What was the first 'hyper car'?

[Lordbenny]

Off the back of Dan Trent's post regarding disappointments and his comment that the new breed of hybrid sports cars lent their name to the word hyper car which I am contesting here. I was wondering which car really did spawn the word.

I would suggest it was either the Porsche Carrera GT or the Ferrari F50 that first gave their names to the phrase.

However there were the 288GTO/F40 and Porsche 959 but I don't recall the phrase being used to describe them.

Cars that it can't be:

Ford GT - not a hyper car
Pagani Zonda/ Koneigsegg - hyper cars but not the first
Murcielago - Not a hypercar
Reventon- not the first and not enough built (that's a rule that I have devised!)
Veyron - not the first

Any others?

Edited by Lordbenny on Monday 30th December 17:27

[EarlOfHazard]

If not the F40, then IMO the Jaguar XJ220

[Sensibleboy]

When was the term first used? Ten years ago?

When the Enzo and Carrera GT and the like arrived?

[Lordbenny]

EarlOfHazard said:

If not the F40, then IMO the Jaguar XJ220

Good shout but I don't recall hearing that one described as hyper either

[kambites]

Does the term actually mean anything different to "supercar"? I doubt the speed differential between the average car today and, say, the Veyron is actually much larger than between the average car in the early 50s and the 300SL.

[Lordbenny]

Sensibleboy said:

When was the term first used? Ten years ago?

When the Enzo and Carrera GT and the like arrived?

Did the Porsche come out before or after the Enzo?

[Exige77]

Mclaren F1 was the first IMHO

[Lordbenny]

kambites said:

Does the term actually mean anything different to "supercar"? I doubt the speed differential between the average car today and, say, the Veyron is actually much larger than between the average car in the early 50s and the 300SL.

Yes, usually at least £250,000

A Ferrari 430 is a super car but not a hyper car.

[Lordbenny]

Exige77 said:

Mclaren F1 was the first IMHO

Yes....but the phrase wasn't used to describe it back then.

[Amirhussain]

Lordbenny said:

Sensibleboy said:

When was the term first used? Ten years ago?

When the Enzo and Carrera GT and the like arrived?

Did the Porsche come out before or after the Enzo?

After, according to wiki, Carerra GT production was between 2004-2007, Enzo production was between 2002-2004.

[kambites]

Lordbenny said:

kambites said:

Does the term actually mean anything different to "supercar"? I doubt the speed differential between the average car today and, say, the Veyron is actually much larger than between the average car in the early 50s and the 300SL.

Yes, usually at least £250,000

A Ferrari 430 is a super car but not a hyper car.

Yet the F430 is a direct descendent of things that people wouldn't use the term "supercar" for and is no faster or more expensive compared to its contemporaries than those cars.

I still don't think I'd use the term supercar to describe the F430 or F458. It's a high-end sports car to my mind. I suppose it's just a matter of semantics.

[Lordbenny]

So.....is the winner the Ferrari Enzo?

I must admit, although the styling never grew on me It is a worthy contender and was one of the first cars that I heard described in that way.

[Sensibleboy]

I always thought the term was only used on fairly limited production run cars.

With stuff like the F430 they would build as many as they could sell. Enzos and similar were limited production runs.

[kambites]

Was the term ever used to describe the Enzo back when it was actually being produced?

[m444ttb]

Lordbenny said:

Yes....but the phrase wasn't used to describe it back then.

I thought it was, but perhaps it was some years later. Definitely by the time the next generation arrived the F1 was referred to as a hyper car

[kambites]

I wonder how long it'll be before the word "hypercar" gets devalued to the point that someone has to invent another term to sit above that.

[Lordbenny]

kambites said:

I wonder how long it'll be before the word "hypercar" gets devalued to the point that someone has to invent another term to sit above that.

I think the term now refers to any 'sports car ' that is sold over the value of.....let's say....£500,000 or shall we make it £1,000,000? I'm afraid the phrase all boils down to how much it costs at the end of the day which is unfortunate.

[Daston]

kambites said:

I wonder how long it'll be before the word "hypercar" gets devalued to the point that someone has to invent another term to sit above that.

I am going to get the ball rolling on that.

Maybe Ubercar

or Batst crazy car

[kambites]

Daston said:

Maybe Ubercar

That'll do. I give it twenty years before we're calling the bottom of the Ferrari range "hypercars" and everything above it "ubercars".

We might be able to slot "megacar" in between "hypercar" and "ubercar" though to make more name-space. That should keep us going for at least thirty or forty years.

[Sensibleboy]

So who invented the hypercar term?