Tag Archives: super cars

SSC Aero

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2005 SSC Aero SC/8T

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Palm Beach, Florida | April 8-10, 2016

Photo - Barrett-Jackson

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

As we always say: we love our supercars. And in the spirit of not featuring any cars that are still in production, we have this: the SSC Aero. Produced between 2006 and 2013, the Aero is, so far, the only automobile produced by Shelby SuperCars Inc. (now known as SSC North America). The “Shelby” refers to Jarod Shelby, not Carroll (no relation and thus why they had to change the name of their company).

Specifications of the Aero changed on a near-annual basis. This, the SC/8T (2005 edition) is powered by a 6.3-liter supercharged Corvette racing engine making 787 horsepower. A later version of the car would take the title of “World’s Fastest Car” but this model had to settle for 236 mph.

The company’s followup car, the Tuatara, was shown as a concept in 2012 but production has yet to start. With that, you’re looking at a true home-grown American supercar. No one is really sure how many were actually made but this is car #2 and it has 2,178 miles on it. The original price of this car was over $600,000 but it will be much cheaper at auction. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Withdrawn from sale.

Aspira F620

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2010 Aspira F620

Offered by Coys | London, U.K. | March 8, 2016

Photo - Coys

Photo – Coys

Aspira Cars UK was just that – aspirational. The car was built in 2010 by Henry Nickless and Craig Gillingham after two years of development. When it was completed it was road-registered as a low volume production car. And when we say low volume, we mean low volume. Only one was built.

It is powered by a 6.2-liter GM V-8 making 480 horsepower. The engine is mid-mounted and the whole car weighs a little over 2,000 pounds thanks to an abundance of carbon fiber. The interior is pretty nice and it is right hand drive.

Whether or not series production was ever intended we can’t say, but as a one-of-one supercar it joins the ranks of failed supercar projects worldwide. It’s an elite – but not very exclusive- list. For the great looks and performance this car offers, the price isn’t exorbitant: there’s an estimate of $86,000-$115,000. We love our supercars, so count us in. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $126,110.

Update II: Sold, Silverstone Auctions Race Retro 2018, $95,851.

Carrera GT Prototype

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2000 Porsche Carrera GT Prototype

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 11, 2016

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

This Carrera GT is special. It’s the only one like it – it’s a true prototype. The production version of the Carrera GT lasted from 2004 through 2007 with 1,270 produced. This car was actually built in 2000 – four years before production started. Yes, it looks pretty similar to the production version, but if you look closely you’ll notice that it’s really not that similar. In fact, it is said that it shares almost zero pieces with the production version.

The engine is a 5.5-liter V-10 making 558 horsepower. That’s 200cc and 47 horsepower less than the road-going version. The engine is borrowed from a Porsche LMP car – as were many other parts. Two prototypes were built but this was the only one that was actually driveable.

This car comes from Jerry Seinfeld’s collection and, strangely, prior to his purchase (directly from Porsche in 2007), Porsche removed the ECU so the car can’t actually be used. In addition, any purchaser of this car has to agree to terms and conditions that allow Porsche the first right of refusal if they ever want to sell it. The new owner is also not allowed to drive it. Kind of strange, but it puts the new owner in more of a caretaker role than anything. The pre-sale estimate is between $1,500,000 and $2,250,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Gooding & Company.

Update: Not sold.

EB110 Super Sport

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1995 Bugatti EB110 SS

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | London, U.K. | September 7, 2015

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

This is one of the best super cars ever. It has the looks, it has the name, and it certainly has the speed. Romano Artioli’s Bugatti took shape in 1991 when production of the EB110 started in Italy. The original, “base” EB110 GT lacked the rear wing, as far as styling cues go. But the real difference was the power unit.

The Super Sport packs a punch with its quad-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-12 making 610 horsepower (a 50 horsepower bump over the GT). This put it right there with the McLaren F1 in terms of 1990s horsepower superiority. Top speed is an insane 216 mph. It can hit 60 in 3.2 seconds – which is still impressive 20 years later.

But the best thing has to be the looks. It just screams “super car” with proper scissor doors and bright yellow paint. It’s all around classic super car design. Bugatti would go broke in 1995 after just 33 EB110 SSs had been built – for a total count of 139 EB110s.

This is one of the last built and has had two owners since new, with the first being in Japan. RM seems to always find at least one fantastic super car for their London sale and it’s not going to get much better than this. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $965,888.

Monaco’s New Supercar

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2013 MCA Rascasse

Offered by Coys | Monaco | May 9, 2014

Photo - Coys

Photo – Coys

Here’s a new super car you may not be familiar with. Monte Carlo Automobile celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2013 and they did so in style, launching a new super car called the Rascasse – named for a corner of the Monaco Grand Prix circuit (it’s toward the end of the lap before getting to the pits).

The engine in this car is a Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph-sourced 5.4-liter V-12 mounted behind the driver. It produces 500 horsepower. The engine car run on gasoline, methanol, or natural gas. The hard top is removable and I honestly think this is a fantastic looking car – especially in roadster/targa/convertible form. And the interior is really cool, too with a Riva/Chris Craft boat theme. If Cary Grant were to cruise around Monte Carlo in a super car, this would be it.

The car was introduced at the inconspicuous Belgrade Motor Show in Serbia in 2013. The company plans to build 15 of them – and that kind of breaks one of the few rules I have about featuring cars on this site: they must be out of production. This one hasn’t really started yet. What you’re buying here is a brand new car that probably hasn’t even been built. It is expected to bring between $210,000-$250,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Coys’ lineup.

Update: Sold $114,560.

