The world of hyper-cars is forever evolving. Each company wants their hyper-car to be the fastest and best looking quite simply as a showpiece. No company makes money on creating or selling these cars, but the goal is to use them as publicity for the automobiles that bring home the cash.
The Holy Trinity of hyper-cars consists of the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and Ferrari LaFerrari. Combined together, the three monsters have over 2700 horsepower and cost over 3.7 million US dollars. Serious collectors and the uber rich have made a point of trying to collect all three of the cars. It’s been done a few times now by a few of the world’s richest car collectors.
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Each of the vehicles is seamless. The Porsche is the only one with four wheel drive, which Porsche believes gives them an edge. But can we believe anything from a Volkswagen subsidiary? I don’t think so. All three are gorgeous, but the LaFerrari is arguably the most beautiful of the three. It’s a formula one car that’s driven too fast for too long, and just melted into this street car. The only downside to the name is that it translates to “The Ferrari”. It just seems clumsy to talk about The Ferrari The Ferrari. It’s like saying “ATM machine”. It feels oily and redundant. The McLaren P1 is the most technologically driven of the three. It’s the results of some engineers who talk in their sleep and then replicating what they said from their dreams.
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The Amazon series “The Grand Tour” was finally able to get all three together in a road test. What did the test show? In reality, what it showed was that they are all so incredibly close that it’s entirely a personal choice. The lap times for all three were brilliant, with the Porsche oh so slightly beating the others. All of the cars feature ridiculous 0-60 times. All of the cars have top speeds over 210mph.
What can we take away from these results? Basically nothing. These cars are perfectly matched. Depending on what course you are on, any of the three can win. Depending on whoever is driving, any of the three can win. They are so close that there’s really no pecking order and no car can possibly be declared the true “winner” of things.
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That’s great news! So much of the fun of cars in general is being able to argue about which one is better. When the cars are essentially equal, it means there is no real way to ever have a final answer. That just means you get to discuss it with your friends more in the future. The car you prefer is probably just going to come down to looks, and the type of cars you favor. If you love four wheel drive, you’re going to support the 918. If you love mechanical precision and engineering, you’re going to love the P1. Finally if you just love the raw power and fury of a vehicle, you will be all for the LaFerrari.
There are going to be more hyper-cars coming out from Pagani and Koenigsegg that will try to challenge the trinity, but these cars are holy for a reason and deserve our automotive worship.
