Last week was Monterey Car Week, and I’m still recovering from all the remarkable cars I saw and touched and smelled and (keep this between us) tasted. Of course, Car Week tends to skew towards the higher end of the market, as most of the attendees are people whose net worths dwarf mine like an ostrich does a hummingbird. There’s rich people crawling all over the place, so most of the new cars introduced at events during Car Week tend to be high-end ones; this is not the place where, say, Mitsubishi is going to unveil a new Mirage, for example.
But even with that in mind, as I flowed through the various lavish events of Car Week, drooling caviar juice on my one “nice” shirt, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was seeing too many damn hypercars. There are just so many options for the hypercar buyer looking to drop hundreds of thousands or even more dollars on one of these sleek, incredibly engineered, wildly fast beasts that will likely never be used to even a tenth of their capabilities, and will likely spend the vast majority of their lives keeping expensive, climate-controlled garage floors safely pinned to Earth.
Oh, and I’m calling these hypercars but some may be supercars or whatever; the line’s kind of blurry, I think, but generally I’m talking about cars that are very limited production and cost at least, oh, around $250,000 or so at the bottom end, but most likely much more.
I’ve never really understood the appeal of these incredibly expensive and rare cars, and while I’m sure my biases are coloring a lot of my thoughts, it still doesn’t change the fact that there feels like a glut of incredibly expensive cars out there, and a dearth of cars people can actually buy and use, and that doesn’t feel right.
If you’re incredibly, wildly rich you have a lot of options to find a car that really lets everyone know you’re incredibly, wildly rich. Cars like these, all of which were shown at an event named The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering:
- Gordon Murray T.33 Spider
- Pininfarina Battista Gotham
- Tuthill GT
- Maserati GT2 Stradale
- Lamborghini Temerio
- Karma Kaveya
- Hennessey Venom F5
- Kalmar 9X9
…and there’s even more out there. These cars range in price from about $250,000 to well into the millions, and they’re all targeting the same basic group of buyers, and they’re all cars that most of us will never see in person in normal life, really.
I’m just not sure I see the point here? I guess if these companies can keep selling these rarified machines to this small, fortunate segment of the population, great, but for everyone else, who gives a shit?
And for companies like Karma and Maserati, what does this really do for them? Maybe these can be considered “halo cars,” cars that are exciting enough to get people interested in a given brand. But, for that to work, people have to actually encounter these cars.
Currently, I think the most successful halo car may be the Tesla Cybertruck, which drives huge amounts of attention (good and bad) to the brand, and this partially works because the Cybertruck isn’t super/hypercar priced. It’s not cheap, but it’s affordable enough that you actually see them on the road.
Hyundai was very clever about this idea a while back with the Veloster, which you could argue was their halo car, even if it was also near the bottom of their lineup, price-wise. Making a cheap and highly visible halo car is a good idea.
That’s what Karma, who introduced their Karma Kaveya electric supercar during car week, needs to learn. Though official pricing has yet to be released, it’s going to cost somewhere between $250,000 and maybe up to $400,000, which begs the question: Just who the hell is going to buy this thing?
The brand has no real cachet, it looks cool but not so much cooler than anything else out there, it will likely drive like pretty much all fast EVs do – what’s the point? What if, instead, Karma had made a fun, fast, EV coupé or GT car or Supra-like sports car and it cost, oh, around $85,000 to start? That would be much more exciting because you might actually see those around, being driven and used and enjoyed.
I also think Maserati needs something more like what the Biturbo did for them in the 1980s: when Alejandro DeTomaso bought Maserati in 1976, they’d sold 201 cars the year before – the Biturbo itself sold 40,000. There’s a big advantage to making a car that can be bought by just regular old one-house-and-one-vacation-house rich people, and not just available to why-yes-I-do-have-a-small-island rich people.
It’s not like I have real data to back this up, but that’s fine, because fundamentally, this is just a rant: I’m sick of supercars, hypercars, all of that. It felt like new ones were popping up all over the place, and I just can’t get excited about a class of car that hardly gets driven and I hardly ever encounter.
And even when I do encounter them, like when we crashed the Exotics On Broadway event with our crappy Aztek, while I appreciate their looks and sounds and drama a great deal, it just reminds me how little these cars tend to get used.
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There were dozens of McLarens and like 20+ Paganis/Koenigseggs at this supercar parade, and it feels like outings like this are some of the only times these cars get out and driven. Now, of course there are exceptions (though the number of people who daily drive a supercar without also having a YouTube channel seems small), but I think what I’d rather see being introduced at events at Car Week are more cars that people will actually buy and use.
