Supercar Car reviews

Bugatti has a new pair of special edition models under the “Chiron Noire Exclusive” name. The two models are called the Chiron Noire Sportive and the Chiron Noire Elegance. Both are inspired, partly at least, by the one-off Bugatti La Voiture Noire that Bugatti unveiled earlier this year. Both Chiron Noire Exclusive Special Edition models are dressed in all black and carry a bevy of features that are exclusive to the two models. Bugatti only plans to release 20 units of the Chiron Noire Exclusive Special Edition in these two finishes. Deliveries are expected to start in the second quarter of 2020 with each unit costing $3,305,445.

Karma is entertaining us with quite the stand at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which is also home for the SC2 Concept. The Karma SC2 previews the startup’s future design direction - those are Karma’s words, by the way - which means we’re not necessarily going to see a road-going car inspired by the prototype. Instead, this is Karma showing us what its design and engineering departments are capable of churning out.

We’re sorry to trash your expectations this early, but there’s more to the SC2 Concept than the probability of it spawning a road-ready car. For example, Karma says that the all-electric powertrain is powerful enough to propel the rig from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 1.9 seconds. Is this a poke at the Tesla Roadster, which “coincidentally” (and theoretically) can dispatch the same interval in 1.9 seconds, too?

After Lamborghini’s chief technical officer Maurizio Reggiani was adamant in suggesting that the Huracan has already matured and reached its peak - “that badge is finished” were his words, by the way, we were expecting rumors about the replacing model. However, a mysterious set of spyshots is bringing us back on the topic of a lighter, more powerful version of the Huracan slated to make a debut in the following months.

We know Lamborghini likes to pull off anniversary editions as well as farewell editions for its cars, but if the recent rumors are true, this could be, in fact, a high-powered Huracan to rule them all, one that would sit above both the Evo and the Performante. In fact, it could be called Huracan Evo Performante, although we’re taking that with a pinch of salt for the time being. That said, did Sant’Agata Bolognese change its mind? Is a Superleggera-style Huracan back in the cards?

The 2021 McLaren Elva is a brand-new supercar that the British firm added to its Ultimate Series lineup, alongside the Senna and the Speedtail. A two-seat open-cockpit design, it’s inspired by a series of race cars built by Bruce McLaren in the 1960s under the McLaren-Elva name. It’s McLaren’s first open-cockpit road car and its lightest road-going vehicle yet. A track-ready roadster with an aerodynamic design, the 2021 Elva features the most powerful iteration of McLaren’s twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V-8 engine. Rated at 804 horsepower, it slots above the Senna in terms of power and falls behind only the Speedtail hybrid. Let’s find out more about this beast in the review below.

Whenever a company announces plans to build a supercar, be it Dyson, Hennessey Performance, Rimac, Zenvo, or in this case, Gemballa, eyebrows are bound to be raised. Embarking on the journey of building a supercar from scratch, regardless of how much experience one such company may possess is, if you will, the ultimate marathon in the car industry. At the same time, running a marathon can have three possible outcomes: you either finish it, you don’t, or best-case scenario, you end up winning it, of course. Wanting to build, or better said, create a supercar from a blank sheet of paper is pretty much the same. But Gemballa thinks it has what it takes.

The 2020 Lamborghini Sian is a hybrid supercar that the Italian firm unveiled ahead of the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show. Powered by a V-12 gasoline engine and an electric motor, the Sian is Lambo’s first mass-produced hybrid. However, the supercar is limited to only 63 units, so it’s actually a preview of things to come, like an electrified successor to the Aventador.

Design-wise, the Sian stands on its own by combining a new design language with styling cues inspired by the iconic Lamborghini Countach. Its interior, on the other hand, is based on the Aventador’s, albeit it comes with bespoke elements and fancier features. The Sian also showcases innovative technology, like a state-of-the-art energy recuperating system and a supercapacitor instead of a traditional lithium-ion battery. Let’s find out more about that in the review below.

How should we put this? Well, there’s only one way, really: we all knew this was coming, but the real secret was how Bugatti would wrap it up. After the Veyron, it’s time for the Chiron to receive the distinguished Super Sport badge from Bugatti, following a speed record that’s both spectacular and a tad controversial to some extent. That’s something we’ll look at on another occasion, though, because today our attention will be wasted on one car and one car only: the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+.

Once again, Bugatti shows the world that it knows how to throw a party, especially one that celebrates the company’s 110th anniversary. The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ joins the carmaker’s fantastic-three - Divo, La Voiture Noire, and Centodieci - with at least the same amount of flair and plushness underlined by what could very well be today’s industry spearhead in automotive performance. Read on.

