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A supercar, also known as an exotic car, is a street-legal sports car with race track-like power, speed, and handling, plus a certain subjective cachet linked to pedigree and/or exclusivity. The term 'supercar' is frequently used for the extreme fringe of powerful, low-bodied mid-engine luxury vehicle sportscars. A low-profile car may have limited ground clearance, but a handling-favorable center of gravity and a smaller frontal area than a car. These characteristics can reduce supercars' aerodynamic drag, enabling higher top speeds. Since the 2000s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest-performance supercars.
Supercars often serve as the flagship model within a vehicle manufacturer's sports car range and typically feature various performance-related technology derived from motorsports. Some examples include the Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Aventador, and McLaren 720S.
Automotive journalism typically reserves the predicate 'hypercar' for low (two- to low 4-figure) production-number cars, built over and above the marque's typical product line-up and carrying 21st century sales prices often exceeding a million , dollars, or pound sterling. Examples include the Porsche Carrera GT, Ford GT, and Ferrari F40/F50/Ferrari Enzo lineage. Only a few car makers, like Bugatti and Koenigsegg, exclusively make hypercars.
Since the decline of the muscle car in the 1970s, the word supercar has been more broadly internationalized, coming to mean an "exotic" car that has high performance; interpretations of the term span from limited-production models produced by small manufacturers for performance enthusiasts to (less frequently) standard production cars modified for exceptional performance.
The 1990s and 2000s saw a rise in American supercars with similar characteristics to their European counterparts. Some American "Big Three" (i.e. General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford, the historic leaders of America's Detroit-based auto-industry) sports cars which have been referred to as supercars include contemporary Chevrolet Corvettes, the Dodge Viper, and the Ford GT. Supercars made by smaller American manufacturers include the Saleen S7, SSC Ultimate Aero, SSC Tuatara, Hennessey Venom GT, and Hennessey Venom F5.
In the 21st century, other Japanese makers produced supercars. From 2010 until 2012, Lexus marketed the Lexus LFA, a two-seat front-engine coupe powered by a V10 engine producing . The 2009–present Nissan GT-R has been described as a modern supercar that delivers everyday practicality. It features a twin-turbo V6 producing between , with all-wheel-drive and a dual-clutch transmission.
The second generation Honda NSX made from 2016 until 2022 used all-wheel drive, a hybrid powertrain (producing up to ), turbocharging, and a dual-clutch transmission.
In recent years, China has also seen the emergence of a number of domestically produced supercars, most of which are new hybrid or electric vehicles, represented by the NIO EP9, Hongqi S9, Yangwang U9, Hyptec SSR, and Neta GT.
Some observers consider the tubular framed, first-ever production fuel-injection, world's fastest street-legal, 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL "Gullwing" as the first hypercar; others the revolutionary, 1967 Lamborghini Miura; others yet the 1993 McLaren F1 or 2005 Bugatti Veyron.
With a shift towards electrification, many new hypercars use a hybrid drivetrain, a trend started in 2013 with the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, and LaFerrari, then continued in 2016 with the Koenigsegg Regera, in 2017 with the Mercedes-AMG One, the McLaren Speedtail, and in 2025 the Corvette ZR1X.
Some modern hypercars, such as the Pininfarina Battista, NIO EP9, Rimac Nevera, and Lotus Evija, have also gone full-electric.
Hypercars have also been used as a base for the Le Mans Hypercar class after rule changes came into effect from 2021.
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