It’s possible to have something that’s too good, and I think that’s the Achilles heel of hypercars. They’re too expensive and rare and valuable to actually be used and enjoyed, so that makes them, effectively, useless.
So, fuck the hypercars, shove it up your exhaust manifold, supercars, and next year I hope to just see some exciting cars I can’t ever afford as opposed to a bunch of exciting supercars almost nobody can ever afford.
I showed my friend the temararararario and he simply said “Yep, looks like a supercar in 2025” and that was about all I felt on it too
100% agreement. I used to be able to identify all kinds of weird stuff, things never sold here that I’d randomly encounter, whatever, but now I just shrug and move on without the information staying in my head as I just don’t find any of them interesting. Even the new Lamborghini V12s don’t sound as cool as they used to (yeah, I get it’s down to regulations, but that doesn’t change ), never mind EVs with effectively all the same performance figures, sound, and drivetrain characteristics. They mostly look the damn same, too. At least do something interesting with them! OK, so your car can only do 180 mph safely due to aero instability for the sake of actually looking interesting—WGAF? And when you do see them, yeah, they’re usually surrounded by a sea of their lookalikes from the other “me-too” supercar makers so the shock and drama that comes naturally with low and wide proportions—like seeing a lone one in traffic surrounded by normal vehicles—is lost as they’re all relatively the same. When I used to see them at shows, they looked different to each other and there just weren’t that many of them. I stopped going to car shows years ago when it got infested by endless new entry-level Ferraris and Lamborghinis instead of 1 Countach, 1 Khamsin, 1 Grifo, 1 250 Europa, 1 OSCA . . . you get the point.
I feel this every time I see the Porsche corral at Road Atlanta. A 911 GT3 is a head turner in a parking lot or highway. Amidst 200 Porsches, it’s one more car I’m stuck behind trying to get out of the race complex.
I think the car I freaked out the most at recently was a street parked Citroen Picasso in a Charleston color scheme when I was in NYC for a few days. It had french diplomatic plates, of course, but it was a thrill to see!
Here, here! I agree, but damn if there aren’t a ton of billion-dollar superyachts and super-exclusive private planes! Torch, you need to write an article about a Bizarro-world where instead of hypercars, hyperplanes, and hyperyachts there were hyper-kai cars, hyper-amphicars and hyper-gondolas!
I agree as far as
I don’t recognize those new ultra car companiesdon’t care eithereverything can go way faster than can be used safely except on a track, and can accelerate faster than can be done safely except on a trackevery family sedan or SUV now accelerates and turns better than Ferraris and 911s from a few decades ago, so we already live in the age of everyone has a fast carthe article either early on this site or late on the old site, about 300 HP is the ultimate and more than that is a waste, was accurate. Was that Torch?Hypercars are boring because there are too many. The world is oversaturated with them. And they are useless because there is nowhere in the world they can simultaneously be driven on public roads and driven using their abilities. Buy a race car for the track and a road car for the road. Or buy a private island and knock yourself out, alone. Hope you remembered the hay bales.
The number of hypercars is too damn high!
I care more about the Pao and postal jeep.
Keep it achievable.
I think it’s temerario.
I say this with love but you guys need a copyeditor
Maybe you need to start a movement to hijack the supercar/hypercar category to apply not to vehicles that have the absolute highest capabilities, but have capabilities far beyond what is expected? Some potential made up (or not) examples for the new category:
-kei truck that has more payload than curb weight, and more than most large pickups
-a basic little car that can keep up with your supercars around a track, not because of high power, but light weight
-the subaru at the end of a rough 4wd road parked next to a bunch of jeeps on 37 inch tires
-a small economy hatchback that somehow has a backseat that is as comfortable and roomy as a maybach
-an escalade with a hood low enough that toddlers are visible over it
-an ev that weighs well under 3000 lbs, costs less than a new golf cart, and can fit 4x of my 6′ 5″ lanky frame (yes, I have sat in a BYD seagull, and fit, even in the backseat if I duck a bit)
-a pontiac aztec that completes an around the world overlanding trip with zero failures
I smile when I see a brand new McLaren at a car show for two reasons. First, I like them and I am glad they exist. Second, I know that anyone with enough money can have a McLaren just like that but no one else can have a Bahama Green Corvair Monza with a 4 speed and a vinyl roof or the world’s oldest Stephens motorcar.
Why don’t these super rich assholes pool their cash and build themselves a new planet? Oh wait, that’s what Musk wants with Mars. But they’ll never actually leave because, after all, petty gods need their worshippers. Best case, they’ll build flimsy space arks and blast the billions of least desirables (elderly, ugly, misshapen, stupid, criminal, poor, wrong color, etc.) into the oblivion of space. Too expensive you say? Perhaps, but less messy and smelly than killing billions and then having no one left to dispose of the corpses. Plus, they can pretend they’re doing us favor, sending us out to build a bright new world, just as they surely built this one for themselves.