When it comes to rare supercars, the McLaren F1 is right up there in the automotive world’s charts. McLaren built just 106 units of the F1 between 1993 and 1998, but not all of them were road legal. In fact, only 64 units were “standard” road cars, with 28 wearing the GTR badge which made them track-only, race-bred machines. There were also five prototypes, named XP1 to XP5, and two longtail versions, among other iterations. Now, let’s go back to 12 months ago when McLaren was announcing the introduction of its MSO McLaren F1 Heritage program. To mark the launch, McLaren showed off the F1 25R bathed in the notorious Gulf Racing livery. One year later, McLaren strikes again with a perfectly-restored F1, which happens to be chassis number 63.

All in all, McLaren needed 3,000 work hours to complete it, with the actual restoration process spanning over 18 months. Mind-boggling as that might sound, consider this: repainting the car with the original Magnesium Silver hue alone took 900 hours, so there’s that. Oh, and don’t even think of checking your bank accounts. The car has an owner who already received his restored gem, together with a unique certificate of authenticity, a bespoke book that illustrates the car’s history, and a 3D laser-scanned miniature McLaren F1 scale model. Yeah, we’re also jealous. And with that out of the way, let’s have a more in-depth look at chassis #63.

When you tout a car as “the most extreme” of something, there usually aren’t many ways to make improvements on such a model. But Lamborghini is Lamborghini for a reason. The Italian automaker, with the help of its Centro Stile design division and Ad Personam customization division, managed to turn a model that’s already exclusive to 63 units into something more exclusive. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ 63 Roadster, and it is a showstopper. To be clear, the Aventador SVJ 63 Roadster isn’t a special edition within a special edition. It’s a visual interpretation of what any of the 63 Aventador SVJ Roadster models could look like with the proper exclusive touches from Centro Stile and Ad Personam. Since all 63 units of the Aventador SVJ Roadster are already accounted for, the showcase model that Lamborghini unveiled at Pebble Beach is nothing more than a 759-horsepower press release on four wheels. Still, it’s hard to take your eyes away from the Aventador SVJ 63 Roadster. At the very least, it makes you wonder what other personalized options are out there for this exclusive piece of hardware.

This is the Lamborghini Huracan Evo GT Celebration. It’s dressed up in orange and green, two colors that typically don’t look good together — except during Halloween — but Lamborghini somehow found a way to do it. Beyond its aesthetics, the Huracan Evo GT Celebration is an important car for Lamborghini. It’s a special edition model that was created to celebrate the Huracan GT3 Evo’s successful conquests of the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, which it did in two consecutive years. Only 36 units of the Huracan Evo GT Celebration will be built and all 36 units are earmarked for the North American market with deliveries scheduled to begin in early 2020. For those of you looking to score one of the most unique special edition Lamborghini Huracans you’ll ever see, the Huracan Evo GT Celebration is probably as unique as it’s going to get.

The 2020 Bugatti Centodieci is a limited-edition version of the Chiron. Just like the 2019 La Voiture Noire, the 2020 Centodieci is a significant departure from the Chiron it is based on, sporting a notably different exterior. While the La Voiture Noire is a tribute to the Type 57 SC Atlantic from the 1930s, the Centodieci pays homage to the Bugatti EB110, a supercar built from 1991 to 1995. The 2020 Centodieci is limited to only 10 units.

The Centodieci is the fifth official variant of the Bugatti Chiron. It joins the Chiron Sport, the 110 Ans Bugatti model that celebrates the company 110th anniversary, the La Voiture Noire, and the track-prepped Divo. Since Centodieci means 110 in Italian, it also celebrates 110 years since Bugatti was established by Ettore Bugatti in Molsheim, France.

Volkswagen actively tests an all-new, raised Golf. We have seen it in Sweden in the winter, and even on the Nurburgring in May. While Volkswagen did not announce anything new in the Golf lineup, we may be surprised with a new Golf-based crossover, or an innovative, fresh, jacked up version of the popular hatchback. As Volkswagen actively seeks out new segments to sell its vehicles in, I can identify at least two market brackets where the new Golf-based crossover or just a jacked up hatch could play its part.

If you look closely at the Mercedes-Benz lineup, you can see that its entry-level crossover - the GLA - feels like a jacked-up version of the A-class. If Volkswagen creates something similar to it, based around the Golf’s basic shape and chassis, then it would be the only manufacturer in this very tight segment to offer a cheaper alternative to the GLA.

On the other hand, a raised Golf hatch might not be anything more than just a hatchback version of the upcoming Golf Alltrack. That car would directly compete with the cool Ford Focus Active!

