2013 Has Been An Incredible Year For Supercars
Covered in carbon fiber and going from 0 to 60 mph in under three seconds, these rides make the average Mercedes S Class owner look like Scrooge McDuck.
Here's a look back at the best cars the vast majority of people will never spot on the road, let alone drive or own.
Let's start with the best. This year, the McLaren P1, the long-awaited successor to the F1 (in its day the fastest production car on the planet) finally hit the road. All 375 units of the $1.15 million beauty have already sold out - no surprise, considering the P1 is one of four production cars to run the famed Nurburgring-Nordschleife circuit.
2013 aldo marked 50 years of Lamborghini, and the Italian automaker kept itself busy to mark the occasion. The owners of nearly 350 cars got together for a tour of Italy, at the end of which Lamborghini revealed the absurd, single-seat "Egoista" concept car.
In the closing weeks of the year, we saw the last Gallardo ever roll off the production line and the unveiling of its successor, the Huracán. The company also officially debuted the totally over-the-top Veneno - on an aircraft carrier in Abu Dhabi, of course. Lambo will make only three units of the Veneno, but it will sell each for $4.5 million, before taxes.
Back in January 2013, deliveries of the Pagani Huayra finally got going. The $1.2 million supercar comes with a hand crafted twin turbo V12 engine that will send it from 0 to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. The instrument cluster looks like a jet's cockpit and each side view mirror is like "a woman's eye looking back at you," in Jay Leno's words.
Ferrari had quite a good 12 months as well. It rolled out its most powerful and fastest production car ever, the stupidly-named LaFerrari. All 499 units, worth $1.4 million each, sold out earlier this month. And not just anyone could buy one - Ferrari North America CEO Marco Mattiacci told us prospective buyers should have 20 to 30 Ferraris in their collection to be considered as customers.
Also this year, Ferrari's 458 Italia made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, greeting visitors with the ability to go from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds flat.
Porsche didn't go crazy in 2013, but it did give us a good look at the terrific 918 Spyder. The plug-in hybrid generates a whopping 770 horsepower, and it circled the Nurburgring-Nordschleife in an incredible 6 minutes, 57 seconds - the best time ever for a production car.
Not every supercar came from a well-known automaker. The Chinese-Italian Icona Vulcano was the star of the Shanghai Auto Show in April, then made a splash at Pebble Beach this summer. Out of the Netherlands came the Vencer Sarthe, a mid-engined ride with a 6-speed manual transmission.
Bugatti spent most of 2013 celebrating itself with a series of special edition Veyron Grand Vitesse cars, each dedicated to a man from the automaker's history. The bad news is that it's nearly time to say goodbye to the Veyron, the fastest production car on the planet: Bugatti announced earlier this month there are only 50 units of the model left for sale.
Of course, supercars are no good locked up in some secret millionaire's underground garage. So we give thanks to the police of Dubai, who assembled a ridiculous fleet of cars to chase down bad guys. They've got a Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari FF, Aston Martin One-77, and a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG - supercars so awesome we almost wouldn't mind being arrested just to ride in one.
