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

[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

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Lordbenny]

Yes, yes, yes but we're talking about the actual phrase here. We agree that the F1 is the greatest car ever made and that it certainly is a hyper car but it wasn't called that at the time.

[Lordbenny]

Sensibleboy said:

So who invented the hypercar term?

Good question, we need proof!

[Lordbenny]

jonnM said:

So if an Enzo is a hyper-car and an F430 is a super-car, what is an Aventador?
What is the difference between hyper-car and super-car?

Usually about £250,000

Edited by Lordbenny on Monday 30th December 18:05

[Lordbenny]

We know what a hyper car is thanks. All I'm after is the first use of the phrase. We now think that Clarkson may have used the term for the F1 but I think that could have been a long time after the release date of the actual car. I still am banking on it being the Ferrari Enzo.

[Lordbenny]

FreeDrinkSpotter said:

Used in 1927 as I posted earlier --------

Yes, thanks for that....point taken but I'm after the journalistic use of the phrase rather than the use of 'hyper' in a car's name.

[Lordbenny]

huffysteve said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhwaEyL2kPc

wow! thanks for that....well I suppose Clarkson was responsible for the phrase so let's let the F1 have it after all. I can't imagine a more deserved car to have the title of the first hyper car than the greatest car ever made.

[Lordbenny]

Northernchimp said:

Porsche 959 fits the basic requirements and pre dates most of the stuff mentioned so far.

The F1 will always win, let's face it it was the original hypercar.

[Lordbenny]

kambites said:

It was also the first car mentioned by name in that video posted above, so it probably wins.

But as Clarkson said 'it was built for the track' the F1 was built for the road and hyper cars are road cars only. Also there weren't enough GT40s built so they don't count.

[Lordbenny]

kambites said:

The Mclaren isn't a "road car only"; it started out as one but it was raced very successfully.

You appear to be desperately trying to form a definition that gives you answer you want.

No, I really don't care but the McLaren was originally built for the road then campaigned as a race car. The GT40 was built as a race car. I was originally trying to find which modern day (80's/90's) car was the first hypercar. We're really not talking about 60's cars here.

In the video Clarkson states that the F1 was the first anyway so unless anyone can show some text or video that states otherwise the F1 has it. As far as I'm concerned I'd have an F40 over an F1 but that's just my opinion.

[Lordbenny]

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.