If it comes to fruition, this alleged new five-seat crossover will sit between the T-Cross and the T-Roc within the Volkswagen lineup. Interestingly enough, Volkswagen did announce an all-new five-seat crossover at its media event earlier this year. This might well be it, and I would not be surprised if Germans transform slow-selling Golf Plus into a sort of a crossover.

As if special isn’t special enough, the 125-unit Koenigsegg Jesko is giving birth to a one-off edition called the Jesko Cherry Red Edition 10. Priced at over $3 million, the Jesko Cherry Red Edition 10 is what happens when you double down on the excess because, well, you can. The one-off hypercar isn’t a direct Koenigsegg special edition; it’s not like, say, the Koenigsegg Agera RS Naraya, Agera R BLT, or the CCXR Platinuss E100. The Koenigsegg Jesko Cherry Red Edition 10 was commissioned by an online luxury car sales portal called Luxuryandexpensive. It’s a fitting name for a company that’s looking to create as much attention to its business as it can. What better way to do it, too, than by ordering a one-off version of a hypercar that could rewrite all types of automotive performance records when it hits the streets in the next few years. Production of the Koenigsegg Jesko starts at the end of 2020. Expect the Jesko Cherry Red Edition 10 arrive sometime after production goes full-swing.

The BMW 8 Series returned in 2018 after almost 20 years. Developed to replace the 6 Series, the 8 Series is sportier, more modern, and enables BMW to compete against the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe.. But since this is BMW we’re talking about, it’s not just a matter of competing against its rivals; it’s also about one-upping them when the opportunity comes. That "opportunity" has arrived in the form of the BMW M8, the high-performance version that will be offered in coupe and convertible form, not to mention coupe and convertible variants of the more potent Competition trim. Production for the M8 starts in mid-to-late 2019. The M8 is priced from $133,000 for the base coupe model to $155,500 for the Competition convertible model.

Ferrari dropped the bomb. The biggest that has ever fallen on the car world scene. It is the plug-in hybrid Ferrari SF90 Stradale, a production car that is more powerful and quicker than the LaFerrari itself. Inspired by none other than the F1 car, the new Ferrari SF90 Stradale became the Ferrari-first plug-in hybrid with a propulsion technology consisting of three electric motors and an overpowered V-8. Aptly named after the Scuderia Ferrari’s 90th anniversary and, coincidentally, the 2019 Ferrari F1 car, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale is the closest to a Ferrari F1 car you can experience on public roads.

Ferrari unveiled the car at a special event where Ferrari F1 drivers Sebastien Vettel and Charles Leclerc drove two SF90 Stradale cars onto the scene.

Disclosure: this is not the Ferrari LaFerrari successor. It is a whole new car that does not follow the F40, F50, Enzo, and the LaFerrari lineage. In fact, it is far less expensive compared to any of them. Nevertheless, it is much quicker too.

The year was 1969. The “Skyline” name had already been introduced 12 years prior, first by Prince Motor Company, and then by Nissan in 1967 after the two companies merged. Two years after the merger, Nissan introduced a sports car based on the Skyline, and, among other things, it carried a three-letter nomenclature that has arguably become one of the most famous names in the entire industry: the GT-R. Fifty years later, the GT-R is still used today as the name of Nissan’s all-conquering supercar. It’s fitting then that the Japanese automaker that created the line of performance cars wearing the GT-R name is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the model with a special edition version, appropriately called the Nissan GT-R 50th Anniversary Edition. In line with its stature, Nissan debuted the GT-R 50th Anniversary Edition at the 2019 New York Auto Show.

The McLaren Senna is the company’s latest track-ready supercar. A successor to theP1, the Senna dropped the hybrid drivetrain for pure V-8 power and adopted a more aerodynamic design. The Senna is essentially a race car for the road, but it also spawned a track-only GTR version. Come 2019, and Hennessey Performance launched a couple of upgrades for the supercar.

Yes, it’s hard to believe that the Senna can be further tweaked, but the folks over at Hennessey are known for their capability to push just about any car to the limit. If you think that the Senna’s 789-horsepower rating is impressive, you need to know that the British supercar can generate much more than that. Let’s find out more about that in the review below.

The Chinese BAIC Group in cooperation with BJEV (Beijing Electric Vehicle) is trying to branch into the EV supercar world with the Arcfox sub-brand that was present at the 2019 Geneva Auto Show. The brand showcased three cars, the flashiest of which was, undoubtedly, the Arcfox-GT Race Edition. It’s a track-focused version of the Arcfox-GT that puts out 1,600 horsepower and 973 pound-feet of torque, features GT3-esque aerodynamics, and relies on state-of-the-art tech solutions straight from Formula E championship.

