How do you distil the essence of the supercar? It’s an intangible thing, there’s no hard-and-fast set of rules; we know that it has to be something unusual and out-of-theordinary, a car with flair and panache. One that looks sensational, and has colossal horsepower from an engine with many cylinders. It should stop people in their tracks, cause grown-ups to mop their brows and kids to whip out their phones and snap it for the ’Gram. What we’re trying to pin down here is a formula which belligerently refuses to be defined: the wow factor.
There have been countless interpretations of the supercar concept over the last five or six decades. Sylph-like Italian masterpieces, brutal American tyre-slayers, artisanal British craft creations… some manufacturers have even managed to sanitise the formula – the Honda NSX and Audi R8 both worked to democratise the supercar (well, to a degree at least) and make it practical and everyday usable as well as heartf lutteringly thrilling. Others have imbued their sports models with ever-greater chassis and swelling levels
