- 15,449
- TRAPPIST-1g
- ProjectWHaT
After watching this /Drive video about what is a supercar and do we need the hypercar category, I thought I would make a thread here and have a good, long discussion with you guys.
Here are my first thoughts on this:
Supercars are not your average supermarket cart. They're not just a tool to get you to point A to point B. They're a toy. A toy that shows of a company's technology and power. When you see a supercar, you whip your head around to have a second look at it, because you know you probably won't ever see another one. When you drive one, your blood starts pumping. When you drive one too its limits, you know you'll never experience it again. Supercars have large, powerful engines that spit fire at you and leave you in a cloud of smoke. They'll try and kill you with oversteer at every corner. They're much, much more faster than any other car on the streets.
Now here are my other thoughts:
Let's first order car categories from fastest to slowest. Hypercars, Supercars, Sportscars, and your average car. But when you start putting examples into each category, we get a small problem. Examples of hypercars are the Veyron, Venom GT, P1, LaFerrari, 918, etc. They're the apex of technology. Examples of supercars are the Aventador, F12 Berlinetta, LFA, Zonda (this one's borderline hypercar), etc. Examples of sportscars are the Fairlady, Impreza, Miata, GT86, etc. Your cheaper thrills. The problem is, where do you put the cars that aren't supercars or sportscars. A Gallardo, 458, 12C, GTR, etc. are obviously not supercars. This is when I think we should reintroduce the name Grand Touring (GT). This is where, in my opinion, those cars are categorized. You wouldn't look at a Ferrari 458 and say its a supercar. You would be too generous. You also can't say its a sportscar, because...well..its a Ferrari. GT would be a perfect place for these kinds of cars. More examples are the DB9, 911, SLS, R8, etc.
Now that we have our basic categories figured out, we have a basic idea of what a supercar is, and fixed a category gap, we can talk about hypercars. Should we have a "hypercar" category? In my opinion, of course. Seeing as how quickly technology's been moving for the past decade, we would definitely will need more terms to group cars. So how should we define a hypercar? The easiest way to define a hypercar is that it must be the apex of technology. It has to be faster than any other car. It must be exclusive, unique, etc.
Another problem is where do we put older hypercars, supercars, GTs, and sportscars? Examples of hypercars of the past are the 959, F40, F1, etc. Where shall we categorize those cars? Should we keep them in hypercars? If we do, they'll be heavily underpowered compared to the others. Or shall we demote them and put them with the supercars? In my opinion, we should demote them, because that makes the most sense. Or maybe, we can just create a new category and call it "Classic Hypercars". That means they'll be with the same cars from their time periods. We can then do that to every category, "Classic Supercars", "Classic GTs", etc.
As I said, technology's been improving each and everyday. Pretty soon we'll have to have to categorize cars above hypercars. Or we can just move the whole scale upwards. This means our everyday cars will become Miatas or Gt86s, which seems a bit unrealistic. So that means we would have to name a new group. As stated in the video, "Ultra-cars" sounds good. But how would we define these "ultra-cars"? They can't possibly be better than "the apex of technology", because hypercars are already that. Now its time to think, do we actually need a group? As I said in the beginning of this paragraph, technology's growing. A great example is the new Koenigsegg One:1. Or should the One:1 be considered as a hypercar?
TD;DR:
Go back and read it.
Here are my first thoughts on this:
Supercars are not your average supermarket cart. They're not just a tool to get you to point A to point B. They're a toy. A toy that shows of a company's technology and power. When you see a supercar, you whip your head around to have a second look at it, because you know you probably won't ever see another one. When you drive one, your blood starts pumping. When you drive one too its limits, you know you'll never experience it again. Supercars have large, powerful engines that spit fire at you and leave you in a cloud of smoke. They'll try and kill you with oversteer at every corner. They're much, much more faster than any other car on the streets.
Now here are my other thoughts:
Let's first order car categories from fastest to slowest. Hypercars, Supercars, Sportscars, and your average car. But when you start putting examples into each category, we get a small problem. Examples of hypercars are the Veyron, Venom GT, P1, LaFerrari, 918, etc. They're the apex of technology. Examples of supercars are the Aventador, F12 Berlinetta, LFA, Zonda (this one's borderline hypercar), etc. Examples of sportscars are the Fairlady, Impreza, Miata, GT86, etc. Your cheaper thrills. The problem is, where do you put the cars that aren't supercars or sportscars. A Gallardo, 458, 12C, GTR, etc. are obviously not supercars. This is when I think we should reintroduce the name Grand Touring (GT). This is where, in my opinion, those cars are categorized. You wouldn't look at a Ferrari 458 and say its a supercar. You would be too generous. You also can't say its a sportscar, because...well..its a Ferrari. GT would be a perfect place for these kinds of cars. More examples are the DB9, 911, SLS, R8, etc.
Now that we have our basic categories figured out, we have a basic idea of what a supercar is, and fixed a category gap, we can talk about hypercars. Should we have a "hypercar" category? In my opinion, of course. Seeing as how quickly technology's been moving for the past decade, we would definitely will need more terms to group cars. So how should we define a hypercar? The easiest way to define a hypercar is that it must be the apex of technology. It has to be faster than any other car. It must be exclusive, unique, etc.
Another problem is where do we put older hypercars, supercars, GTs, and sportscars? Examples of hypercars of the past are the 959, F40, F1, etc. Where shall we categorize those cars? Should we keep them in hypercars? If we do, they'll be heavily underpowered compared to the others. Or shall we demote them and put them with the supercars? In my opinion, we should demote them, because that makes the most sense. Or maybe, we can just create a new category and call it "Classic Hypercars". That means they'll be with the same cars from their time periods. We can then do that to every category, "Classic Supercars", "Classic GTs", etc.
As I said, technology's been improving each and everyday. Pretty soon we'll have to have to categorize cars above hypercars. Or we can just move the whole scale upwards. This means our everyday cars will become Miatas or Gt86s, which seems a bit unrealistic. So that means we would have to name a new group. As stated in the video, "Ultra-cars" sounds good. But how would we define these "ultra-cars"? They can't possibly be better than "the apex of technology", because hypercars are already that. Now its time to think, do we actually need a group? As I said in the beginning of this paragraph, technology's growing. A great example is the new Koenigsegg One:1. Or should the One:1 be considered as a hypercar?
TD;DR:
Go back and read it.
