There was a time when it was easy to tell supercars from all the rest, but then certain things happened. For one, power outputs kept on increasing while the cars got more liveable and less mental, leading to the creation of the somewhat ridiculous category of ‘hypercar’, to house such varied contenders as the Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Zonda. What’s next, ‘megacar’? ‘Gigacar’? ‘Best-to-the-power-of-infinity-car’?
It doesn’t help that firms like BMW make cars like the M5, a sedan which in its current incarnation has a gargantuan 500bhp, a 0-100 km/h time of 4.7 seconds and a delimited top speed scarier than 300 km/h. So what’s a supercar anymore? Auto publications inevitably compare the M5 to similarly-powered Italian thoroughbreds like the Lamborghini Gallardo and Ferrari F430, often with favourable results. It’s much cheaper, resoundingly more practical and almost as fast, but inevitably held back by being heavier and having to accommodate all that luggage and human space.
So, you’d think that it would be a sure-fire exercise in supercar-making to take the M5’s magnificent engine and put it into something lower, lighter and stiffer like, say, a 6-Series, right? The BMW M6 has to be a supercar. Or does it?
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
It doesn’t help that firms like BMW make cars like the M5, a sedan which in its current incarnation has a gargantuan 500bhp, a 0-100 km/h time of 4.7 seconds and a delimited top speed scarier than 300 km/h. So what’s a supercar anymore? Auto publications inevitably compare the M5 to similarly-powered Italian thoroughbreds like the Lamborghini Gallardo and Ferrari F430, often with favourable results. It’s much cheaper, resoundingly more practical and almost as fast, but inevitably held back by being heavier and having to accommodate all that luggage and human space.
So, you’d think that it would be a sure-fire exercise in supercar-making to take the M5’s magnificent engine and put it into something lower, lighter and stiffer like, say, a 6-Series, right? The BMW M6 has to be a supercar. Or does it?
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
LinksMarker is a Web 2.0 content management system
Comments