The Dawn of the Hypercar

Really it should read “The Demise of the Supercar” because that’s exactly whats happened over the last 10 or so years. I grew up in the 80’s which meant the poster of the white Lamborghini Countach on my wall or maybe the Ferrari F40, it was the golden time of the Supercar. It was an arms race to build the fastest car, with the main prize for breaking the 200mph marker.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

We all know the statistics of the Veyron a car that gained instant iconic notoriety with truly unbelievable numbers on its release in 2005. This one though went out to retake the record that had made it infamous, fastest production car in the world. It reset the number at 267.856 mph, with its increased power of 1184bhp from its  8 ltr W16 engine in 2010.

Lancaster Insurance Classic Car Show, NEC, Birmingham

Thanks to Lancaster Insurance I headed down to what is probably the largest indoor car show in Europe last Friday, the first time I’ve attended since 2008 and how it’s grown. Over those years it’s gone from filling three of the NEC’s massive halls to now spanning five. The quality and abundance of metal now on show has also improved from “just a classic car show that’s in doors” to showcasing the best of the best as well as club projects, rare gems and concept cars. Enough to make walking round this colossal show take six hours, and some of that was at some pace!!!!

B Engineering Edonis

Where to start, what happens when you take some of the best engineers (Jean-Marc Borel, ex-vice-chairman of Bugatti, Christian von Koenigsegg, of Koenigsegg fame, and Nicola Materazzi, whos credit include development for Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati, and numerous Formula One teams) and the last hypercar they all developed back in the 1990’s and the Bugatti EB110 oh not only that but make it the SS version.

Bugatti EB110

At the birth of the hypercar in the early 90’s, Bugatti seemed to have gone abit mad with its contender. Why have 2 wheel drive when 4 wheel will do, why have 1 turbo when 2 will do, hell why stop there we’ll put 4 in the mix!!!!!!! Active downforce form a rear spoiler, scissor doors oh and all built around a V12 please. It sounds like a sure fire hit when you take into account the numbers, 212mph, 0-60mph in 4.4s and 650bhp. To top it off it was built in Modena the home of the supercar with Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati being based there.