The state-owned BAIC Group is quite the colossus in China. Besides making cars under its own name and under the Senova, Foton, and Changhe brands, it also produces Beijing Hyundai and Beijing Benz vehicles through joint-venture deals. It’s among the five largest Chinese automakers and, now, over 30 years since it was founded, BAIC and BJEV have come together to launch a luxury sub-brand called Arcfox that brought to Geneva two supercars and one SUV - all three fully electric. The Arcfox-GT and the GT Race Edition were the attention grabbers at the Arcfox stand, and we’re going to talk about the latter of the two here.

The Ferrari P80/C is a one-off supercar built by the company’s special projects unit. Designed by the same team that created the SP12 EPC, F12 TRS, J50, and the Monza SP1 and SP2 twins, the P80/C is based on the race-spec Ferrari 488 GT3. The supercar also draws cues from the iconic 330 P3/P4 the 1966 Dino 206S, as requested by its customer.

In development since 2015, the P80/C had the longest development time of any Ferrari one-off made to date. Ferrari says it spent almost four years on in-depth styling research and engineering development, with "meticulous analysis of performance parameters as well as scrupulous aerodynamic testing, all with a different approach than taken by Ferrari with its one-off cars in the past." Based on the way this car looks, I’m tempted to believe Ferrari isn’t just pulling PR tricks on us. Let’s have a closer look at the supercar we may never get to see in the metal anytime soon.

The Lamborghini Huracan Evo is the mid-cycle facelift of the company’s entry-level supercar. Although it’s described as a new-generation model, it’s exactly what the name says, an evolution of the nameplate. It was introduced in early 2019, almost five years after the Huracan went into production.

Design-wise, the Evo is based on the higher performance Huracan Performante. It features more aggressive front and rear ends, as well as a bespoke set of wheels. Inside the cabin, there’s an infotainment system with a big touchscreen, while motivation comes from the beefed-up engine from the Performante. While it won’t set a new Nurburgring record, the Evo is notably quicker than its predecessor. Let’s find out more about that in the review below.

The Aston Martin AM-RB 003, previously known as Project 003, is a concept car that previews a production model scheduled to arrive in 2021. The company’s third supercar, the AM-RB 003 follows in the footsteps of theValkyrie and Valkyrie AMR Pro, formerly known as Project 001 and Project 002, respectively.

Just like the Valkyrie, the AM-RB 003 is being developed with input from Red Bull Advanced Technologies in the design and engineering departments and will include features and technologies from the said hypercar. Aston Martin promises that this supercar will "meet and surpass the performance demands of existing top-end hypercar rivals," but until actual data comes out, it’s just PR talk. Let’s find out what we already know about this vehicle.

Already nine years old as of 2018, the Zenvo ST1 has already made a name for itself as a potent supercar with extreme design and performance. Designed and built in Denmark, the ST1 remained in production until 2016, when it was replaced by the TS1, which gained certain changes in terms of aerodynamics and drivetrain. The TS1 was followed by the race-spec TSR in 2017. With the latter still new, Zenvo launched a new iteration of its only vehicle to date. It’s called the TSR-S, and it’s the company’s most radical car for street use.

Positioned between the TS1 GT road car and the race-only TSR, the TSR-S shares the looks of the original ST1. However, it borrows the revised aerodynamics of the TSR, as well as a number of unique features that improve performance on both the road and the track. As usual, the Danish automaker will keep production very limited, with only five examples to be built a year. Yes, this thing is just as exclusive as a Koenigsegg, but does it have the power and speed to go against it? Let’s find out in the review below.

Updated 03/19/2019: We’ve updated this review with fresh images of the 2019 Zenvo TSR-S that were taken during the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. Check them out in the gallery at the bottom of this page!

Continue reading to learn more about the Zenvo TSR-S.

The Bugatti La Voiture Noire is a one-off supercar based on the Chiron. Unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, it joins the Divo as a derivative from the already famous Chiron hypercar. The La Voiture Noire is a modern reinterpretation of the Type 57 SC Atlantic from the 1930s and was built to celebrate Bugatti’s 110th anniversary. Only one was made and sold for more than $12 million before taxes.

Unlike the Divo, a car that’s going to be built in 40 units, the La Voiture Noire will remain unique. This vehicle was created specifically for a Bugatti enthusiast that’s "fascinated by the Atlantic," a coupe that the French firm built in the 1930s. Despite the unique bodywork and detailing, the La Voiture Noir remains a standard Chiron under the hood, so performance is similar to the vehicle it is based on.