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Sports Cars: Jags to Aeros in 3.2 Seconds

Andrew Koch reviews the world’s fastest cars, from Jags to Aeros, in 3.2 seconds.

What is a sports car? Dictionary.com defines sport car as a small, high-powered automobile with long, low lines, usually seating two persons.

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Personally I define a sports car as one that is designed for performance driving. Most are aesthetically pleasing, rear-wheel drives with two seats, two doors and are designed for precise handling and acceleration. A sports car should have superior road handling, braking and maneuverability. More often than not sports cars have low weight and high power, rather than passenger space, comfort, and fuel economy.

Sports cars can be either luxurious, like an Audi R8 or Bugatti Veyron, or spartan as it is with a Lotus, where carpet is an option on some models, but driving mechanical performance is the key attraction. Drivers regard brand name and the subsequent racing reputation and history (for example, Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, McLaren, MG and Bentley) as important indications of sporting quality, but brands such as Lamborghini, which do not race or build racing cars, are also highly regarded.

A sports car does not require a large, powerful engine, though many do have them. Some classic British sports cars lacked powerful engines, but were known for exceptional handling due to their light weight, a well-engineered, balanced chassis and modern suspension. On tight, twisting roads, such cars often perform more effectively than a heavier, more powerful luxury car with less maneuverability.

Supercar is a term generally used for a high-end sports car, whose performance is highly superior to that of its contemporaries. A supercar is a very expensive, fast or powerful car with a centrally located engine. Many vehicles referred to as supercars have attempted and succeeded at breaking the top speed record such as: Jaguar XJ220, McLaren F1, Koenigsegg CCR, Bugatti Veyron and SSC Ultimate Aero TT, with the latter example currently the fastest production car in the world.

The Jaguar XJ220, the first of the current day supercars, was produced by Jaguar in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing as Jaguar Sport between 1992 and 1994. It held the record for the highest top speed of a production car – 350 km/h – until the arrival of the McLaren F1 in 1994.

The production version of the car was first shown to the public in late 1991 after undergoing significant changes from the original prototype. The most obvious of which was a completely different drivetrain and the elimination of the scissor doors. The car ended up a rear wheel drive instead of all wheel drive and a turbocharged V6 instead of the big V12. The price had also gone up from £361,000 – £403,000 ($A895,000).

In spite of the drama surrounding its creation, a total of 281 cars were made and by 1997, a few of these remained available for sale new at $330,000, one of which Lindsay Fox bought for his car collection. Nowadays, it remains a sought-after collectible supercar, fetching $200,000+.

The McLaren F1 was formerly the fastest street legal production car in the world from 1994 to 2005, the longest for any street legal or production car in the history of automobiles and came with a $1 million+ price tag. It was engineered and produced by McLaren Automotive, a subsidiary of the British McLaren Group that, among others, owns the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team.

The car features a 6.1-litre BMW V12 engine and it was conceived as an exercise in creating what its designers hoped would be considered the ultimate road car. Only 100 cars were manufactured, Production began in 1992 and ended in 1998. The standard McLaren F1 can reach 0 to 100 kms in 3.2 seconds and has an official top speed of 386.7 km/h

The Koenigsegg CCR was designed and manufactured in Ängelholm, Sweden, debuting at the 2004 Geneva Auto Show with a price tag around $700,000+. It briefly held the world speed record for a production car achieving a new official top speed of 387.87 km/h, breaking McLaren’s 12 year reign in early 2005. Three months later the speed record was broken again by Bugatti.

VW, the current owners of the name plate Bugatti, have produced the Veyron. Described as the Concord of the motoring world, the Veyron has an 8.0-litre 16-cylinder engine with four turbos. It sends its 736kW of power – four times that of a six-cylinder family sedan – to all four wheels and can accelerate to 100km/h in a Formula One-like 2.46 seconds.

The Bugatti Veyron has a top speed of 407km/h, a figure verified by independent testing. Just 100 versions of the Veyron have been sold around the world for a mere $1.4 million each. Flat out at 407km/h, the Bugatti Veyron gets through almost 9-litres of fuel a minute, and after about 12 minutes and 77 km shuts down and coasts to a halt, the petrol tank dry.

The SSC Aero is an American-built sports car by Shelby Super Cars. Its higher-performance limited production version, the SSC Ultimate Aero TT is currently the fastest production car in the world, with a highest recorded speed of 413 km/h. This speed verified by Guinness World Records on October 9, 2007. The Ultimate Aero’s acceleration is 0-100 km/h in 2.78 seconds, slightly slower than that of former top-speed record holder, the Bugatti Veyron.

The Aero and the Shelby Super Cars company are the brainchildren of Jerod Shelby. According to the company website, only twenty-five Aeros are to be produced and it is unclear how many will be the Ultimate model. The basic Aero model is priced from $266,000, while the Ultimate Aero is likely to cost well over $720,000.

While all of these cars are out of the reach of most, it is nevertheless nice to dream… and if you are in the market for a sports car, there are many more affordable choices both new and used.

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