Revhead Ramblings: My Dilemma with Hypercars
- January 15, 2019
- Posted by: Alex Baker
- Category: Revhead Ramblings
2019 hasn’t been the best so far for car stories, Jaguar Land Rover are cutting thousands of jobs, largely down to the unfair demonisation of diesel, the new Supra has been leaked for the thousandth time and that’s about it.
A light at the end of the tunnel, for some, are the waves of hypercars we’ve been promised from every luxury manufacturer. The Aston Martin 003 hypercar has been confirmed, McLaren’s Speedtail should be ready by the end of the year and the Bugatti Divo was premiered late last year.
I Should be Excited
This should make us all very happy, a mouth-watering display of ground-breaking technology that could revolutionise the automotive world. But I’m not excited, how many people can say they’ve seen a McLaren P1 or Ford GT? The same goes for pretty much every hypercar released in the past 10 years, these are no longer vehicles, they’re investments.
Caged Beasts
For those lucky few who have seen these cars out and about, I’m confident the majority of sightings would have been in a city environment, with the car being restrained to a crawl. It’s criminal that these cars are never used as they should be. Rather than being taken to a track and thrashed, they’re kept in hermetically sealed trophy cases to show off to Instagram followers.
6/10ths All the Way
This brings me to my second point, if one of those lucky owners did take their 1000bhp, F1 inspired Nürburgring weapon to the track, how many would either A) put it into a fence, or B) never use more than 20% of its ability.
That’s not to say these owners aren’t good drivers, it’s just these cars are so incredibly fast in a straight-line and in the corners, it takes more than a few track days and training courses to handle them. Manufacturers have become obsessed with chasing figures, focusing on whether they could, rather than if they should.
Money Making Exercise
When you think back to the hypercars of the 90s, they weren’t thought of in a boardroom to meet yearly targets, they were often homologations of legendary race cars, barely road legal track weapons that were used for their intended purpose by their owners. The likes of the Mercedes-AMG Project One just doesn’t get me excited in the same way. There’s no history, it’s purely unachievable limits and lining the pockets of the shareholders.
Not every manufacturer is the same, Ford did everything in their power to stop their new GT being bought and flipped for a gargantuan profit; it’s just a shame that the people with the money to buy these machines are too smart, or greedy, to use them for what they were designed to do.
To ensure you don’t miss out on any of Alex’s ‘Revhead Ramblings‘ be sure to follow him on Twitter at @AlexClickDealer!
For more information about Click Dealer’s brand new automotive blogging service and content from our specialist automotive industry writers, get in touch today on marketing@clickdealer.co.uk, 01782 478 220 or through our contact page!