Is the Supercar Doomed?

Filed in archive Did you know on January 17, 2010

These days it seems as though every time I pick up a car magazine or read the content in an automotive blog another new supercar has just been announced. In some cases it's a brand that neither I nor anyone else has ever heard of while in other instances the car's a known make whose specialty performance house has just added two-hundred or more horsepower. Now I'm not immune to the fun of fast cars; goodness knows I've driven a good many and at speeds that would terrify your mother and maybe your father, too. But the supercar in our contemporary environment of overcrowded highways is a dinosaur.

Unless you live in the desert or possess your own racetrack there are no places where the performance of these cars can be enjoyed. And by that I mean safely and for hours at a time, not in brief spurts of acceleration when the traffic momentarily opens up. The truth is, supercars are bought only by the wealthy or by young men who risk their new-found market wins on extravagant leases. They're a form of oneupmanship and a means to strut one's stuff while motoring slowly through some hip neighborhood of trendy coffee houses with outdoor seating, a contemporary version of the Woodward cruise.

If the technology that goes into these automobiles contributed to a better world by way of improved fuel economy and cleaner air, they'd at least have a partial excuse for existing. The engineers who design them are among the best in the business but their talents are wasted by developing cars that only a few can afford and even fewer can drive skilfully, assuming they can even find a place to let those horses run. Though beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder I don't think they're all that attractive, either. The Bugatti Veyron above is seriously dramatic to look at but it's not what I call beautiful. And with the latest version producing over 1000 hp and selling for way above $1,000,000 it's the ultimate 4-wheeled extravagance.

Fortunately there's an antidote to such madness and it exists in the upcoming battery-powered automobiles. The Tesla roadster has already proven that electric cars can match the best internal combustion engined supercars, knocking off 0-60 runs in around three seconds. This is an instance where development in search of performance (and range) can lead to better hybrids and pure electrics. And don't think the manufacturers of conventional sports cars aren't reacting. In an abrupt turnaround from their recent negative opinions about battery power, companies like Audi, Porsche and even Ferrari are showing us hybrid and electric concepts that soon will turn into production vehicles.

So while the supercar as we know it will eventually become a dying breed, automobiles capable of high performance are going to be around for some time, yet. They'll be quick, quiet, clean. They'll be fun to drive. And while they'll make no more sense than a supercar when it comes to places where such vehicles can be properly enjoyed, these new generation sports cars will at least generate a positive spinoff on automobiles created for the average driver, folks like you and me.