Top 10 Supercars of Last Decade – Part One
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 14 August 2008
Kicking off a special 10 day-long MT Supercar Fest, where every 24 hours we’ll pen a few paragraphs on a different example of the automotive dreamers’ favourite genre - and stick a few nice images next to it for good measure – we get things under way with a relatively new kid on the supercar block. A car that needs very little introduction, the Bugatti Veyron. Hold you breaths, and we’ll dive headlong in....Naming the Top Ten Supercars of the last decade is like having to choose between your favourite member of Girls Aloud or Take That, so to make it easier we haven’t wasted time spewing superlatives on what might be considered the more conventional supercars.Instead we've concentrated on what we believe to be a cross section of unique vehicles that bridge the entire supercar divide, taking into account relative price, ride quality, style, function and veritable wow factors required for a definitive supercar blueprint.We find that there's a lot more to creating supercars to rival the world's best than you might otherwise think.
It's all in the name: Gumpert, Koenigsegg, Mitsuoka and Arasha
If there's the one basic qualification required to build a supercar, it's that the would-be inventor is born into a parental unit cursed with the most obscure surname you could imagine. Look no further than Gumpert, Koenigsegg, Pagani, Mitsuoka, Arasha, Mosler, Panoz and Spyker if you're in any doubts.Second is the entrepreneur’s ability to balance both incredulous wealth with a fragile mentality, and have plenty of space around the back of their gaff to start knocking the odd supercar out. Contrary to whimsical folly, a potting shed at the end of an allotment in some Godforsaken outpost of Blighty won’t suffice.Nor, sadly, will the hackneyed belief that quintessential Brit manufacturers only need sweat Swarfiga and bleed Hammerite whilst nailing together some patchwork metal quilt to ensure supercar success, as the Keating example may suggest.Anyway, once a ludicrous name, some reliable funding, a wobbly grasp of reality and a little useful space has been settled on, it's more or less time to rock and roll, remembering the following basic principles.• The engine that propels the absurdly-named one is strapped in the middle of the as yet un-named supercar, either directly beneath the drivers left elbow, or behind his vertebrae. Close enough to necessitate the wearing of elbow protection pads.• When nearing the final part of the 'design and build process' you must bear in mind the one crucial aspect that can make or break it. The application of exterior colour. May we be as bold to suggest a brave hint of day-glow orange, vomit-inducing lime green or visually-impaired yellow sir?And that's that. Well of course it isn’t, and that's why the following supercars are living testament as to just what goes into making one. What we've done is identify - and moreover identify with - manufacturers large and small who have done things a little bit differently. Leftfield. Digressed from the supercar instruction manual and followed their own, sometimes awkward path, believing in their personal destiny with supercar fate let’s say.We could have been a tad xenophobic and focused our rose-tinted driving goggles on some of the best of British - Marcos, Noble, Ariel, Ascari, Falen, Salica, Breckland and, er, Keating - as not a month goes by without one plucky British engineer or tin-pot half-wit with ideas above their station produces what appears to be an origami-interpretation of a car.But we resisted the urge, and went with these nominees who get the MT vote for their services of ‘giving hope to a world of supercar fans craving a curveball’, whilst battling to preserve some vestige of brand dignity at the same time. For this we salute you.Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Cost: Thickest wedge of £800K Speed: 253mph. Or one third the speed of sound Claim to fame: The fastest accelerating, and decelerating road-legal production car on planet automotive. Why it gets our thumbs up: Every Veyron produced is made at a £5 million loss to VW, just so it gets to mix it with the big boys. Gambling on this scale was hitherto unheard of by leading car manufacturers, and is what taking a punt with a supercar is all about to the MT way of thinking. You have to applaud a manufacturer who is out of pocket every time it sells one of its cars, because this alone means that if nothing else it's been built as a calculated risk, almost entirely for our pleasure. £800,000 worth of driving pleasure that is. Re-mortgage the house, pawn all the wife’s shiny finger adornments and put the kids back in state school. You're 45, you've put in the hours, so it’s time to ease your middle-aged spread into a car that takes years off anyone without a scalpel getting a look in. With the key to unlock 1001bhp under your right foot, 0-62mph a 2.46 second blur away and 200mph in 24 seconds, the immense quad-turbocharged DOHC 64-valve W16 Volkswagen engine could instigate a quantum leap all by itself. Famed for the rear spoiler that pops out of its sleek spine to stabilize and place extreme down force to aid its emergency braking, the Veyron is the nearest experience you'll get to being a jet fighter pilot in terms of acceleration as the driver is pined back in their seat and G-Force propels them toward the aggressively un-distant horizon.• View the full Top 10 Supercars of Last Decade articles: • Bugatti Veyron • Morgan Roadster • Lamborghini Reventon • TVR Sagaris • Nissan GT-R • Ferrari 360 Modena • Porsche 996 GT3
• SSC Ultimate Aero • Spyker Laviolette C8 • Caterham R500
See Also:
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