What's the definition of a supercar?

Very powerful, very expensive, extreme performance, a big physical presence/striking design. A supercar is the flagship car, though i don't think of the Murci as a supercar. More like halfway between sports- and supercar.

Basically supercars are like pornography, you know it when you see it.

 

Try putting it in Wikipedia. It has some pretty good standards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercar

 

The Original Supercar...

Joe
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Not in my opinion.
A awesome car yes, but the first supercar....I don't think so.
Supercar wasn't even a coined term back then.


IMO the '84 GTO was the first supercar. But I'd say the F40 was the first PURE supercar.

 

+1

 

Id had to say the first supercar was the Lamborghini Countach...even though I now dont think that a current Lambo is in the supercar category.

You have to think this. Its hard to say that a 360, 430, Gallardo etc is considered to be as low as a sports car (mustang, miata, corvette) I think there should be a seperate category for ones like the Veyron or Mclaren F1...call it "Ultimate Cars"

 

SuperRace Cars( any ugraded supercar to racecar): Ferrari FXX, F50GT, F40LM, Maserati MC12 Corsa, Mclaren LM, GT, GTR,etc

SuperCars (ultra rare, expensive, od shape and design and vary vary fast on the brink of non street legal): Ascari, Veyron, EB110, 288GTO, F40, F50, Enzo Ferrari, XJ220, Gumpert apollo, Koenigsegg, MC12, Mclaren F1, MB SLR, MB CLK-GTR, Pagani Zonda's, Carrera GT, 911-GT1, Saleen S7, SSC Aero, Vector

Race cars :360 Challenge 575 gt's

Hypercars (basically exotic cars) :Lamborghini Diablo, Countach, any Spyker

Exotic Cars : Aston Martins, Bentley GT, Caddy XLR, Corvette Z06(06 and up only), any Viper, Ferrari 355 456 550 360 599 430 512 348 308, Forg GT, Murcielago, Gallardo, LP640, Lotus Esprit, almost any Porsche,

Im missing a bunch but i think this is the basic idea arguably. some im not sure about miura, CLK-DTM, The next category would be Sports cars , Mustangs Camaros trans ams.

 

+1

The term was coined to defined the Miura - it was the start the start of the mid-engined layout which has become the defacto standard in supercars

 

A supercar can be defined as ultra-rare, ultra-expensive, super fast, and incredible street presence; by this I mean a combination of 'wide', low, and highly aggressive styling.

Most of the supercars are already mentioned above.

The LP640 is NOT a supercar as it is, relatively speaking, a mass-produced car.

Ferrari: F40, F50, Enzo, F40LM, F50GT, FXX.
Porsche: GT1, Carrera GT, 959.
obviously cars like the McLaren F1, F1 LM, Koenigsegg, Zonda, Bugatti Veyron, EB110, Jaguar XJ220 etc. all fall into the supercar category IMO.

Sometimes it can get pretty subjective but most of the cars mentioned above are considered by most to be SUPERCARS!

 

Precisely. Their may have been other cars that were made before the Miura that people now consider supercars, but the Miura coined the phrase.

Definition of a supercar? If you do a double take and it costs more than $250K.

Not really, but I think you just know it when you see it.

Edit: just thought of this.

A supercar exhibits direct application of unadultured racing technology and philosophy to a road car while still maintaining complete driver involvement and a good level of usability.

 

Maybe I should have said the original "Super Car" rather than "Supercar"

Either way, its the Miura.

IMO.

Joe
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The first english automobile magazine to coin the term "Supercar" was Car and Driver, in the late 80's.

They used the term to define the difference between the Vector W2, and everything else. The term has become far more loose in these days, but there are far more to choose from.

IMO, supercars start with the Vector W2/ W8, then EB110, Jag XJ220, Macca F1, F40, F50, then we didn't see another one until the CGT, and Enzo. Some might argue the Zonda is, but the Zonda carries too much blood between the original C8, C12, C12 S, F, and F clubsport... some might argue the Koenigsegg, but the car isn't known for working long... and suffers the same issue as the Zonda.

