What Makes a Car a Supercar?

The media is inundated with advertisements for automobiles. From radio, to magazines, newspapers and television, one can hardly go more than a few minutes without being subject to them. Some are geared to attract people whose main criterion for a car is a sense of style. These cars offer leather seats and a dashboard that looks more like it belongs on a space shuttle than a mere automobile. Other cars are promoted to appeal to one’s economical sense by promoting the car’s ability to get 27 miles to the gallon with 10 year warrantees to keep repair costs at bay. Oddly, one rarely sees commercials for those supreme conveyances entitled supercars. So what exactly is a supercar?

A supercar is one that combines speed, handling and a unique design that sets them apart from conventional cars. They are often more expensive than the average home and they turn the heads of all who see them cruising down the ordinary streets and highways that seem unworthy of them. They belong more on the Autobahn, since they can easily reach and maintain speeds of over 160 miles an hour. Traveling most roads and highways at such high speeds will usually net you a fortune in speeding tickets, still the thrill of doing so in one of these fantastic creations is more than worth the risk of angering the policemen lurking in their hideouts on the freeways. They are sleek and sexy and you may see a man drooling over a magazine centerfold and think that it’s a beautiful and scantily clad woman that has them hypnotized when in fact it’s the picture of one of these visual marvels. If given the choice of going on a date with a super model or driving an Aston Martin or a 1966 Corvette Sting Ray, you can almost guarantee that the date with a supercar will win every time.

Supercars will usually only seat two people which in itself makes them impractical for families, yet many garages hold these coveted vehicles no matter how many children that family may contain. The other cars that the family owns may be abandoned to the driveway and subject to the elements but not the supercar. They are given a place of honor in the garage and maybe even further sheltered by being cocooned in a car cover that will protect them from even the tiny dust particles that might mar their shiny surfaces. They are driven reverently and even though they are designed for speed, they are often driven slowly through the neighborhood to give everyone a chance to admire them. In the world of cars, the supercar is considered royalty and only those who are extremely lucky or extremely rich have any hope of owning one of these chariots designed for the elite.