The Difference Between Sportscars, Supercars And Hypercars
The world classifies cars into three main groups which are supercar, sports car and hypercars. So what is a supercar, sports car & hypercars? What are the differences among them? Let us introduce to you the three famous car types and their differences.
What Are Sports Cars, Supercars And Hypercars?
Before going to know the differences among these car types, drivers should understand about each type. So do you really know the definition of supercar, sports car, hypercar?
What Is A Sports Car?
Sports car was identified as a car with two seats, has a soft top, could even be used for competition. That’s how people think about sports cars in the past.
Nowadays, a sports car is an automobile equipped for racing, especially an aerodynamically shaped two-passenger or four-passenger vehicle having a low center of gravity and steering and suspension designed for precise control at high speeds. It is known as a lightweight track car or a modern hot hatchback to a mid-engined or a front-engined grand touring coupé.
Most sports cars have used rear-wheel drive with the engine either located at the front of the car (FR layout) or in the middle of the car (MR layout). Best Sports Cars must use the excitement of speed and the glamour of the track and have dynamic performance, two seats or a 2+2 seats, excellent light & sound system, stylish designs, diverse colors.
Some famous sports cars are Audi TT, BMW i8, Mazda MX-5, Porsche 911, Nissan GT-R, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Toyota Supra, Lexus LC, Chevrolet Corvette… They are all designed for dynamic performance.
What Is A Supercar?
Supercar is considered as a boast level of drama and prestige noticeably above status of sports car. A supercar is also called exotic car, is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance luxury sports car.
The supercars are harder to handle, usually have an output above 500 horsepower and their price point places them in the second highest rank compared to other car types. Most supercars are mid-engined. The same applies for transmission, as pretty much all use DSG or paddle shifters to enhance performance. Supercars tend to take an iterative approach to design, taking the most cutting-edge technology and aerodynamic engineering and making it slightly better with every release.
Some famous supercars are Ferrari 488 GTB, McLaren 650S, Corvette C7 ZO6…
What Is Hypercar?
So the term hypercar usually is misunderstood with supercar. That’s why many people ask the difference between supercar vs hypercar. The hypercar is a term reserved for the top 1% of supercars in the world. It is the most excellent car types in the four car rank standard which are performance, price, innovation and visual design.
Hypercars have a higher level of prestige than supercars, they are one level above them. Therefore the standard of what makes a hypercar is stricter than the supercar. The number of hypercars in the world is really limited. There are only a few cars that can be considered as a hypercar. The first one was produced in 1963, the Lamborghini Miura. This was also known as the P400.
The hypercars have high performance and mind- blowing designs. Therefore the cost is unsurprisingly expensive. Although a high performance hypercar is meant to be designed for elegance and high speeds, they need to last and thrive as many cars cannot maintain high speeds, especially above 100 miles per hour to ensure they do not become unsafe.
The well known hypercars are: Lamborghini Miura, Bugatti, Porsche 918, Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1…
The Differences Among Superscar, Sportscar and Hypercar
So, you already understand the definition of each car type and the popular cars for each type of them. Now, let’s move on the differences among them. According to the definition above, it is easy to make clear the differences between sports car vs supercar.
We will distinguish them by the four main categories: performance, price, design and rareness.
1. Performance
A sports car has really great performance but ranks third in top 3 cars. About the speed, outright speed doesn’t serve as an indisputable border between categories. There is another factor that arguably is the most definitive element that accurately classifies a car, and it’s the feel and sensation you get from behind the wheel.
When talking about the outright performance, you may imply that a sports car cannot be faster than anything you would class as a supercar, hypercar. But deeply, it depends on how you are defining “faster”. A sports car can be faster than a supercar around a circuit, and a supercar can be faster than a hypercar around a circuit; however, while lap times can’t segregate sports cars from supercars and the like, top speed and acceleration statistics do usually improve in cars higher up the automotive hierarchy. In general, it depends on you because you are a driver and what you expect to experience.
A supercar is usually more powerful than a sport car. Therefore it can be more keen to drift in professional hands. Meanwhile hypercars push the boundaries of what’s possible, and therefore can be rather intimidating, requiring the taming input of an expert.
2. Design
About the design, sports cars sit at the bottom of this hierarchy, with supercars occupying the middle ground, and hypercars being the kings of the castle. The hypercar completely reaches the point which is of our expectation. It makes people cannot say anything but “wow”. The interior, the outerior are just amazing.
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3. The Price
The price is one of the aspects that can help us to distinguish the sports car, supercar and hypercar. Together with the difference of the performance, design. The price tells clearly the differences between sports cars, supercars and hypercars. Usually the price of hypercars are the most expensive, then the super car and the last is sports car. But there is an exception that the super cars and sports cars are similar.
Aston Martin’s Vantage GT8 sports car that was priced like a supercar, and had the extremely low production volume you’d normally associate with a hypercar. But hypercars are always the most expensive cars. Bugatti’s La Voiture Noire cost €16.7 million, or almost $19 million, including taxes.
4. The Rareness
The last criteria which we can put into consideration is the rareness. For sure the hyper is the rarest one. As we mentioned above, there is only 1% in the total numbers of cars in the world that are hypercars. That’s because it’s really expensive, fancy, and takes a lot of time to produce. There is also a website that shows you all of the hypercars in the world. You can find the information about any hypercars there. The website is HYPERCAR.
Supercars and sports cars are also expensive but compared to hypercars, the number of them are much bigger. You may see supercars, sports cars often on the street sometimes.
Example Of Supercar, Sports Car, Hypercar
Lamborghini Aventador SuperVeloce is definitely a supercar and its price is $500.000, which gives 700 plus horsepower. Porsche Boxter S is a comly sports car with low horsepower, about 315. Its price is around $63.000 and it’s absolutely disqualified from supercar strata.
A Pagani Huayra is a hypercar, given the 730 stallions coming from its mid-mounted Mercedes-AMG bi-turbo V-12, especially when you factor the one-of-a-kind active aero-kit technology and that $1.2 million price tag. Bugatti Veyron Super Sport car is a high end super car which is 1200 horsepower and has a price of $2 million. It is nearly considered as a hypercar but is a super car at the end.
Sum Up
It’s all about the differences among the sports car, supercar and hypercar. There are a lot of methods to classify them but the best way is to define them by the top four criteria: prices, performances, design and the rareness. Check other articles about car comparison so you will be able to recognise them.