On second thought, let them have hypercars if that keeps them happy. Can always hope a few die horribly when they’re stupid enough to try them out. Meanwhile, the revolution is coming. Pass it on. Oh damn. Cat’s out of the bag now.
Not really the point you were making, but it sure reminds me of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons
from a personal perspective, especially regarding those who would own these, you are totally right. However, in counterpoint, the fact that there are people who will buy these means that a few guys out there get to live THEIR dreams designing and building these.
Its in the same vein as building a customized vintage car from a catalog. That’s not my bag. All it takes is a checkbook. BUT, because someone out there is using the checkbook, some dude who started in his garage is now running a parts business selling his disc brake upgrade for Mustangs. And I love the fact that that guy gets to live a dream.
So while I don’t really lust after these things, and I don’t care much for how many are out there, I support their continued sales in the hope that real enthusiasts are living their best lives building these things.
The only redeeming point here. I took a break from college and ended up working at a motorcycle shop that specialized in Vintage Britbikes. There was one super wealthy guy who owned hundreds of cool bikes whose fleet comprised at least 50% of the shop’s business. Did I think he was an ass at times? Sure. Was I glad that he was supporting this cool historic shop? You bet.
If these cars are Achilles(es), does that make you Agamemnon? Will not their power be respected, their earned honor granted? Why must you steal away their Briturboseis when your shares are tenfold the better fighters? Is Lamborghelen worth so many lives, and besides that the glory ordained for such a brief life, these manifold sons of Thethill?
With you 100%. This is the first article on this site with the word hypercar in the title that I’ve clicked on because they just don’t do it for me.
Ok I agree with everyone here, but can I get more about how you all crashed the Exotics on Broadway with the Aztek?
I saw you folks having —metaphorically— crashed the Concours d’Lemons but leaving aside the judges permissivity there, if you show up with an Aztek they’ll let you in (there was literally another one a few cars away!).
Crashing Exotics on Broadway takes more chutzpah.
Been waiting for someone else to say this.
Between hypercars, massive trucks and SUVs – the actual car world has become quite … boring.
I believe this is why so many mainstream auto magazine online portals have gone down the rabbit hole of re-releasing 30 and 40 year old car reviews. It’s cheaper than cheap content that will get page clicks from folks like us who remember when the cars were new and the writers were good.
This strikes a similar tone to your critique of the Veyron and, like that article, I agree with this one as well. There comes a point when you’re just numb to this shit. 30 years ago the McLaren F1 was remarkable because it set a record that wouldn’t be broken for a decade through extremely clever and unique engineering. Then the Veyron came out and bludgeoned its way to breaking the record through nothing other than obscene amounts of power.
There was nothing clever about it, it was the automotive equivalent of a massive blunt object. Some would probably argue that, at a more attainable price, the GTR made the “throw power and AWD at it and disregard everything else” more commonplace as well, but I’m already off track here. Since the Veyron there have seemingly always been several of these things being made.
It’s not like it used to be when a Carrera GT or F40 came out every decade or so. Companies with infinite budgets literally shit this stuff out. I legitimately had no idea what a Tuthill, Karma, or Kalmar was before I read this article and I still have no interest in finding out any information beyond “they are cars that exist”. Next year there will be others. There are a bajillion different McLarens now and they all look the same. Koenigsegg has something new seemingly every 20 minutes.
It’ll all go 200+ and hit 60 in 2 seconds and whatever else…and at the end of the day they’ll all get locked up in fancy garages and used as penis measuring/compensation devices for rich assholes. Nobody cares anymore. Hell I go to a Cars and Coffee every now and then in a very wealthy area and I walk straight past the McLarens every time.
They’re also rolling monuments to selfishness, ego, excess, and end stage capitalism. No one who can afford to collect 7 figure cars is a good person who acquired their wealth in an ethical manner…and worst of all, they take no skill to drive. Any old dingus can go to an airstrip, slam the big boy key in a Turdbillion, and do 300 or whatever. The computers do all the work for you.
While I won’t argue that analog supercars aren’t also rolling monuments to greed, at least it took skill and practice to drive them. Put your average tech baron on a track in a Carrera GT and see how long they can keep it on the course. If they wind up vaporizing themselves it won’t be any significant loss anyway 😉
Every new car is a hypercar now. Every new car is a luxury car now. People can’t afford new cars anymore, stuck buying used 🙁
Agree and I think the problem is compounded by the fact that horsepower is so easy to come by these days. If a majority of today’s mid-sized crossovers can roast a stock 1966 GTO, the problem is greatly exaggerated when cars like these can outrace Indy cars from just a few decades ago.
