What was the first 'hyper car'?

What was the first 'hyper car'?

Author
Discussion

CharlesAL

532 posts

125 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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Lamborghini Countach was the first one that came to my mind before I started reading the thread.

DubZeus

1,401 posts

219 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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xRIEx said:
Was it? It doesn't get a mention in Wiki's fastest production cars article - it goes from the 959 at 195mph (1986) to the F40 at 202 (1987).
Article is flawed, doesn't even show the Ruf CTR(yellow bird). That was a Hypercar to me

viggyp

1,917 posts

136 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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swerni said:
viggyp said:
Well, I always thought that a Hypercar was a Supercar that can crack 200+mph meaning (to me) the F40 was the first Hypercar.
There are plenty of cars that can crack 200 that certainly aren't hypercars
Maybe but back then (late 80's/1990 specifically) there was only two hypercars, both mid engined and that was the F40 & Diablo which both hit over 200mph. You've a valid point there as there're front engined 200+mph cars that I'd never class as supercars let alone hypercars.

In my view, a supercar is a mid engined 170+mph car and a Hypercar is a mid engined 200+mph car.

Lordbenny

Original Poster:

8,589 posts

220 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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Just a reminder once again that I was looking for the first documented use of the phrase and nothing else. However, I think I established that the use of the word comes down to money at the end of the day.

The more £££'s, the more exclusivity.

The F1 was the first sports car to be affordable to only the very,very richest of people at £680,000 which was a staggering amount of money back then. After that some of the larger sports car manufacturers realised that they could make low volume 'showpiece' models and sell them at exorbitant prices even if some of them still made huge losses for the company (the Veyron probably being the best example). People with a LOT of money want exclusivity and are willing to pay for it. This leads on to the fact that 'hyper cars' don't necessarily need to be good cars just very expensive.

viggyp

1,917 posts

136 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
quotequote all
Lordbenny said:
Just a reminder once again that I was looking for the first documented use of the phrase and nothing else. However, I think I established that the use of the word comes down to money at the end of the day.

The more £££'s, the more exclusivity.

The F1 was the first sports car to be affordable to only the very,very richest of people at £680,000 which was a staggering amount of money back then. After that some of the larger sports car manufacturers realised that they could make low volume 'showpiece' models and sell them at exorbitant prices even if some of them still made huge losses for the company (the Veyron probably being the best example). People with a LOT of money want exclusivity and are willing to pay for it. This leads on to the fact that 'hyper cars' don't necessarily need to be good cars just very expensive.
I always thought the term was regarding speed, not money or exclusivity but let's face it, it's difficult to categorise cars nowadays especially as the BMW X6 (I think) is classed as a coupe even though it's a 4 door 4x4.