What's in the future for supercars and exotics?

The power of today's supercars is already ridiculous.

Enzo - 650 BHP
Veyron - 1001 BHP
LP640 - 640 BHP
CGT - 612 BHP
Zonda F - 602 BHP

We're quickly approaching the power output of F1 cars as the new street performance benchmark. Instead of even more power for the next generation of cars, I'd much rather see reduced weight. The over a decade old Mclaren F1 weighed 2500 lbs. The Enzo is a pig at over 3000 lbs.

So, uh, yeah weight. What else is there to improve upon? We already have the aerodynamics, the horsepower to pull the Earth off its orbit, and fancy gearboxes. I think we're reaching a peak in terms of engineering, honestly.

 

The next big thing for supercars will be that they will look good.

 

Save this quote so you can laugh at yourself 20 years from now.

 

+1

However, personally I think that the next big thing will be making them more environmentally friendly - my hunch that it will come through the use of biofuel/E85

 

I think it will be traction to the ground. Including tires and downward force on the car. In the next 10 years a tire will be introduced that has superior grip to the road.
Thats my prediction.

 

Specific horsepower will continue to increase as it is another term for 'efficiency'. Weight saving materials (and how we apply them) will be the next horizon. Active suspensions will evolve. Gearboxes and auto shift mechanisms will get faster and more reliable.

 

+2


Further development of active aero?

 

I expect them to get faster and lighter as well as more efficient. Engines may go smaller and even green. I look forward to an electric, hybrid, hydrogen or even fuel cell exotic soon. Once the powerplants become separated and/or smaller, the overall design and configuration will be free to really evolve.

 

Lol.

 

I think that the biggest improvements we'll see in the near future will be in software. Cars today can electronically influence their brakes, throttle, steering ratio and assist, dampers, differentials, exhaust note, and so on. In principle, the driving experience can be taylored however you want it. Cars needn't be compromised so much as they are now. And if you want to change some characteristic, just tell the car to tweak it a bit.

Systems like this already exist, of course, but I think that nobody has gotten anywhere near their potential. Cars of the future might be sold more on software than their underlying hardware.

 

The Enzo isn't a pig. It's a significantly larger car than a McLaren F1, so it naturally weighs more. The only way that anybody gets large weight reductions is to simply build smaller. You can use lightweight materials everywhere, but that gets extremely expensive. The gains also aren't very dramatic past a certain point. Weight can also be reduced by having a car with no interior, insulation, or crash protection, but most people don't want that.

I don't think that weight (by itself) is very important for a street car anyway. Suspension tuning can be used to make just about anything as darty or lazy as you want it. Physical size has a much more direct effect on driving feel, and reducing that naturally leads to less weight. Still, there probably isn't much of a market for Elise-sized exotics. At that level, it also gets extremely hard to make a car that will perform well at high speeds (The F1 is an obvious exception. Its packaging efficiency is pretty much in a class by itself.).

 

Orwell's 1994 is going to happen,except not started by commies but liberal Europe ,closely followed by US.
We will all ride in our slow,boring,ultra safe boxes on wheels ,controlled remotely by computers as far as distance from other "cars",speed etc.
I am not very optimistic when I think about the future for my kids.....

 

What about this one?
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With all the electronic crap they have on cars now, I have to believe 20 years from now the cars will be driving us. Just tell the car your destination and sit there. And they will all look like the Prius.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if our older Ferraris will be unable to be driven anymore with restrictions on emissions in the years to come. At some point, given the need to reduce emissions, cars will become too environmentally friendly and electronically controlled to be any fun anymore, just methods of transportation. Don't know when this might happen, hopefully many years in the future, but it's on my mind. Restoring something to show is fine, but I wonder about dumping a lot of money into a car to drive for the next 10 years....maybe not allowed on the road in 10 years or more? Seeing all the crappy, smoking cars driving around SoCal, that would be a more logical place to start, but....I wonder what's to come.

Jeff

 

Historically Supercars and Exotics have brought the performance, engineering and design from their contemporary race cars to the street. With that in mind, I feel that the most recent trends in racing will influence these autos in the near future. We can see that the fastest and most exciting racecars today being the two diesel Lemans cars from Audi and Peugeot. I am not saying that the trend is to diesel power but it is demonstrating a trend towards cleaner/greener alternatives. If history repeats itself, I am sure it will not be in the Ferrari stable but rather Audi/Lamborghini as with the original Miura and its mid engine design. What I do fear is what Lamborghini has shown with it current Miura. Retro styling may work for autos at the Mustang/Camaro/Challenger level but when supercars go in this direction I'm afraid that they will simply become caricatures of themselves. I do feel that there is much to come in the way of performance. Trouble is that the average buyer simply does not have the driving skill to use such. So the technology will be more important as these cars reach today's F1 level performance. That's what I think - Vince

 

The supercar of the future is going to be electrical, or using another alternative energy technology source which is more environmentally friendely.

The days of very powerful and pollutant supercars are finishing very soon...yes, it is a very sad story!

 

Interesting question. My guess would would be

1. reduced weight
2. environmentally friendly engines
3. safer cars (eg. more and more Formula 1 technology...)

Having said that, I don't even think we will see a 1000+ hp car like the Bugatti in the near future again...

 

Once the government steps in with the new Mileage restrictions, we will be looking back on this decade as the last of the super cars. My prediction is that we will be seeing a lot of cars on the road that look like Mini Coopers and the new Smart car.