4 Cars that Tick the Supercar Boxes, but are Not Supercars
By Nicholas W.
What constitutes a supercar? Is it the drop-dead gorgeous looks, the power and the speed, or is it the overall experience of a car that separates a sports car from a supercar? Whatever the formula is, there are some cars that may have an awesome experience, boast great performance stats, and look amazing that still aren't to be considered supercars. Should these cars be called supercars, or just souped-up sports cars? Here are 5 of the best of these unfortunately positioned, but nonetheless awesome cars.
1. Porsche 911 GT2RS, 2018
Getting this one out of the way early, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS is, well, a striking looking, purpose-built vehicle. Opinion-splitting looks aside, the 2018 GT2-RS has a twin-turbo engine with over 700 horsepower, a base MSRP of nearly $300K, and a top speed of 211 miles per hour, so the numbers are definitely well into the league of supercars. However, the 911 has always been more of a high-end sports car, and a lot of people that buy 911s often use them, driving them to their limits or close to, like a sports car, while supercars are more often used as a bit of a flex of the owners' money or wealth, and people with them more often than not use supercars as a status symbol or an attempt at an investment. This, paired with the fact that a 911 is a fairly common vehicle to see on the road, at least from this generation and before, means that the 911 doesn't fit into the category of "supercar." Also, 911s come in so many different forms, the striking design doesn't do many favors as most people will just see it as "a 911", or even just some guy's modified 911 with fake badges unless they really know what to look for. It should also be noted that the 992 generation 911s are beginning to shake off the old-man car image and breaking into the true supercar zone, but until the day the 911 becomes a car that supercar buyers cross-shop with true supercars, and not a car that has a version for the local optometrist, the 911 is still a sports car, not a supercar.
2. Jaguar XKR-S-GT, 2014
The X150 Jaguar XK also has serious Older Gentleman/meeting up for a round of golf vibes, which already doesn't sound like a good starting formula for supercar material. The XK-R variant made an attempt to shake that image, then the XKR-S was just plain cool. Not drastically over-styled, but had some good performance. However, above that was the XKR-S GT, a car with over 540 horsepower, and a V8 that sent the nearly 2-ton mass of a car to 60 in under 4 seconds. This car is very, very cool, and can complete a lap of the 'Ring in 7 minutes 40 seconds, or to put it scientifically, 12 seconds faster than a LP560-4 Lamborghini Gallardo. That being said, this car has serious credentials, looks boastful, and is very rare, with only 45 made for the planet. However, not only is it really heavy, the top speed is a mere 4 miles an hour more than a similarly heavy 392 Dodge Challenger SRT8 from the same year, a car nobody's trying to argue supercar status for. This alone isn't that big of a deal, especially since top speed doesn't really matter in the real world, but superlatives play a role in the supercar world. In short, the XKR-S GT is really cool, and valid arguments could be made that suggest this is a supercar. Unfortunately, though, the Jag still finds itself in this sad predicament.
3. Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR-1, 2013
The C7 Corvette ZR-1 would also work in this category, as it falls in the same category as the GT2-RS, but the C6 is being mentioned instead of the C7 here partly because the C6 looks so much better, but also because the C7 actually does lean more on the supercar-side just because of how excessive, insane and extra it is in comparison to even the 911 and other cars, which is very supercar-like. The C6 Corvette definitely has supercar credentials, with more horsepower than a McLaren F1, a higher top speed than a Ferrari 458 from 2013, and nearly 100 more foot pounds of torque than a Lamborghini Aventador from 2013. However, the C6 Corvette was a sports car, and not even the ZR-1 could escape the GM plastics that this era graced the planet with. Aside from the quality issues, the supercar crowd that might have eyes on this car, right along with a limited supply of the jean-short crowd, which is different from the older-gentleman crowd that is associated with supercars. The C6 ZR-1 is awesome, looks great, has on-paper stats that trump some of the world's greats, but this is, in the end, effectively a souped-up sports car, simply because: supercar buyers want the whole package- a nice car, that can also perform better than most everything in its path, and look great doing it. The inside of a C6 ZR-1 did not at all invoke "supercar," instead it gave "buyers will want performance, and don't need a nice car," which detracted from its supercar status.
4. Lotus Evora GT-430, 2018
The Lotus Evora comes in all its forms as a generally expensive, good looking mid-engined car with good performance, which should make the top end version, like this, a supercar. What's standing in the way here is the market for the regular Evora. See, the Evora was pitched as a usable, reliable sports car when it came out, and was designed to go to market against cars like the Porsche Cayman. Even though the GT430 is especially supercar-like, with a manual-transmission example being rated at 3.7 seconds to 60, light weight, and 430 horses running around behind the driver, the base of. This, paired with some visual effects, makes for a great-looking, on-paper awesome, sports car, but it isn't bonkers enough to really be called a supercar yet, as great as this car is.
In the end, then these are the greatest top-of-the-line sports cars from recent times, that just barely aren't supercars. These cars may be rare, valuable, powerful, and/or fast, but all fall victim to either association with lesser trims, or what seems to be a lack of excessiveness that is present in a modern-day supercar. Nonetheless, any one of these cars would be a great sight on today's roads, and I'd probably freak out if I saw any of these.
Image Credit For First Image: Bugatti, https://www.bugatti.com/fileadmin/_processed_/sei/p273/se-image-fee682626e45f1db36d0f2eb65018c8e.jpg