MCA ALA50

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1993 MCA ALA50

Offered by Coys | Monaco | May 9, 2014

Photo - Coys

Photo – Coys

Here’s a weird one. We covered the brief history of Monte Carlo Automobile late last week and here is another car from them (if you can believe it, we have one more to feature… meaning we will have covered nearly half of their entire production run). If the body on this car doesn’t look quite 1993, you’re right. It’s not.

This car was developed from the MCA Centenaire. It’s kind of a Gen 2 Centenaire that used the Lamborghini V-12 that had been strapped with two turbos, making 720 horsepower. This car was sold new to the people that would go on to make the MIG M100 (which was a development of the Centenaire). They took this car to Le Mans but it didn’t race, failing to qualify.

MCA re-acquired the car and fit it with the new body you see here, as well as the Monegasque paint scheme. They also re-named it the ALA50 in celebration of Prince Albert’s 50th birthday. They swapped the engine out too, replacing it with a 3.0-liter Alfa Romeo unit capable running on natural gas. It’s been raced frequently in recent years with the current body and is owned by a member of the Grimaldi family. Click here for more results and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $135,500

MCA Centenaire

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1989 MCA Centenaire

Offered by Coys | Monaco | May 9, 2014

Photo - Coys

Photo – Coys

MCA stands for Monte Carlo Automobile and the cars are referred to as Monte Carlos or as MCAs. I usually go with the shortened version. The company is the only automobile manufacturer ever based in Monaco (although the cars were actually constructed in Italy). It was founded by Fulvio Ballabio, a former race car driver, in 1983. The Centenaire was their first car.

This was the first production car with a carbon fiber chassis and body. The engine is a twin-turbo 5.2-liter Lamborghini V-12 making 720 horsepower. Not all of them had the turbos, however. At least one of these even saw track time.

In all, only five were built. This is likely #2 and was Ballabio’s personal car before he sold it to Lamborghini. The House of the Bull sold it back to Monte Carlo Automobile, who is offering it for sale to the public for what appears to be the first time. Production on these cars started in 1989 and was done by 1992.

Supercar manufacturers come and go pretty rapidly, but Monte Carlo Automobile is still around (check back next week for more). This is one of those mythological super cars that everyone has heard about online but no one has actually ever seen in person. Well here is your chance to own one. Don’t miss it. Click here for more info and here for more from Coys.

Update: Sold $211,200.

Callaway Sledgehammer

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1988 Chevrolet Corvette Callaway Sledgehammer

Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 24, 2013

1988 Chevrolet Corvette Callaway Sledgehammer

Super cars aren’t always high-end exotics. In the late 1980s, super cars as we know them began springing up rather rapidly. The Porsche 959, the Ferrari F40 – and the Lamborghini Diablo and Jaguar XJ220 (just to name a few) were right around the corner. What do all of those cars have in common? They are slower than this Corvette.

Reeves Callaway drove a Twin Turbo Corvette to 231 mph. He wanted to take it to 250. So he hired Paul Deutschman to design a stable, aerodynamic body kit for the C4 Corvette. Then they inserted a handbuilt Callaway 5.7-liter V-8 and strapped two turbochargers on for a total of 898 horsepower.

Legendary Corvetter John Lingenfelter drove the car to a record 254 mph. The car was entirely street legal and still had power windows, locks and A/C (but it did have a roll cage added). It remained the fastest street-legal car until 1999. Callaway wanted a world-beater – so he built it.

This remains the only Sledgehammer Corvette ever built and it is a very famous car. It was the fastest Corvette built and it was constructed in 1988. This should bring an interesting amount of money. You can read more here and check out more from Mecum here.

Update: Not Sold, High bid of $600,000.

CLK GTR Roadster

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2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster

Offered by RKMCCA | Charlotte, North Carolina | November 1-2, 2013

2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster

The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR is one of the most outlandish road cars ever built. It was a byproduct of the FIA GT1 class homologation rules of the late-1990s that stated any car competing in the class must be available for purchase on the street. The class was cancelled for 1999, but Mercedes decided to build some road cars anyway.

Between 1998 and 1999, 26 road cars were built (25 were promised by Mercedes with regards to the rules). This car is titled as a 2002, but was likely built in 1999 (at the time of construction, these were the most expensive cars in the world and moving them was no small feat). The cars use a 6.9-liter V-12 making 604 horsepower and could hit 60 mph in 3.8 seconds on their way to a top speed of 199 mph.

The final six cars were built sans roof. This is the third roadster constructed (and the one most often seen for sale). A solid million dollars isn’t out of the question by any means for this ultra-limited edition supercar. You can read more here and check out the rest of RKMCCA’s auction lineup here.

Update: Sold $1,300,000.

Lotec C1000

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1995 Lotec C1000

Offered by RKMCCA | Charlotte, North Carolina | November 1-2, 2013

1995 Lotec C1000

The Lotec C1000 is a fairly famous one-off supercar from the 1990s. It was so radical at the time that most supercar fiends heard about it through whatever we did pre-internet to learn about crazy, new cars. It was built by race car constructor Lotec in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz (hence their logo on the front of it).

It was built at the request of a very wealthy individual from the UAE who wanted something quicker than a downright pedestrian McLaren F1. This thing ending up costing him $3.4 million (the F1 would’ve been a better return on his investment… but I don’t think he needed to worry about that).

It uses a rear-mounted twin-turbocharged 5.6-liter Mercedes-Benz V-8 that makes 1,000 horsepower. The body is all carbon fiber (which was ridiculously expensive in 1995). The top speed? 268 MPH. It isn’t slow. But it’s also not the world’s fastest production car, because it was never put into production and only this one was built. The pre-sale estimate is between $1 million and $1.3 million (which is reasonable because I’ve seen it sell for about that previously). You can read more here and check out more from this sale here.

Update: Not sold.