Hypercars

These days we hear the new term hypercar as the supercar term is outdated. It all started with the sportscar which then became the supercar in the 1990s and then hypercar in the last 5 years. All these terms just signify the direction of the car development which sees the car manufacturers push the performance envelope.

The few car manufacturers that are consistently pushing the limit are Ferrari, Bugatti, Pagani, Mclaren, Mercedes Benz, Koenisegg, Lamborghini, Lexus, Porsche and more recently Hennessey which is a relatively new comer to this scene but has rocked this fraternity with its Venom!

Ferrari is about to release its new hypercar code named the F150 (actual name to be announced soon). This model is expected to push the power level beyond 700hp. The development was not centered around high horsepower only but also usable torque. This model is claimed to offer maximum torque from 1,000rpm which is incredible for an naturally aspirated engine. The engine's redline rev limit is 9200rpm making it one of the highest of any engine exceeding 6,000cc in capacity!

With Bugatti holding on to the 400km/h speed record, all the other car manufacturers are working hard at showing what they can do to beat the Veyron. It is about bragging rights rather than making money from selling these cars. In the case of Lexus with its LFA, they actually lose money on each money they produce as so much time and research went into the LFA but having only produced a limited quantity, Toyota knew it would never recover its investment for the LFA project.

In the case of Hennessey their development approach is somewhat different compared to the full fledged car manufacturers as its development was focused around efficiency in performance meaning keeping the weight low by using a light weight chassis and squeezing out as much power as possible from the engine to achieve the best possible power to weight ratio which will provide amazing performance. In the eyes of Hennessey the Bugatti Veyron can be called fat as the Veyron is a much heavier car than the Venom and the Veyron is far more complicated to build than the Venom.

It will be interesting to see where the hypercar development is headed with more new technologies are made available.