The more cars become capable of turning in ridiculous 0-60 or quarter mile times, the less these figures mean. Especially when – as you pointed out – these things end up becoming expensive garage art.
The next thing you know, super rich people will go to the only faster vehicle they can spend gobs of money on – personal spaceships. But that would never happe… wait. Crap.
Yep, all pointless if you ask me. And a great representation of how the rich keep getting richer and everyone else is just stuck where they are at best.
The cheap new cars that don’t exist anymore also corroborate this.
I agree with the sentiments…this kinda stuff is basically automotive porn for most of us, a total fantasy kink for some to view but not actually live.
But there’s a reason to appreciate these cars a little – that they exist means our economic system is performing well, in a big picture way.
I don’t mean in a “the 1% is so outrageously wealthy” kinda way, but rather that most buyers of these vehicles buy them as positional goods, goods that are valued precisely b/c most people can’t have them. That’s key if we ask exactly why does that matter to them? I think a good case can be made for the answer being b/c lesser but still great cars can be had by too many people now.
And things expand even as we head down the ladder. This is why we’re able to have our debate about if better to buy a new Mirage or a used car.
Sure, there’s plenty of valid arguments about wealth distribution, personal investment, etc. to be had, but these types of cars don’t exist in a vacuum; rather, they’re part of and speak to a bigger market for personal transportation, something that definitely means a lot of all of us here!
Idk man, if you look at history the great depression produced some absolutely stunning cars with advanced technology (electric shifting in the FWD Cords, for example), because they were all so expensive only the 1% could afford them.
The working class could barely afford a car at the time. IMHO an explosion of popularity in luxury goods means that the middle class is dry, so corporate america is trying to milk the small percent that have FU money.
I’m struck by what is affordable by the middle class now is pretty staggering in terms of the choices available. Sure, with caveats about debt, etc. of course, but the difference between a luxury car and an everyday car from 100 years ago is dramatically wider than that difference today.
Yup. IDGAF about any of them since I’ll never be able to afford one. They are just vaporware in terms of anything to do with my life.
On occasion there can be some trickle-down effects from the engineering of hypercars. I remember that Koenigsegg was working on (maybe they accomplished it by now, IDK) non-mechanical valve actuation. Stuff like that could apply to ordinary cars if it someday becomes cost-effective. But other than that, cars like this are just off my radar.
Agreed.
I mean, rich people have all the money, so it makes good business sense to build products that appeal to them.
But building an amazing car without constraints is not much of a challenge. Show me something interesting built with constraints.
I wonder what Cameron’s dad would have in his Shrine today.
A real Ferrari 250GT California
Because nobody is making more of them.
A comment that will be completely lost on David Tracy, but clearly very on-point. I agree, there is nothing I pine for today the supercars all kinda look the same, and seem to offer more performance than anyone could ever possibly use.
You’ve got a point, regarding halo cars needing to be at least somewhat attainable to actually do anything for the brand. Think about the Cadillac Celistiq. I know it isn’t a hypercar, but it’s still incredibly expensive so I think the point still applies. It’s so damn expensive that almost no one will ever see one in person, and production will be limited on top of that. I think it would have been cool to see them sell something along the lines of a Celistiq, but more in the $100k range. Something that you’d sell enough of for people to see them on the streets, but not so many that it fails to become exclusive or unique. And of course, it has to be styled in such a way that everyone knows it’s a Cadillac. The Celistiq has that second part down, but unfortunately, very few people will see them.
I saw one in person a few weeks ago and it’s incredible. It’s one of those cars you really need to see in person to appreciate, pictures and videos don’t do justice to the amount of presence it has. In my mind, it’s an absolutely perfect modern interpretation of the big, imposing cars Cadillac used to be known for.
Unfortunately it was on a manufacturer plate and not owned by an actual person. Even living in the Detroit area where people tend to buy any American car no matter what, I’d be surprised if I ever see one on non-manufacturer plates.
To be honest I don’t necessarily think of these in the same realm as the hypercars. Yes, it’s extremely expensive, and no, you’re not gonna see a lot of ‘em, but it’s still more interesting since it’s chasing something other than speed and power that’s already been attained. These luxury cars represent different approaches and attempts at design, at craft, at luxury, experience and stuff that you can’t quantify with a number, which inherently makes it more interesting to me. There’s more that can be explored in this space than what is left of 225+mph cars that go 0-60 in under 2 seconds