 

A cars reliablity has nothing to do if it is a supercar....

The Zonda and Koenigsegg are supercars....more so then a Vector was.

 

Zonda is not a supercar? blasphemy!

 

The Ferrari definition of a supercar relates purely to the limited edition range-toppers incorporating the latest in racing technology and ultimate performance: 288 GTO, F40, F50, Enzo.

For most other people, supercar relates to the highest performance sportscars: 911 Turbo, Gallardo, F430 and above.

Astons are probably better described as GT cars.

 

If the Lamborghini Miura or Diablo or Murcielago is not a supercar, then I don't know what the hell is.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion and everyone has his own definition of any particular thing; however, I have a good feeling that the majority of the people who have heard the word supercar associate it with vehicles such as Lamborghinis. And, as Herodotus would say, widely held beliefs tend to be the most meaningful when looking upon history, however counter intuitive or unlikely.

But hey, this is "FerrariChat."

edit - RTB has it pretty much dead-on.

 

SLR, CGT, LP640 are all great cars but they are kind of entry level super cars. not really true supercars. A super car isn't necessarily defined by its price or the amount produced. The epitome of a true supercar is a 911GT1 or the Mercedes CLKGTR. The enzo, f50, f40, koenigsegg, pagani, s7, etc. are also supercars but the degree of "supercar-ness" varies a lot.

 

One more thing. Price does matter in terms of a minimum. If it has a base price of less than 300k it is probably not a supercar, but realistically, around 500k seems to be entry level for a supercar. While the opinion of whether or not the murcelago, or CGT, or SLR are supercars is subject to debate, the issue of whether or not the gallardo/FGT/430/turbo911 are supercars is not. The reason we have the term exotic is for those cars. Gallardo's, FGTs, 430's 360's (all ferrari pretty much) are exotics. The porsche turbo is not an exotic. It is in the class of exotics without being an exotic. The turbo suffers from the same problem as the z06 and the SL mercedes. There is little difference (in the eyes of the lamen) between the base "cheap" model, and the much higher priced super model. A 192,000k SL 65 looks basically like the 85k sl500.

 

How I see it;

Hot hatches = Wannabe entry level sportscars.

Porsche Caymann, Nissan 350Z, Honda S2000, Mazda RX-8, BMW M3 etc. = Entry level sportscars.

Lotus Exige S, Porsche 997 Carrera S, TVR Sagaris, Noble M400, Corvette Z06, Acura NSX, Aston Martin V8 Vantage = Sportscars.

Ferrari 360 CS, Ariel Atom, Ferrari F430, Lambo Gallardo, Porsche 997 Turbo/GT3 RS/ GT2, Ford GT = Supercars.

Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, Ferrari 599, Ascari KZ1 = In between.

McLaren Mercedes SLR, Porsche Carrera GT, Ferrari Enzo, Pagani Zonda F, Koenigsegg CCX, McLaren F1, = Hypercars.

New class; The 250 mph club; Bugatti Veyron.


IMO;

A sportscar is a car dedicated for driving thrills. Both coupe, sedan and wagon form.

A supercar is like a sportscar but less attainable for people and with a high performance and maintance & 200 mph+ top speed, 0 - 60 mph in 4 - 4,5 seconds.

A hypercar is a car that will most likely destroy everything that stands in its path.

The 250 mph/ 400 km/h club; This will destroy anything on your road in terms of accelleration and it will take years before a production car even touch it's performance.

 

Anything you can't afford without hitting the Powerball jackpot, or anything you can't afford unless that 1,000,000 shares of stock you bought for .01 a share went up to $35 a share and you cashed in before it dropped.

 

How so? I'm not talking about the M12 either. What kind of experience do you have with a Vector W8?

 

Yeah,
definitely.

The LP640 might even be not a supercar,but the Miura,the Countach....and (at least for me) when the Diablo came out,definitely was supercars.

Just my 2 cents.