to the weight than the performance of the engine."
Supercars, though they live in a rarefied world, are not immune to the forces that influence the rest of the auto industry. The pressure is on to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Chiron, for instance, adds electric power to the monster 16-cylinder engine to produce its added horsepower without hurting fuel consumption.
Koenigsegg also has an internal combustion-electric power combo that the company resolutely avoids calling a hybrid. The 5-litre V-8 is coupled to electric electric motors without a transmission to create what it calls Koenigsegg Direct Drive. Its claimed combined output is 1,500 horsepower.
Porsche's flagship is the 918 Spyder, a plug-in hybrid that uses two electric motors and a 4.6-litre V-8 to deliver almost 900 horsepower and fuel consumption of about 10.5 litres/100 km, all for about $1-million – if you can find one because, like the Veyron, it's sold out.
Porsche's supercars, such as the 918, Carrera GT and twin-turbo, all-wheel-drive 959 before it, historically provided a peek into the company's future technological direction, said Porsche Canada public relations manager Patrick Saint-Pierre. The Le Mans-winning 919 showcased hybrid technology in racing conditions.
"It successfully demonstrated that a level of performance typical for Porsche is not limited to conventional drive concepts," he said.
Porsche's Mission E concept, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, hews to that philosophy. The battery-electric sports sedan, aimed squarely at Tesla, is rated at the equivalent of 600 horsepower with a range of more than 500 kilometres.
"Mission E is indeed a concept that hints at what could be in store for the future," Saint-Pierre said. "It is an all-electric concept which defines our vision of e-mobility."
The Mission E also gets its electric-motor technology from the 919, just as the competition-oriented 959 served as a testbed for 911 components. The V-10 Carrera GT had roots in plans to develop an F1 engine and a Le Mans car, canned after Porsche withdrew from factory-supported racing in 1999.
"Although we don't yet know which new technology will make its way to which production vehicles yet, it sure is a tantalizing thought, especially in the case of the Mission E," Saint-Pierre said.
Stephenson, who before joining McLaren designed the resurrected Mini for BMW and the FXX and F430 for Ferrari, sees hybrids such as the P1 and 949-hp LaFerrari as stopgaps. He's not sold on battery EVs.
"They're efficient but, at the same time, there's so many negatives to them that you're defeating the purpose," he said. "You're using a lot of energy to create energy, and then you have obviously the range and the longevity of the batteries. It doesn't make any sense after a while."
Stephenson sets more store in much-delayed hydrogen fuel-cell technology and hints McLaren is looking at it.
"If it happens, it could be a P1 successor," he said. "The P1 only makes sense as a technology carrier or innovator. I like that I could see the next generation P1 using a different type of propulsion system, being the first one to do it."
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