The Supercar Scene Shows Humankind At Its Best, And Here's Why

Earlier this year we established our position on whether there’s any such thing as a car that’s too fast. You were mostly in agreement: no, there isn’t. You can re-read that discussion via the link above.

Just lately the subject has cropped back up at CT Towers. First we had the McLaren 720S, which is not only stupendously, outrageously fast, but also far more powerful than the stated output. It will hit 124mph in 7.8 seconds, faster than most cars can even get to half that. It’s a hypercar born into a supercar’s body, about as fast down the drag strip as the mighty P1.

We also had the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, which the reports say is frighteningly quick. On paper it’s slightly slower off the mark than the 720S, but will hit 221mph on public roads and smash a Nurburgring record in a 6m47s fireball of a lap.

Then, just a few days ago we learned about Ferrari’s plans for a harder, more extreme version of its 488 GTB, which could be called the 488 GTO, if it ultimately deserves the badge. With a sharp cut in weight and a power hike to around 700bhp, it will launch even faster than the 720S, taking 7.5 seconds to pass 124mph and probably leaving you feeling like you need a stiff drink afterwards.

Seeing Europe’s ‘big three’ supercar makers fight it out for bragging rights is epic. I only exclude Lamborghini because it kind of does its own thing in its own way. These three are direct rivals at the top of their games. Watching as titanic triplets use every means at their considerable disposal to outgun each other is the sort of thing we keep popcorn on standby for. It’s Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom at their very best.

Our question is this: where is this going? When even Walter Rorhl says things are getting a bit silly, shouldn’t we all take notice? Admittedly, his comments were made in the context of the Nurburgring and the pursuit of token lap times in the face of increasing speeds and a terrifying lack of run-off, but still.

Logically, we could be reaching a zenith in performance car history. We could be seeing the golden age to end all petrol-fuelled golden ages. Literally. This could be the very pinnacle of what is and was possible, as the future will see it. Physics, by which we mean traction-limited acceleration, will surely put a stop to this last great landslide of gains being made right now in the fossil fuel era. Either that, or the possibilities will simply run out for petrol in the face of emissions legislation. It’s a dead end, capped either by electrification or the law.

The answer to our question is that this amazing period of car design, where future legends are being born and the bedroom wall poster cars for our kids are being forged in combat, is heading nowhere. It won’t achieve anything practical, really. This astonishing final hurrah for the petrol-powered supercar simply extracts everything that it can; that it ever realistically could.

And yet it’s also heading somewhere very important. It’s creating iconic products of human endeavour, encapsulating a key moment in automotive time. The 720S, the GT2 RS and the hardcore 488 use the old way, the way we’ve known for years and the result of over 120 years of tireless development. That pursuit of more and more excitement, more purity of form and of function, is the art you’ll never see in any gallery. You’ll never see any record on canvas of the blood, sweat and tears of the men and women who still strive today to reach new, higher peaks in the landscape of the automobile.

But with their efforts they’ve created an era that should shine out of the pages of history. The incredible speed, in the end, isn’t the point. These cars, in our native language (car), describe humanity’s endless quest to better its own achievements. It’s like the ongoing drive to understand and eradicate disease, the determination to travel the stars or the growing movement towards treating our own planet better for the sake of future generations, which, ironically, will be the death of cars like this. When we want to be, humans are pretty damn awesome. You’re looking at the proof.