The history of the supercar

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Mercedes 300SL ‘Gullwing’ – 1955

The stunning Mercedes 300SL was powered by a 3-litre six cylinder engine and was the first road car to offer fuel injection. With a top speed of 161mph, the beautiful SL was considered the fastest production car of its time.

Lamborghini Miura – 1966

Buy a Ferrari today and you’d have little reason to complain – but in the early 1960s, Ferrari owner Ferrucio Lamborghini complained about the clutch in his Ferrari being too heavy, and told Enzo Ferrari about it – who promptly sent him packing.

Ferrucio vowed to produce something to trump Enzo – and the motoring world changed forever with the birth of the fabulous Lamborghini Miura.

It was the definitive supercar, featuring a mid-mounted 4-litre V12 engine producing 350bhp, wrapped in the most iconic supercar shape ever designed.

Porsche 911 Turbo – 1974

The successor to the humble Volkswagen Beetle of the 1960s, the Porsche 911 was developed as a racier, sports-orientated car for the road.

But in 1974, the Stuttgart carmaker turned the definition of ‘fast’ on its head with the tarmac-tearing 911 Turbo.

A 300bhp 3.3-litre turbocharged engine stuffed in the boot made the first 911 Turbo one of the fastest cars in the world – and one of the most nerve-wracking driving experiences known to man.

Porsche immediately entered it in the Le Mans race thanks to its power figures,

Ferrari F40 – 1987

Enzo Ferrari devoted the last years of his life to building the very best.

And his engineers did not disappoint the ninety-year-old founder and rolled out one of the most hardcore supercars the world has ever seen: the Ferrari F40.

It had no air-conditioning, no power-steering, was made from Kevlar, carbon fibre and aluminium, and weighed the same as a Lotus Elise.

Underneath, Ferrari engineers slotted in a massive 3-litre turbocharged V8 engine which developed nearly 500bhp.

It could hit 0-62mph in just 3.2 seconds and was the world’s first 200mph production car, was briefly the fastest production car in the world.

McLaren F1 – 1994

Chief designer Gordon Murray wanted a simple concept – a high power, low weight supercar which would become the ‘ultimate driver’s car.’

And the ultimate driver’s car would feature a mammoth special order 627bhp 6.1-litre V12 engine from BMW, a body made from carbon fibre, titanium and gold – and an official top speed of 243mph, marking it as the 1990s fastest production car in the world.

But the real beauty lies in the concept of the McLaren F1 – it was never meant to break records, or become (briefly) the world’s most powerful car. It was simply meant to be the ultimate driver’s car.

Bugatti Veyron – 2005

When Volkswagen took over ownership of Italian carmaker Bugatti, it had ideas similar to other supercar makers – it wanted to make the fastest road-legal car in the world.

But the Veyron’s birth was a difficult one. Many crashed during testing and early models suffered from high-speed stability problems – the design was taken back to the drawing board and reworked from scratch.

And finally the world witnessed the birth of a modern-day icon at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show when Bugatti pulled the covers off the mighty Veyron.

It has an 8-litre engine with four turbochargers and produced a headline-grabbing 1,001bhp – making it the first production car in the world with over 1,000bhp.

The Bugatti Veyron was the fastest car in the world with a top speed of 253mph, and remains the most iconic supercar of our times.

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