Basem Wasef - Speed Read Supercar: the History, Technology and Design Behind the Worlds Most Exciting Cars

THE HISTORY, TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN
BEHIND THE WORLDS MOST EXCITING CARS

BASEM WASEF

What makes a supercar super? The term is admittedly hyperbolic and liberally bandied about, but what truly warrants the weighty moniker? Is it the sweep of a silhouette? A top speed above 200 mph? Upward sweeping doors, an astronomic price tag, or maybe an excessive cylinder count? Arriving at a definition is not easy and has triggered countless debates.

These pages attempt to decode the big-picture concepts, groundbreaking engineering, and imaginative designs that elevate supercars beyond more mundane forms of four-wheeled transportation. But a supercar is more than just its physical attributes; we must also consider the historical trends that define the genre, the tumultuous personalities behind these passion-driven projects, and the game-changing technology, much of which trickles down from the racing world, that enables such extraordinary performance.

Historically, the term supercar emerged in 1920 in a newspaper advertisement for a sleek, big-engined cabriolet. But it didnt enter the collective consciousness until decades later. Groundbreaking sports cars such as the 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL captured the imagination of enthusiasts everywhere with its shockingly cool gullwing doors and state-of-the-art, race-derived hardware, and in 1961 the Jaguar E-Type wowed the world with its slinky lines and lithesome athleticism, inspiring none other than Enzo Ferrari to decree it The most beautiful car ever made. But the most widely acknowledged instigator of the supercar trend was the Lamborghini Miura, a low-slung, V-12-powered curlicue of a car that debuted in 1966 and inspired enough shock and awe to earn it supreme status in the supercar pantheon. The Miuras impact was so significant that Ferrari was forced to retaliate with the stirring Daytona.

In a way, the seismic effect of the Lamborghini Miura captures the elusive essence of what makes a supercar. While it claimed gorgeous bodywork and a symphonious V-12 engine, its doors opened conventionally, and it famously couldnt breach the mythical 200-mph threshold. Despite its incomplete matrix of qualifications, though, the Miura is widely considered the worlds first supercar.

If anything, the idea of a supercar becomes nearly irrelevant because the word carries so much subjective emotional weight that it cannot be captured with one sweeping definition. It has even inspired hypercar, a spinoff term that attempts to express an even more superlative type of high-performance vehicle. I, for one, liken supercars to pornography: though pundits debate what it really means, you know it when you see it.

More than a decade before the wild Lamborghini Miura earned unofficial designation as the worlds first supercar, Mercedes-Benz pulled the curtain off the 300 SL, an elegant and outrageously capable machine that some argue was equally worthy of the superlative. While Mercedes road cars conventionally focused on stodgy German priorities such as engineering and safety, the 300 SL used the brands racing experience to bring an extra shot of performance to the road. The resulting two-seater offered a level of exoticism previously unseen in a production Mercedes, elevating the brand with a moonshot of functional and emotional panache.

Key to the 300 SLs identity are its trademark gullwing doors, which were developed as a packaging necessity, not a styling gimmick. The trick setup was employed because the cars lightweight chassis, consisting of a complex lattice of alloy tubes, created unusually high side sills. Since a tiny door opening would have made cabin access all but impossible for normal-sized adults, the upwardly sweeping apertures offered a solution that was reasonably practical and entirely sexy.

The Gullwings curvaceous body is unequivocally attractive, but virtually every aspect of its form is derived from function. For instance, the gentle eyebrow arches over the wheels aid aerodynamics, while the engine is canted 50 degrees on its side to facilitate a low center of gravity and a sleek hood line. The 3-liter, inline six-cylinder powerplant was the first to incorporate an advanced direct fuel injection system, enabling an output of 212 horsepowernearly double that of the carbureted race car from which it was derived.

Though tame by modern standards, the 300 SL had a combination of relatively high power and lightweight construction for the midcentury era that made it the fastest production car of its day. Costing over $7,000 newa small fortune for the mid-1950sthe Gullwings notoriety came not only from its unprecedented doors and exceptional performance but for its many innovations. These inspired Sports Car Illustrated to proclaim, Literally, the 300 SL is a car of the future that can be possessed today.

FUN FACT

The 300 SL suffered from awkward entry and exit due to the bodys thick door sills and a notoriously hot cabin thanks to copious glass and fixed windows.

HISTORICAL TIDBIT

With only 1,400 300 SL coupes produced between 1954 and 1957, the model commands seven-figure values. Rarer still are the alloy-body models, of which only twenty-nine were built. Intended for competition and certified for racing, these special 300 SLs shaved off around 200 pounds .

KEY PERSON

Chief Engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut who made his inimitable mark on the car thanks to his background as a hands-on racing engineer, supervised legendary wins such as Stirling Mosss record-setting 1955 Mille Miglia victory.

If mystique and rarity are the measures of a supercar, the Ferrari GTO might just claim ultimate status among its peers. Short for Gran Turismo Omologato, the most famous GTO of all was originally intended as a homologation special to satisfy the Federation Internationale de Lautomobile (FIAs) requirement of building 100 street cars to qualify the model for competition. Enzo Ferrari only built 39 GTOs, allegedly skipping serial numbers and shifting locations of cars in order to elude FIA inspectors.

The 250 GTO, at least initially, claimed a dream team of Italian masters behind the scenes: engineering development was led by the brilliant Giotto Bizzarrini, and the curvaceous bodywork was designed by the legendary Sergio Scaglietti and his team, who hand-hammered the aluminum body into shape using wooden forms called bucks.

Virtually none of the first thirty-six cars produced between 1962 and 1964 were identical due to the vagaries of hand craftsmanship and constant modifications made to the vehicles setup. But they all featured a tubular steel frame and an uprated V-12 that was the stuff of legend: the 3.0-liter engine produced a bellowing 300 horsepower at a screaming 8,400 rpm (the 250 model nomenclature referred to the 250cc displaced by each individual cylinder, though three four-liter cars were built and referred to as 330 GTOs). Linked to a new five-speed synchromesh gearbox, the GTO was remarkably reliable for its time, which might have had something to do with its participation in more than five hundred races, where it scored victories in everything from outright victories in the Tour de France to class wins at the Targa Florio and Le Mans.