I’ve been researching cars. Pretty much for my whole life. I like cars. But specifically, what makes a ‘supercar’ and what makes a ‘hypercar’? And from what I can ascertain from my extensive and in-depth 4 minute look on Wikipedia is that ‘hypercars’ suffer from excessive hyperbole and thus supercars must suffer from excessive superbole. But really it comes down to price. There’s normal cars. Then, when they get really, stupidly expensive, they become ‘supercars’ and when the price exceeds what 25 bus drivers will earn in 3 lifetimes, they become ‘hypercars’. Though as a rule of thumb, cars that produce in excess of 1000 horses of power kind’a qualify as ‘hypercars’. And they’re all going to cost north of a million quid.

And much as its all a bit ‘for the purists’ and is a form of mechanical masturbation to build cars capable of speeds in excess of 250mph to drive on roads with 20mph speed limits plagued with pot-holes and speed bumps, I’ve always been fond of excess.

So your average Porsche of high end Merc or even Ferrari is a ‘supercar’, you need to venture into the McLarens and Paganis and Koenigsegg or Bugatti to enter the real ‘hyper world’. Or something Lamborghini or Ferrari which is limited edition to really have something to brag about and mention the ‘H’ bomb. Something so fast and furious as to be barely road-worthy. And needs to sound like the start of the Indianapolis 500.

Then along comes Elon Musk and upsets the apple cart. With this little Roadster. Which is ‘only’ going to cost about 200 grand (order one now, or maybe 2 in case one gets a flat tyre). It’s (obviously) electric. And it goes like a rocket. But in this case, literally so. Because the car gets from 0 to 62 (used to be ‘0 to 60’ but inflation took over) in 2.1 seconds. Which is faster than any car around, super, hyper, anything. BUT… Elon fitted to the car the same compressed air boosters that he fitted to the Space X rocket. And if they are deployed, the car travels from 0 to 62 in 1.1 second(s). Which is close to the speed of light (more hyperbole) that I think this car, albeit cheap and nasty American rubbish, must surely be elevated to Hypercar status. Although its probably silent. Other than the roar of the air compressors.

Much as we all hate Elon Musk, he does do things right. Sometimes.

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx