Philosophical Friday Oppo: The Supercar Boundary. What is your least qualifying criteria for a supercar?

"VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely" (vajazzlemcdildertits)
09/07/2018 at 20:36 • Filed to: supercar, debate, Philosophical Friday

As in, what is the slowest/cheapest/least exotic/most mundane car that you would consider a supercar? I’ve seen this topic has come up a number of times and there never is a consensus, and now I want to see the Oppo bell curve on it.

Requirements:

Explicitly declare what decade/generation of cars you are referring to, as it would be unfair to directly compare a 1960's car to a 1990's car to a current gen car. If no declaration is made , the context is the current era of cars.

Instead of labeling specific criteria, an example car can be given as the subjectively least significant car that you would consider a supercar, as long as the reasons are given.

Performance criteria is preferred, but any reasonable context for criteria can be considered (0-60, price, rarity, desirability, technology, Skyrims chleife lap time, pickle count, smell, windshield wiper strength, w/e )

Street legal (but just barely or homologation is fine)

Be nice to your fellow Oppo and their shitty opinion.

I’ll start. For the current generation of cars, I feel that the supercar boundary emerges right at the Audi R8 V10 RWS trim.

It makes 532 hp, goes from 0-60 in about 3.7 seconds, and costs $ 130k+, so it’s hardly a slouch, but that just places it barely mid- pack amongst its peers in just about any category. Anything slower (1/4 mi or lap time, ) more mundane, less expensive, or oth er wise inferior I couldn’t justify as a supercar. This is the bottom rung for me.

Compare that to one I don’t consider a supercar, the current day Nissan GT-R Base.

The GT -R Base is the most expensive most performative car I can think of that I would not consider a supercar.

The performance numbers improve incrementally with revisions to keep it relevant to the Church of Speed, and the price has also gone up to reflect its aspirational status and cost, but for me, i n a world of modern Camaro ZL1 1LE s, Porsche Panamera Turbo S’s, and GT350Rs , it no longer accomplishes the same giant slaying domination it used to. Also it doesn’t really look like how I would imagine a supercar to be - granted, I am hugely biased towards mid-rear design.

It’s even technically faster than the Audi R8 in some contexts I listed as a supercar, but its other qualities keep it outside of my classifications.

What do you think, Oppo?

DISCUSSION (14)

nermal > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/07/2018 at 22:12

It’s completely subjective and based only on curb appeal. Does it look like one?

Based on that criteria , BMW i8 is the answer to your question .

Kailand09 > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/07/2018 at 22:12

I’d say you hit the nail on the head. That’s the lowest end supercar IMO. What wouldn’t make my supercar criteria:

AMG-GTR (even though it is ridiculous)

Any Porsche 911

Ferrari Portofino, GTC4Lusso

Most Astons

Lotus elise

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > nermal
09/07/2018 at 23:13

Interesting take.

MrDakka > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/07/2018 at 23:49

If it’s over $100k, it’s a supercar because if you’re rich enough to drop $ 100k+ on a car, you give no fucks about supercar performance criteria or semantics. At that point, yo u can just hire someone to give “expert testimony” and co nvince others, that yes, the $100k+ fancy race prepped 2 door Volkswagen you just bought is indeed a supercar, because what other people think doesn’t matter when you can just drown them in money.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/07/2018 at 23:50

My criteria was going to be “can it beat a sports car ” but even that is subjective as to the cut off. like the GTR can hang and beat with much faster models, but when i see 10 of them at C&C it just makes me go “ eh”. base 911s and covettes i would put in the grand tourer/sports car, but ZR 1/911 gt3 rs now those are close to supercar territory.

Forrest > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/07/2018 at 23:55

I came into this thinking that the Audi R8 is the “base model supercar.” Glad others feel the same way.

Dark chocolate > MrDakka
09/08/2018 at 10:00

What do you think of Black Label Navigators. they crest $ 100k.

How about the G550 - starts above $ 100k.

How about S class with the slightest of options.. same story..starts above $ 100k.

On the other- hand, a Z06 will be faster than a lot of cars.

A ZL1 1 LE same st ory.

A Hellcat - faster for sure.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/08/2018 at 10:03

My requirements to be a supercar is mid-engined and over 400HP. if its not both of those its not a supercar

Nibby > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/08/2018 at 12:08

are toyota corollas supercars

RT > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
09/08/2018 at 12:15

I need a closer look at this later.

You see, basing this off p erformance criteria makes this somewhat awkward. C ars like the BMW M5 outperform various supercars, but is the BMW super ? Also companies like TVR and Morgan have a habit of punching high above their weight class by simply gluing a V8 to a chassis of some description.

When I’m back, I’ll be referring to cars from the 80s/90s, since performance standards were most consistent around then. Anything earlier varies a lot, anything more recent sets the bar much higher .

MrDakka > Dark chocolate
09/08/2018 at 12:50

Yep, all supercars

Dark chocolate > MrDakka
09/08/2018 at 13:27

El Oh El.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > Nibby
09/08/2018 at 13:29

My heart says yes but my mind says no

Wheelerguy > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
10/09/2019 at 21:45

As probably the only supercar nutter in this bunch, I’ll give you a better answer:

Check those drag races out. Of the cars shown there, only the BMW 1M, 302 Mustang, Cayman R (side note: how easily was that car forgotten when the Cayman GT4 came out?), and Evora, plus the GT500, ZL1, C63 and 991.1 C2S are cars that I won’t place in the supercar tier (though I reckon if a muscle car can keep up with an MR it does become super...?). And even then the supercar can still be split into three classes: super-sport (Audi, Nissan, Porsche GT3, Corvette Z06/ZR1), super-touring (F12, Continental Supersports, XKR-S, Vantage V12) and super-exotic (Huracan, 458+488, McLaren).

Basically:

The Cayman, 4C, Alpine, ZN6/ZC6, Supra-V, F-type and base V8 muscle cars are in one tier

The R8, New NSX, R35, Z06+ZR1, Viper, 911 GT3+GT2, 488, and 911 Turbo and others supersede the prior tier

The New FORDGT, Huayra, Aventador and other rivals are one further than that (though honestly this one’s pretty thin so I tend to just make them the third rung of supercar, the bridge between that and hypercar)

And finally the hypercars like the P1 Chiron and Koenigseggs are the top of the pyramid

You can probably tell by the comparison tests you see which car goes which way.