{"id":43477,"date":"2016-01-15T09:20:10","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T09:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=43477"},"modified":"2016-01-15T11:05:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T11:05:12","slug":"liberty-walk-supercar-evolution-and-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/liberty-walk-supercar-evolution-and-extinction\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercar: Evolution and Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supercars were once all about pure performance. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Gentleman racers of the 40s and 50s wanted the kinds of cars in which you could streak from Paris to the Amalfi coast overnight in an aether of oil fumes and Aqua Di Parma. Back in those halcyon days you never worried about terminal surveillance. It was all about terminal velocity. All that mattered was the roar of the engine and the patina of the hide. So when the commendatore<\/em> released the 250 Gran Tourismo Omologato so it could be raced at Le Mans, he really started something.<\/p>\n

Through the seventies and eighties, of course, the supercar became all about The Wedge. Futuristic design was welded to V12 engines and super-low-profile shapes; angular surfaces with scoops, louvres and symmetrical bumps as if designed by black belts in origami. The relative broadening of wealth in the global economy in this period meant that these cars were more accessible than ever before and became emblematic of opulence and an unreconstructed laddishness at the heart of a growing self-conscious car culture.<\/p>\n

Soon, the nineties had Britain cashing in on its heritage as purveyors of stylishly quick automobiles and the top-end speeds pushed through the double ton for the first time. With the new millennium, Freakonomics became the leitmotif in the high-end automotive industry, with Bugatti releasing the ultimate loss-leader in the Veyron, which sold for a couple of million but cost the group that created it a couple of fistfuls of millions to create.<\/p>\n

With the turn of the millennium the gap between haves and have-nots grew wider than ever – and the average price of a stone cold, full production supercar like the Murcielago and the Ferrari 430 pushed out toward the \u00a3200K mark and beyond. But the gravy days had to take a turn some time, and with the 2007\/2008 collapse in global markets, it took a while for the image of the supercar to reconstruct itself. Right here, right now, with ridiculously hi-tech, hybrid-driven hypercars like La Ferrari, McLaren\u2019s P1 and the Porsche 918 – even if you could buy one, you wouldn\u2019t be buying an evolutionary wonder – and you\u2019d have to be part of a select club of invitees.<\/p>\n

In a sense, now the real evolution of hi-end car culture moves in the direction of the one-off, the bespoke. The sort of technology that drives cars like these has led to a convergence. The McLaren P1 and the La Ferrari look remarkably similar, are constructed and designed with the same software, and produce mostly the same conclusions. This inaccessible sort of non-trickle down economics has meant that the mass of wealthy men and women are more interested these days in tweaking the production versions of your workaday supercar – and that brands like Noble, Pagani and motorbike brands are increasingly turning back to analogue tech to give their products appeal.<\/p>\n

It may be that we are seeing the end of our conventional view of automotive evolution. With ridiculously intrusive driver aids and driverless tech absorbing the energy that used to be directed at balls-out mechanics, soon the most desirable cars will be the simplest.<\/p>\n

1960s<\/strong> Homologato (mostly)<\/em><\/p>\n

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